Image provided by: Silverton Country Historical Society; Silverton, OR
About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 7, 1897)
¡OÜfcHT 7 < W ' VOL. 1. CLEAR R eason . SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY . p NEAR Y 7 LS“ THE NO. xu. W AY. hollowed by flint flakes, each from them all and definite enough to be Chalcedon and Constantinople were clearly understood. filled with anarchy, riot, outrage, Critical and destructive work is and murder. The cathedral on still needed, oposition to absurd Ephesus was the theatre of tierce dogmas which dw arf the mind, and and brutal butchery, and Arius to efforts to evangelize the govern himself, as is stated, was poisoned (see Lecky’s ment and public institution, should hy Anathasian be more active than it is, for it is History of European morals,” Vol. as true now as it ever was that ! 2 pp. 207-209.) Profl’essor John Fiske remarks despotism steals over a people like a mist and that “eternal vigilance that, while the Jesus of Dogma is t h e l>est known, the Jesus of his is the price of liberty.” Yet every Freethinker should be tory is the least known of all th<? Once th e welcome light h a s b roken, who a negative position, remind them of shall say the positive side of Freethought. ready to answer the question “If eminent names in history. Num W h a t th e unim agined glories of th e you take away our religion what erous volumes have been written AU Freethinkers hold that, day? 1. Reason is man’s highest au do you offer in its place?” —a ques under the titles of life of Jesus and W h a t th e evil th a t sh all p erish in its thority and best guide, and its ex tion with which everyone w’ho ven life of Christ, but they are no more ray Aid th e daw ning, tongue and p e n ; ercise in religion, as in all other tures to dissent from formulations than romantic paraphrases of the Aid it, hopes of honest m e n ; matters, is an inalienable right and of past thought called creeds, is gospels, and the gospels as we have Aid it, p a p e r; aid it, ty p e ; often confronted. shown, are in no sense historical re duty. Aid it, for th e hour is ripe, cords. These gospels and the B. F. U nderwood . 2. Salvation is escape from er A nd o u r e arn est m u st not slacken Chicago, 111. stories built upon them that have ror of thought and action; it comes in to play. so many times been repeated, have Men of th o u g h t and m en of action, clear from knowledge of truth and the Popular Science. been the means of preventing the th e w a y ! practice of virtue. foot of newly fallen snow name of Jesus from falling into ob Lo! a clo u d ’s ab o u t to vanish from th e 3. All may help to save their day; fellows by wise instruction and the changes into an inch of water livion. Jesus is not credited with And a bazen w rong to cru m b le in to having written a single word of when melted. example of an upright life. clay. 4. All truth is sacred; all false The colors penetrating deepest them; be taught no new doctrine, L o ! th e r ig h t’s about to c o n q u e r: C lear are the blues and the greens, the and he never claimed to he the Son hood is profane. the w a y ! of God. Now* if it tan he shown M ith th e rig h t shall m any m ore 5. All sacred books so-called, red Iwnng cut off first. E n te r sm iling a t th e d oor; are products of evolution; many of Keller has shown» in Madagascar that this claim of the church in re W ith th e g ian t wrong shall fall gard to the gospels being the word them are valuable as records of that the corals always grow’ out in M any o th ers, g rea t and sm all, of God, is false, then it is plain that T h a t for ages long have held us for past thought and as expressions of the direction of the strongest light. the Jesus of Dogma must follow the religious life; they are all human, th e ir prey The Geysers of the Yellowstone Jesus of history. Bishop Faustus, Men of th o u g h t and m en of action, clear fallible, and their teachings are to National Park are failing. Their th e w a v ! be accepted only so far as they ac forces has fallen off fifty per cent (Faust Lib. vol. 2) in speaking of these early writers, correctly says: cord wdth reason and truth. in sixteen years. Science vs Theology. “It is an undoubted fact that the 6. All religious systems are out The Du Fonts, of Wilmington, New Testament was not written by The contrast between the theolog growths of the human mind, Del., have a horseless family car Christ himself, nor hy his apostles, ical and the scientific theory of the natural in origin and development. riage, with a seating capacity for origin and nature of the moral 7. All particular religions are eight persons. 'The motive power hut a long while after their time by some unknown persons, who, code is so great as to preclude the special forms, modified by race, is electricity. lest they should not l>e credited idea of any reconcilement. We climate and character of universal, . The air tight compartment when they wrote of affairs they have already been compelled to ar natural religion. rive at the same conclusion in com H, The conception of evolution, theory of building ships was copied were little acquainted with, affixed paring the principles of theology of law and continuity in the world, from a provision of nature shown to their works the names of ajxjs- and science in regard to other should and must replace the un in the case of the nautilus. The tles, or of such as were supposed to branches of knowledge. When t lie scientific and erroneous idea of shell of this animal has forty or have been their companions and human race was in its infancy it miraculous creation and super fifty compartments, into which air said they were written according to or water may be admitted, to allow them.” According to various au thought as a child and spoke as a natural interposition. child; hut as it became more ad 9. Man has ascended, not fallen. the occupant to sink or float as it thorities there were in the early pleases. centuries over two-hundred differ vanced it threw away its childish 10. By wise and united effort The making of artificial ears ent gospels and epistles, all claim theories. Xo one would hesitate we can accelerate human progress. for a moment to acknowledge that 11. The Freethinkers bible is seems to have reached scientific ing to give a true account of this it would be inconceivable folly for Nature which includes all books, perfection within the last decade. person Jesus. All these various gos us to cast away all the knowledge and all objects and their relations. Made of a specially prepared rubber pels possessed the unsatisfactory that science has given us in astron Entire uniformity of thought is flesh colored in the rough, they are" characteristic of not giviug the au omy, mechanics, chemistry, anat not expected among those who painted by hand in exact imitation thors names, nor dates nor authenti omy, surgery, and go back to the think, and not merely assent to of the remaining ear ot the unfortu cation for the impróbale stories they theories and practices of primitive projs>sitions submitted to them. nate customer, and as carefully narrated. Bishop Middleton in his man. Yet men of great intelli They who “think in herds” do not “touched” and marked as an artist’s Essay on the gift of tongues says gence in regard to other matters think at all. A go.al motto is, “in Picture- The n,ak*r gets a hun- the scripture Greek is utterly rude try to persuade themselves and things that can lie demonstrated, dred dollarH aPiece f,,r them.—Ad- and barbarous, and abounds with every fault that can possibly deform others that it is the highest wisdom unity; in things that admit of vocate of Common Sense. language whereas we should nat for us to accept the theories of prim doubt, free diversity; in all things, Jesu s of Nazereth. urally expect to find an inspired itive man concerning the most im charity.” portant subject of all—the science On some such statements of- These controversies in the early language. In short we should ex of social conduct. Men who would thought as I have given above,Bgc8of ,he cbureh convulsed all pect the purity of Plato and the eloquence of Cicero. laugh to scorn the idea of exchang Freethinkers can unite on a posi- great c, pita|, of thc East. H. D. B urrows . ing our ocean steamers for canoes live basis broad enough to satisfy I j erusalem) Antioch, Alexandria, , Joouoa ’ ; „ • Vancouver \\ ash. Men of th o u g h t.b e up and stirrin g night a single tree, gravely ask uh to and d a y : “accept” the theories of the .infants Sow th e seed—w ithdraw th e c u rta in — of our race about ethics as a “revel • clear the way ! Men of action, aid and cheer them ; as ye ation from God.”—John Wilson. m ay! T h e re ’s a fount ab o u t to stream , The P ositive Side of Freethought. T h ere ’s a light ab o u t to beam , T h ere ’s a w arm th about to glow, W hen orthodox people object to T h ere ’s a flower about to b lo w ; T h e re ’s a m id n ig h t blackness ch an g the position of Freethinkers, those who reject the bible as divinely in ing in to gray. Men of th o u g h t and m en of action, clear spired and Christianity as a di th e w a y ! vinely revealed system of truth, as J F