Letter From Me

Twain begins his "Letters" series with a passage entitled "Letters from the Earth". He uses this opening passage to develop the character he uses as an author/narrator of subsequent passages. The character's name is Satan. What the reader learns about Satan is that he is courageous, actively seeks to satisfy his intellectual curiosity, and amuses himself by exercising sarcasm. My guess is that Twain would describe himself, Samuel Langhome Clemens, as having similar characteristics.

The subject matter of later "letters" is also developed in this opening letter; That is, the creation of the universe, Man, and all earthly creatures and life forms as set forth by traditional Christian teachings and the Bible. Simply put, Twain illustrates the impracticality and large contradiction of the Christian faith from Satan's point of view--Satan being an intellectually curious and sarcastic author. The reader may find it amusing that Satan is himself a product of a universe that he is judging to be a far-fetched fairy tale. (A paradox, or has Twain employed irony?)

Clearly, Twain feels that the teachings of the Christian religion fail his test of logic. He beats this drum, over and over again. He cites what he believes to be conflicts or impossibilities in the story of man as set forth in the Bible. Beyond discounting the Bible, Twain further abashes the intellect of Man for worshipping under the pretense of such hypocrisy.

It is indeed feeble for Man to try and give exact explanation to the origin of this beautifully complex universe. In the passages by Twain that I have read thus far, I do not see his explanation for 200 billion+ galaxies or the flight of the bumble bee (which is, reportedly, a physical impossibility). Nor does he give any reflection on the known size of the universe being 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles across--that is a million million million million miles. Perhaps in Twain's day not as much was known, yet J.B.S. Haldane declared in the time shortly following Twain's death, "the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose".

It is too queer for Twain, so he does not suppose. He offers no alternative explanations, just criticism. Further, he fails to recognize that it is not the sole purpose of religion to correctly and accurately explain the nature and origin of things. Rather, the Christian religion makes an attempt to explain what is queerer than one can suppose. In so doing, it offers a creed or prescription for stability in mind. Without a creed to live by, without a stable mind, Man cannot be free to ponder and further develop the arts and sciences. No, he would be stuck at square one: Where did I come from? What am I doing here? What happens to me after I die?

Man truly would be insane without religion, just as Twain declares Man is insane for having religion. The fact is, Twain owes his success to religion. For without it, Man would be too busy creating it to enjoy the works of Samuel Langhome Clemens. How's that for irony?