Image provided by: Silverton Country Historical Society; Silverton, OR
About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (June 10, 1897)
th f TO R I H O F R E A S O N . SILVERTON. OREGON, THURSDAY, f I V W * > ¥ ZA the inevitable conclusion th at when L ittle P o in ts. ular platform . How any one with a man dies he is dead and rem ains thegood of F reethought at heart can dead. The article in last week’s issue think otherwise is more than I can If God is everywhere, where is Here the preacher generally e n headed, “ The Methodists Save a understand. I do not believe in the Devil? quires: “ But do you believe you Saloon Keeper is said by the pastor Phariseeism , gossiping, or in m ed How can a person who has read will die like a b ru te?” 1 answer; to be somewhat erroneous and it is dling with other people’s business, the history of the w orld’s sixteen are we not horn like a brute? There should be no poetry or sen no more than fair to give him a hear but character and principle in Sec crucified saviors select one th at just tim ent in the agencies or motives ing. ular leaders is entirlej different fr )m fills the hill, when they are all so th a t decide our belief, but our sole H e claim s th at our inform ant has these. near alike? aim should be to discover the tru th m isrepresented things, and out of We have assailed the churches A good mess of greens once in a in all things, and the above facts a m em bership of BMJ of his for their low estim ate of m orality while i- belter for a dyspeptic than are final ami absolute. H ere our church only six signed the peti com pared with faith. \\ e have prayer or the laying on of hands. knowledge emls. W hen m an dies nothing is left to re-constitute his tion; th at four of these had their boasted that the Secular philosophy Some people are so sm all th a t personality. And it is not true nam es erased before it was presented is superior to ihe C hristian religion. they are willing to sacrifice the that som ething “emerges” from the to the judge and th a t the two re- Then it is not offensive self-right opportunity of building up a great orifices of m an’s body when he m aing petitioners were relatives of eousness to dem and th a t those who cause in order to gratify some little dies. Absolutely nothing “escapes” the saloon keeper. H e also claimed advocate it shall he a credit to its to constitute a duplicate m an— not personal spile or satisfy a whim. even “ his breath leaves him ,” which the m ethodist leaders had nothing principles. W hile I have never All should eat the fruit of the is sim ply air draw n into the lungs to do in getting up the petition, and made m yself a censor of any of my th a t th eir church does not sanction co-workers, I have alw ays m ain tree of knowledge even if the priests and forced out again, hut with the last elfoits rem ains in the body. A do dam n us for it the selling of liquor anyw here. tained this doctrine. «lying man placed upon a delicate ly adjusted pair of scales weighs F ranklin Steiner. Board M eetin g . A R efu ta tio n . not a grain less after death th an Des Moines, Iowa. before. W hat folly, then, to invest An advocate of freelove, writing There will he a special m eeting of an airy nothing with the form and SECULAR NEW S. for a freelove paper, states th a t the the Exe< u iv e Boaid "f the O. S. S. functions and characteristics of the most complex and highest product president of the Oregon State Secu f het tregonStateSeeularU nion will U. at Ldii ral H all Siiverton, Ore., of n a tu re ’s laboratory. W hat a lar Union “ has either changed his have three lecturers in the field in Tuesday evening Ju n e 15. w-aste of m aterial, w hat a waste of personal habits since last November P ea i. W. G eer , energy, what a waste of cogencies, a very short tim e. Miss Kate De or is a hypocr i t e ,’’ and the person President O.S.S.U. if complete met« and women can Peat and Mrs. M. P. Hosm er will seems to insinuate th a t while in exist «luring all eternity without travel through Eastern Oregon and Chicago last November, I used to The In c o n siste n c y of A g n o stic ism . physical organism as well as with Idaho and Pearl W. Geer will goto it! bacco or liquor or both. This is an Southern Oregon and California. ( continued from first page .) W here there is no stom ach there injustice for I never took a drink B. F. Underwood and Franklin is no anim al life. W here there of liquor in my life and have never the origin of man is not known, is no anim al life there is no hum an used tobacco in any form , nor do I Steiner will he in Oregon and W ash nor thinkable, separate from the life. The crudest m onad, sac or ington this Sum m er and C. Elton ever intend to origin of this anim al, it is self- cell, as well as the higher forms of B lanchard will m ake us a visit in a evident th at w ithout this anim al life, all have stom achs as the basis I cannot imagine what the lady Every Secularist structure m an cannot exist. W hat of th eir existence; in fact this is the m eans and why she should write few m onths. O rganic nucleus from which th<‘ organism against me in this way. She is mis should do som ething to m ake their const ¡tutes this an im al? s tru c tu n — an aggregation of organs, evolves. The digestive process is a taken, for I believe her tobe honest visit a success and help to forward nerves, arteries, in úseles, brains, necessity to all forms of anim al and surely she would not in ten tio n the grand work. skeleton, etc.— which in combined life and w ithout it life is not possi The Silverton Marine Band gave a lly tell a falsehood. I was one of activity, conditions favorable and ble. S piritists m ust therefore prove the adv<a‘ates of the ethical basis a splendid free concert at Liberal the autom atum in perfect order, ¡ the existence of spiritual digestive for our organization a long time be Hall last F riday evening and were produce life, sensation, conscious organs, spiritual gastric juice, sp irit ness and mind. Such an organism ual food ami digestive processes, or fore it was adopted and now I real greeted by a large, appreciative au can live, see, hear, feel, remember, w ithdraw thei«- belief from the ize th a t the adoption of it was a dience. After the concert, C aptain reason and propagate the race. In arena of science and debate. An grand stride in the direction of right. A llen’s side oj the Y. P.S. S. C., the absence of one or more, or all intelligent idea of what constitutes W hen I returned from Chicago ami the ban J hoys were treated to of these organs or parts, man is spirit enlity, spirit form and .spirit last fall I was more than evei sat a straw berry supper. An hour or imperfect, unsound or does not ex mode of existence not being forth isfied th a t the doctrines of freelove so was passed in dancing and every ist a t all. This complete organic coming, it places their faith on a stru ctu re causes the various ac par with Rom anism and fetichism. were wrong. 1 associated with the one had a general good time. tivities, functions and processes,! Those affirm ing must prove. people of that belief ju s t enough to Remember the dram a at Liberal both physical ami m ental. This is W hen we see a man die and cre satisfy m yself they are m istaken. H all, Silverton, Oregon, S aturday the cause and basis of personal life m ated, we know- th a t this is the end and m ind—remove this, nothing of this man because we know- abso I am confident that m any of them evening Ju n e 12. rem ains, and the effects, of course, lutely not hi ng to the contrary. We are honest in their ideas and Mr. Send us a subscriber for the Torch must cease also. affirm and prove it. So those af H arm an and I have always been on of Reason. W hen, then, the en tire body after firm ing spiritism m ust prove. If good term s but in all o f our conver death is again disintegrated, and an entity, “spirit substance” must sations the subject of freelove was J'lie Executive Board of the O. S. S. this complex structure, once consti he subject to an analysis. This never m entioned. He need not U. held a regular m eeting last Sun tu tin g man has vanished from ex “ «Inal m an” m ust have parts and th in k th a t 1 agree with him or th at day evening in the Liberal Hall. istence, is it not the wildest dream organs or he is not a m an hut a and delusion to insist th a t the I ever had any ideas favoring free The members present were Pearl W. identical individual, in the form of m vth. N either will it do to plead th at love. 1 am perfectly satisfied to Geer, Pres., E. L. Sm ith, Secy-Treas. a ‘‘dual m an ” or “ sp irit” still lives; certain phenom ena have been w it let him believe a» he pleases and J. E. Hostner Supt. S. S. S., Nettie that man can exist and live during nessed which can be explained on w ant him to allow me the same Olds-Haight and M innie P. Hostner all eternity w ithout this physical n o o t h e r hypothesis. This is the Vice Presidents. stru ctu re as well as with it; that privilege. (heist’s plea fo ra God whose being som ething, nobody knows w hat — I he S ultan ol I'urkey refuses to and existence is involved in infinte- I w ant all people to know just the equivalent of n o th in g —which where I stand. I was an advocate receive Jam es B. Angell as U. S. cannot l>e seen, felt, weighed, nor ly greater m ystery than nature its- M inister because of his known con of the ethical basis before it was a d nection with the C hristian religion analyzed into tangihleoonstituents, self. If the existence of a disem bod ied hum an being is a n atu ral im pos opted and now th a t it is adopted I and with the Board of Missions th a t can he a living, breathing man or sibility then it is self-evident th a t propose to Htay with it and I can do m ain tain s and directs num erous woman and all it im plies; and to “sp irit” explains no phenom ena, American m issionaries in Turkey. insist th a t a living “ dual m an ,” hut greatly mystifies it. so w ithout being a hypocrite. “ soul” or “ sp irit” em erges from the The agnostic a ttitu d e , then, in P earl W. G eer . Probably the next thing on the pro body when life ceases; can a n y th in g gram will be for our C hristian (?) relation to im m ortality, is not con nation to gc over and, with our big be more unreasonable and vision sistent because if the doctrine th at guns, kill off a few of the heathen ary ? T he E th ica l B a sis. Discarding all inherited and ac man lives after death is irratio n al, and teach them the right road to quired superstition and faith; es as they concede it to he, they heaven. W hile I differ from you on some pecially disregardingour individual should reject it. Ten million af Prof. O. C. Lee of T exarkana, hopes ami desires, which cannot firm ing is of no more im portance details of the m atter I entirely sanc th a n one. If rational they have tion your m ain contention, viz., th at Ark. is m uch interested in the Lib possibly be a factor in the inexor no m oral right to pose as agnostics. eral U niversity. He sent this week a m oral test should be required of some fine specimens of centipedes, able economy of n atu ra l events, O tto W ettstein . and confining our beliefs strictly to all persons seeking to goon the See- scorpions, ta ra n tu la s, etc. what we know, we m ust come to Rochelle. Ills. The M eth od ist’s Claim .