Image provided by: Silverton Country Historical Society; Silverton, OR
About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 14, 1897)
THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 1 4 , 1 8 9 7 . ands, who testify to their personal knowledge and experience of the tru th of the bible and the divine U N I V E R S A L M E N T A L L I B reality of the religion which it ERTY. teaches.” iî\- believe t h a t ' h i- " ' •U proof as can he given, hut we con The Only Secular Paper Published on the sider it no proof whatever, for, with the same kind of reasoning, we Pacific Coast. could prove any religion and all Published Weekly by the Oregon State cannot he true. Is M oham m edism true? A follower of M ohammed Secular Union. could use the same proof. Andag ain, if th e d o z e n o r hundreds of the best J E H O S M E R ....................... E d ito r. p. W G E e .R - - - B u sin e ss M a n a g e r. citizens spoken of, would testify that they had seen witches, as no E n tered a t the ¡aostottice at >ilverton, doubt m any even of our tim e Oregon, i H second claws mail m atter. would, would our I). 1). believe in Torch of Reason rtf obCH.PI ION ‘ Ai r f. « ne Vear, in atlva <•«......... ' J* bix Month»*, in a tlv a n c « ......................... 'I hr e Mon*h-. in advance .. . ................. - I i Club* of , or m*»r»« one year, in i dvHi.ee. • Money should l»e «eat by registered le tte r o r m oney order. H e -ae -end uh th e nam es and «<t lrew.ee of -ec- ulariHte w «»a e not reg u lar Mibw-ribeo.. THURSDAY . . JANUARi 14, E. M. 247 Our Work. The work of establishing «»ur university has thus far been very successful and we all feel very m uch encouraged. Of course there are many things th at we need and some of us are doing too much work to produce the very best re sults, but the great m achinery of an organization which is composed of workers from M aine to Califor nia is started and as it moves slowly hut surely the different parts will gradually take up their work and almost before we realize it a fine prosperous university, in a fine m odern building, will he standing, a living m onum ent, declaring to the world the advent of a happier and higher civilization. The Character of Christian Proof. I n a little work entitled, “ I he Word and W orks of God,” by G il bert S. Bailey, I). 1>. we find these words: “ There is no other tru th in th e world upon any subject th at rests on so m uch and such satis factory proof as the divine a u th o r ity of the Bible.” As our idea is just the opposite and we believe in exam ining all sides of a question, let us exam ine some of the proofs he offers. He says: “ If a m an were accused of the crim e of m urder and arrainged be fore a court for trial, and a dozen of your best citizens—the most tru th fu l and up rig h t appear as witnesses, and each one testifies th a t he saw the accused kill his vic tim in broad d ay lig h t; they saw him do it, it is a m atter of their personal knowledge,—do you th in k th a t any court or jury would doubt the fact to which they testified? By no m eans. Their testim ony would be conclusive th at he did the deed. Now, there are not merely a dozen men hut hundreds and thous ♦ lu re a n d call it a go-pel serm on or m any generations of men. Those th e ir flocks w ill d w in d le to a h a n d w ho have, under «xisting in d u s ful o f ig n o ra n t, su p e rs titio u s fa trial conditions, come inot possession il at ics. _ . . TheJ,,?st and^Best. • -• «* D u rin g th e p red o m in a n ce <»f a n y relig io n , in a n y country, th e lite r a tu re o f th a t c o u n try , a t th a t tim e, would l»e ex p e c te d to c o n ta in m uch of th e p re v a ilin g relig io u s th o u g h t of th e tim e; a n d as in old R om an tim es th e lite ra tu re w as p ag an , so in c h r i- tia n la n d s th e lite ra tu re for m a n y y e a rs h as been lu ll of C hristian d o c trim s . The tim e came however in Roman history when in spite ol pagan literature, the ideas of w itches? The fact is, th a t when it comes many gods and other foolish mi to the reality of religion, such tions taught to tin- common people, testim ony is no good whatever and by the pagan teachers, gave way, there is no judge or ju ry in our and the more sim ple belief in one laud th a t would change their god, his sou J. sus, the devil and the religious belief on account « f th at two ¡»laces <»f future existence, hea kind of evidence and men who are ven and hell, were substituted; and hood-winked into believing, by perhaps this was a step forward. At this kind of proof, deserves our least it was a change and furnishes the world a valuable lesson. F in pity. A nother ¡»roof offered is th at of ally men such as the great found the fulfillm ent of prophecy. He ers of our republic, and the great says th a t all the grand outlines of ¡scientists of their day, conceived the history of the world, and much the idea th a t there was great w eak of the m inute details, were pre ness in the doctrines of the Chris dicted in the bible more th an two tian churches and they came to be thousand years ago. Now is this lieve in a still more sim ple and true? M any of us have read the reasonable religion i. e., the belief bible an d can see no such wonder in god and h u m an ity — the belief in ful fulfillm ent, and in fact the more the fatherhood of god and the we read, the more we see th a t those brotherhood of man. This sim pli old w riters knew nothing about fied belief did not m ake the world worse hut it made it better, for in what was to come to pass. The facts of science, the great in sim plifying the religion, it gave ventions, the discovery of America, men more tim e to devote to the up none of these are m entioned ami building of h u m a n ity ,a n d such men although these old writings are as Thom as Paine put in their tim e tw isted and changed to fit every w riting messages of l«»ve, liberty and thing th at takes ¡»lace there is no justice to their fellow-men. T h u s the world through th eir ef (¡«•finite m ention of an y th in g and no m atter w hat might occur they forts has advanced. More liberty could he m ade to fit fully as well of thought gave us more knowledge Science gave us the as they do the actual happenings. of science. T'o us it is absurd to say th at men railroad, the telegraph, the steam can or ever could, look into the ship, the telephone. These great future and tell what would take inventions made us more cosmo place; but the fact th a t those politan and, as we become acquain old w ritings arc hard to understand ted with our brothers from other on account of the m iserable, d is parts of the world, we learned to jointed, disconnected fragm entary have more of a brotherly feeling to way in which they are written ward them , and thus the great makes them somewhat m ysterious “ brotherhood of m an ” idea is over to the m asses and so the I). I) s shadow ing all others, and the prac take advantage of this and try to tical religion of Secularism is taking mr.ke us believe th at it m eans ju st the place of all unproven and im what suits their purpose. It is an provable theories of theology. W el old trick to pretend to he good and come Secularism , thou beautiful m any of these good (?) men are daughter of Science and Love! like some of the prophets themselves who could have w ritten their prophesies a f u r the event trans pired, and then m aking it appear that it was w ritten long before, ¡mint out the wonderful likeness. Such reasoning as is offered as ¡»roof of the statem ents of theology, only cause thinking people to doubt their tru th and the m inisters of ru ral districts must learn to do as their city brothers do i. e., mix hut little superstition in a secular lec- Wise Use of Wealth. Says the C hristian Leader: “ The tim e has come when the m illionaire who goes into his grave, and not a penny left for any béné ficient and h u m an itarian uses will leave behind a nam e at the m en tion of which wise and good peo ple revolt. T his is true. W ealth is the storedup product of th e labor of m any heads and hands through • »I riches should use them , as far as they can without in ju ry to th em - .-elves a n d their d e p e n d e n ts , for educational, ch aritab le or other g o o d purposes in the interests of the people. They cannot take their wealth out of this world. They may hoard it and leave it perhaps to he wasted or m isapplied when they are num bered with the dead. How much better while alive to give generously to some good cause, and live th e closing years of life with the pleasant consciousness of having contributed liberally t o m ake the world better for hav in g lived. Let freethinkers who have in th eir power to help destroy su per stition and prom ote intellectual freedom, consider w hether they have done what they could to u p hold the hands of those engaged in the w’ork of diffusing liberal p rin ciples. It is an unrew arded work, and those engaged in it should he aided by all who ate in sy m p ath y with liberal thought and are able to render financial help. It is much wiser to give when one is alive and can see, as Peter Co«»per for in stance did, the bénéficient results of his generosity. How m any liberals are there in Oregon and in other states who will m ake handsom e co n tributions for the support of the “ T orch of R eason ,” and for establishing and su stain in g the liberal educational work begun at S ilverton? B. F. U nderwood . Good News From England. The following is selected from the F reethinker, a paper published in E ngland. Mr, Foote, speaking of the Secular Congress held at Chicago, says: “ A nother speaker was Mr Pearl W. Geer, President of the Oregon Secular Union. He is a young m an, about tw enty five years of age, and his account of positiveSecular work, fifteen hundred miles west of Chicago was most interesting. The Secular Union there is incorporated; a go«»d deal of money has been raised, lecturers have been planted in various ¡»arts of the State, Sunday schools have been established, and the foundation has been laid of a Liberal U niversity. A q u arte rly m agazine m inisters to the literary w ants of th e S unday schools, and the p o p u lar propag an d a is c a r ried on by a weekly paper called T he T orch of R eason . The whole of the U nion’s publications are tu rn ed out from its own p rin tin g press. I am sorry I cannot visit Oregon to see the Secular work there with my own eyes. 1 regard it as auguring success for m y own project of incorporating a Secular Society in E ngland; a project which I hope to carry into effect im m ediate ly on m v return to th eo ld co u n try .” You see th a t our work in Oregon is not local. Its influence is being felt all over the world. T h issh o u ld encourage us to press forward and help to hear the T orch of R eason into every home.