भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

second point that characterises each and all of them equally, is the insistence in which they indulge in citing these very contradictions as an undeniable proof that all the Prophets and books that differ from their own, must be misleading and false for the simple reason that their own Gospel being God-sent and true cannot be false, and therefore the other books, which contradict it cannot be true. The third point that seems common to all, is the latitude which not only their respective followers but even the Prophets to whom these God-sent books were severally revealed, conceded though very confusedly and reluctantly to human reason, the right of distinguishing the false Prophets from the true one and the man-written books, that merely pose as God-written and God-inspired from the truly- inspired revelation in the light of logic and tradition and such other wordly tests of comparative criticism. The fourth point that distinguishes the sectarian propaganda of each and all of these conflicting religious schools is the fact that each Prophet, although he does not hesitate to lay human reason under contribution so long as it is useful to him in exposing the falsity of all other Prophets, excepting himself, to win over recruits to his side with a very laudable desire to save their souls, proceeds straight way to deny the right of human criticism and argument and reasoning to those very recruits, as soon as they get themselves definitely enlisted in the roll of believers in his creed. They are, thenceforth, to obey whatever the Prophet or his God-sent book commands and question naught or argue. Taking our stand then on these points, which more or less are common to all the Prophets and holy books of the different religious systems that prevail today, not to mention those that flourished in the ancient Babylonians and the people of the Pharaohs and other now extinct races and systems, it seems quite permissible to us mortals even consistently with the Prophetic traditions of yore, to subject these God-sent books and scriptures to human criticism and comparative study, if we but do it for the sake of ascertaining which one of these Gospels satisfies most our human expectation of perfection that a really God-sent book ought to possess. Although as we have seen already, all of them cannot be equally true, if at least one of them comes up to our expectation at the end of this enquiry and reveals all the attributes—which we are justified in associating with a God- sent book, with a work that emanates from the source of wisdom and goodness and knowledge from Providence, at once omniscient and omnipotent—blessed indeed are we! That was the most cherished boon we