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I think Twain's view of religion has been twisted by his publishers.
:It's times like these I wish someone who was an expert could comment on this. I honestly don't know too much about Twain, I just know that he really blamed himself and God for a lot of the heartbreak in his life. Whether or not he truly gave up Presbyterianism and Christianity all together by the time of his death is beyond me. There is a book out called ''The Bible According to Mark Twain'' that may answer this, but I don't have it or ever read it. [[User:Ripberger|Ripberger]] 20:05, 21 June 2007 (EDT)
:It's times like these I wish someone who was an expert could comment on this. I honestly don't know too much about Twain, I just know that he really blamed himself and God for a lot of the heartbreak in his life. Whether or not he truly gave up Presbyterianism and Christianity all together by the time of his death is beyond me. There is a book out called ''The Bible According to Mark Twain'' that may answer this, but I don't have it or ever read it. [[User:Ripberger|Ripberger]] 20:05, 21 June 2007 (EDT)
::I think it's important to note that none of Twain's major anti-religion writings were published by Twain in his lifetime. The passages in Huck Finn are, in my mind, more a case of a young man's moral center seeing through the horror of slavery to true Christian charity. Twain, like many men of his day, kept a detailed diary. From what I've read this diary often took the form of essays and stories. His early books were largely diary entries run through an editor. Twain, like many Christians, clearly had his doubts and spiritual battles. Unlike many of us, he recorded those battles in his diary, elaborated into stories and dialogs. He had the misfortune of having greedy heirs who chose to publish those private, intimate journals after he died. We only see the heavily edited writings presented to enhance Twain's image as as sarcastic humorist who mocked everything. We have no evidence that these scandalous writings are anything more than private heartache and doubt, edited and twisted by his publishers for dramatic effect. --[[User:AlexC|AlexC]] 21:52, 29 December 2008 (EST)