Psychiana No. 18 [transcript]

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:35:13 Unknown Speaker: Do you know that this program to which you are listening is one of the most discussed programs in America today? Do you know that it is probably creating more real interest than any of the big orchestras and famous stars on the air? And it’s not hard to discover the reason why. It’s because the man whose voice you are about to hear on this program, the man whom you are about to meet, really has something to say, has evolved a new religious philosophy, which in the short space of a few years has encircled the globe, has invaded practically every civilized country in the world.

00:00:35:16 - 00:01:00:18 Unknown Speaker: When he speaks in public, there is scarcely an auditorium huge enough to contain the crowd which come to listen to him. His philosophy is called psyche. Anna, and the man himself, a name which you no doubt have heard mentioned many times, is doctor Frank Robinson. I said a moment ago you were going to meet him. And so here is your guide, ready to take you to Doctor Robinson’s home in Moscow, Idaho.

00:01:00:20 - 00:01:30:27 Unknown Speaker: Rugged hills, forests of pine trees etched against a great sweep of sky, nestling in a little valley. The town of Moscow, Idaho. And in that town, a home out of which has come a philosophy which has encompassed the earth. We paused just outside the door and listened for inside. A man is seated at the console of a pipe organ.

00:01:30:29 - 00:01:41:22 Unknown Speaker: How do we think of that quotation? Over his gaze, the musing organist, beginning thoughtfully and far away.

00:01:41:24 - 00:01:47:08 Frank Bruce Robinson: First lets his fingers wander as they listen and build a bridge.

00:01:47:10 - 00:01:58:06 Unknown Speaker: From dreamland for his lay.

00:01:58:08 - 00:02:05:29 Unknown Speaker: And.

00:02:06:02 - 00:02:20:28 Unknown Speaker: Find.

00:02:21:00 - 00:02:25:18 Frank Bruce Robinson: Come in. Please. I see you right on time.

00:02:25:19 - 00:02:34:20 Unknown Speaker: Yes, right on time, doctor. In fact, a little ahead of time. I waited outside until you had finished playing. I knew if I came in, you’d stop.

00:02:34:22 - 00:02:46:12 Frank Bruce Robinson: well, some of these days we’ll have to get together for a good, long session of music. But for the present, as long as we’re broadcasting, I’m afraid we’re going to have to devote most of our time to discussion.

00:02:46:14 - 00:02:50:16 Unknown Speaker: You know, doctor, these broadcasts are causing quite a lot of talk.

00:02:50:18 - 00:02:51:27 Frank Bruce Robinson: I hope it’s favorable, doc.

00:02:52:04 - 00:02:59:27 Unknown Speaker: Well, most of it is. You’ve certainly made lots of people to think. But of course, there are some who don’t agree with you.

00:02:59:29 - 00:03:08:07 Frank Bruce Robinson: that’s what I am interested in. why don’t they agree with me? Have they found my arguments unsound? And the things that I’ve said untrue?

00:03:08:09 - 00:03:19:14 Unknown Speaker: No, it isn’t exactly that. To be perfectly frank, doctor, they say that you are an atheist and that you’re trying to tear down religious belief.

00:03:19:16 - 00:03:41:10 Frank Bruce Robinson: Well, I most vigorously deny both charges, and I think right now is as good a time as any to thrash them out to begin with. If you look up atheist in any standard dictionary, you’ll find that it’s defined as a person who denies the existence of God or a supreme intelligent being, and I certainly make no such denial.

00:03:41:13 - 00:04:14:09 Frank Bruce Robinson: On the contrary, I feel very certain that there is a God, a God far more intelligent than the one pictured in the scriptures who slaughters innocent people, demands bloody sacrifices, flees into anger, decides to destroy mankind by means of a flood, and then regrets it. Oh no, I am not the atheist. True. I will admit that my God is not, as revelations describe, a God seated on a throne, encircled by a rainbow with head.

00:04:14:11 - 00:04:40:00 Frank Bruce Robinson: Some hairs like white wool, eyes like flame of fire, feet like fine brass, and a two edged sword sticking out of his mouth. I certainly do not believe any such fairy story is that. But I do believe that behind this universe is an intelligent principle which created the universe and which still governs it. I believe this principle is God.

00:04:40:02 - 00:05:02:25 Frank Bruce Robinson: I believe that it is all powerful and ever present. And I believe that when we come to understand this God law, we can apply it in our daily lives that it will provide us with the things we need, not in some vague, distant future, not after we die, but right here and now.

00:05:02:28 - 00:05:11:16 Unknown Speaker: Well, doctor, you have certainly spiked the atheist argument. But what about the accusation that you are trying to tear down religious belief?

00:05:11:18 - 00:05:33:26 Frank Bruce Robinson: Well, as I say, I deny that charge also. I’m not trying to tear down religious belief at all. I am attempting to build religious belief. Unless by religious belief, my opponents mean present orthodox religion. And that doesn’t have to be torn down. Its foundation is so insecure that it is crumbling of its own accord.

00:05:33:28 - 00:05:36:11 Unknown Speaker: Just what do you mean by that, doctor?

00:05:36:14 - 00:05:57:13 Frank Bruce Robinson: Well, follow me for a moment. We are told that we must accept the teachings of Orthodox religion if we are to be saved. Well, why do we have to be saved? Because our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, sinned. And as a result, God placed a curse upon all mankind. Isn’t that what orthodox religious systems teach?

00:05:57:15 - 00:05:59:22 Unknown Speaker: Yes. That is what they teach.

00:05:59:24 - 00:06:24:24 Frank Bruce Robinson: Now, after a good many hundred years, God relented. He wanted to remove the curse. And while he was powerful enough to place the curse on mankind for some reason or other, he was not powerful enough to remove it without sacrificing to himself. Mind you, his own son. And so he sent his son to redeem us from the curse, to take away the sins of the world.

00:06:24:26 - 00:06:34:08 Frank Bruce Robinson: And Mark you not simply a few people sins, but the sins of the whole world. Orthodox religion teaches that also, does it not?

00:06:34:14 - 00:06:38:09 Unknown Speaker: Yes. It also teaches that very well.

00:06:38:12 - 00:07:09:14 Frank Bruce Robinson: If the Son of God did take away the sins of the whole world. Aren’t we already saved? Why do we have to accept the teachings of Orthodox religion in order to secure salvation? In telling us that, we must accept its teaching in order to be saved. The Christian religious system virtually admits that Christ failed to remove the curse, failed in his mission on purpose, and if he failed in his mission and purpose, God also failed because it was God who sent him.

00:07:09:17 - 00:07:32:24 Frank Bruce Robinson: Now, if you do not want to admit that God failed, your only other argument is that there wasn’t any curse in the first place. And if there wasn’t any curse, there is no need for redemption. And the entire story is about. So either way you look at it. The Christian religious system hasn’t much of a foundation to rest on.

00:07:32:26 - 00:07:35:07 Frank Bruce Robinson: Is it any wonder that people are turning away from it?

00:07:35:14 - 00:07:37:17 Unknown Speaker: Yes, I can readily see that.

00:07:37:19 - 00:08:01:21 Frank Bruce Robinson: Once more. I must make the statement that all I want the present religious institutions to do is to be honest, first with themselves and then with those of us to whom they come with their religious philosophy. If they tell me, for instance, that the ordinance of baptism is an original Christian right, I shall reject that statement within come to a vertical heaven.

00:08:01:23 - 00:08:40:00 Frank Bruce Robinson: For I know and the most casual historical research will prove that the baptismal rite was practiced by the followers of Zoroaster, by the Romans, the Egyptians, the Hindus, and by other pre-Christian nations. As a matter of fact, this thing we have with us today call the church giving it credit where credit is due at the same time does not possess one single fundamental in its entire religious philosophy, which did not exist in pagan and heathen nations long before the crest of the Christian church was ever heard of.

00:08:40:02 - 00:09:09:11 Frank Bruce Robinson: And not only that, as I have shown you before, its own religious book is almost entirely anonymous and unauthenticated. There is no historical proof of these happenings whatsoever, and there never has been, and there never can be. Yet today, preachers of varying denominations throughout this land will tell you and attempt to tell me that unless we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we cannot be saved.

00:09:09:14 - 00:09:33:24 Frank Bruce Robinson: And if we cannot be saved, it means we must be damned. Well, I think the vast majority of thinking Americans are answering that question in their own way. You see, as the story leaves, a man or woman know all eternity. You either believe the story or you have to be them. If you ask them for proof of their story, they cannot produce it.

00:09:33:26 - 00:10:03:01 Frank Bruce Robinson: While you, on the other hand, can produce absolute proof that every fundamental of the story was known to other religions called pagan and heathen many, many years before this story was ever heard of. So even though you can prove the present religious story untrue, yet in this fairyland of ours, we allow the ministers of these denominations to travel on railway trains with reduced fares.

00:10:03:03 - 00:10:30:01 Frank Bruce Robinson: We allow them to hold their property tax free. We allow them to perform marriage ceremony. And I think it would be far more just if every religious organization were made to pay taxes on its property. Just like I pay taxes on mine. And I think something else. I think that these religious organizations should be made to prove the truth of their philosophies before they are allowed to preach them.

00:10:30:03 - 00:11:10:27 Frank Bruce Robinson: They try very hard to shut me up without much success, however, but I am absolutely able to produce incontrovertible evidence that their entire story is a copy of similar stories held by heathen religions long, long before the time of this religion. I’m not saying that the Christian religion was stolen from other religions, but I am saying that it’s a mighty suspicious fact that all the sudden great religions of posterity are based upon the same story and all originated in the same land, and probably all were written by Arabian priests.

00:11:11:00 - 00:11:23:03 Unknown Speaker: Well, doctor, you have certainly made your position plain, and I don’t think anyone can truthfully accuse you either of preaching atheism or trying to tear down religion. And now.

00:11:23:07 - 00:11:46:03 Frank Bruce Robinson: Yes, yes, I know what you’re going to ask me to do. And as we still have a few minutes, I will.

00:11:46:05 - 00:12:02:18 Unknown Turn.

00:12:02:21 - 00:12:06:27 Unknown You.

00:12:06:29 - 00:13:09:22 Unknown Back.

00:13:09:24 - 00:13:13:29 Unknown To.

00:13:14:02 - 00:13:29:28 Unknown You.

00:13:30:00 - 00:13:37:12 Unknown Yes, I.

00:13:37:14 - 00:13:59:28 Unknown Speaker: Wouldn’t you like to know more about this God lore. Which Doctor Robinson told us about? Wouldn’t you like to have the details? You can. And you need not spend $0.01 except for postage. Simply write a letter or a postcard to Doctor Robinson. Care of the station to which you are listening. Or send it directly to Doctor Robinson’s home in Moscow, Idaho.

00:14:00:02 - 00:14:41:16 Unknown Speaker: Say in it. Please send me a free outline of Scheana. You will receive the outline immediately and you will not be obligating yourself in any way. If you write to Moscow, Idaho, be sure to include in the address the words Radio Department. We return you now to your local announcer, who will announce the time and date of Doctor Robinson’s next broadcast.