Mark Twain 的资料.docxVIP

Twain was a Presbyterian. He was certainly critical of organized religion and certain elements of Christianity through his later life. He wrote, for example, Faith is believing what you know aint so, and If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be?– a Christian. With anti-Catholic sentiment rampant in 19th century America, Twain noted he was “educated to enmity toward everything that is Catholic”. As an adult he engaged in religious discussions and attended services, his theology developing as he wrestled with the deaths of loved ones and his own mortality.Twain generally avoided publishing his most controversial opinions on religion in his lifetime, and they are known from essays and stories that were published later. In the essay Three Statements of the Eighties in the 1880s, Twain stated that he believed in an almighty God, but not in any messages, revelations, holy scriptures such as the Bible, Providence, or retribution in the afterlife. He did state that the goodness, the justice, and the mercy of God are manifested in His works, but also that the universe is governed by strict and immutable laws, which determine small matters, such as who dies in a pestilence. At other times he wrote or spoke in ways that contradicted a strict deist view, for example, plainly professing a belief in Providence. In some later writings in the 1890s, he was less optimistic about the goodness of God, observing that if our Maker is all-powerful for good or evil, He is not in His right mind. At other times, he conjectured sardonically that perhaps God had created the world with all its tortures for some purpose of His own, but was otherwise indifferent to humanity, which was too petty and insignificant to deserve His attention anyway.In 1901, Twain criticized the actions of missionary Dr. William Scott Ament (1851–1909) because Ament and other missionaries had collected indemnities from Chinese subjects in the aftermath of the Boxer Uprising of 1900. Twains response t