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.