4
T H E TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON. A P R IL 6, 1899.
for hundreds and thousands of
young men and young women to he
educated free from the dam nable
superstition which we so despise.
These liberally educated youths
versity Com pany, in the In tere sts of
“ a t h e i s t i c ” v iew s b y t h e u se o f will go forth and liberally educate
C onstructive, Moral .Secularism.
7
__
our reason and the study of the the worhl. They are w aiting for us
J. E. H o s m e r,....................... E d ito r very authors brother W ettstein to act! Let us not wait for a $2000
P. W . G eer......................... M an ag er m entions. But there may be as I salary brother, hut endow the in ­
much danger of one falling into stitution with what we can o u r­
Entered at the postoffice at Silverton, error by claim ing to be in possess­ selves. Let us pledge to the corn­
Oregon, as second-class m ail m atter
ion of ALL TRUTH as in being too) ing generation all w e e a n of our
time, our fortunes, and our sacred
careful about s a y in g “ ! know ”.
SU B SC R IPTIO N R A T E S .
Notice carefully w hat brother honor.
Robert G. Ingersoll says
he
$1 00 W ettstein says:
One year, in a d v an c e ....................
5G
Six m o nths in a d v an c e ....................
“ All known phenomena is caused “does not know ” and w’e believe
25
T hree m o n th s, in a d v an c e ................
sim ply by m atter acting upon he is right, yet Mr. Ingersoll does
In clubs of five or m ore, one year,
in advance....................................
m atter, and beyond this all our not believe in any kind of gods or
Money should }>e sent by registered
devils for there is no proof. But
knowledge ends.”
letter or m oney order.
So say we. Beyond this “ we do for Mr. Ingersoll to say th at m atter
Notice!
not know .” H as m atter thus acted is the eternal cause of m atter
w ithout beginning? Our jew el(er) would he m aking a creator of m at­
A h a n d pointing to th is notice denotes of a philosopher says: “ M atter! ter.
th a t your su b scrip tio n has ex p ired .
H um an knowledge only goes so
You are e arn estly requested to r e ­ M atter is the sole cause, the all
new so th a t you m ay receive th e pa­ sufficient, the sole om nipresent far and then, if we are honest, we
per w ithout in te rru p tio n . We have de­
cided th a t it is la-st for all concerned cause— the eternal and infinite m u s t say we do not know. The
th a t we do n o t send papers longer th an cause.” But one in an “evolution­ priests’ way is to pretend to know
th e tim e paid for unless so ordered.
sta te ” cannot com prehend all about it and the world has had
T his will p revent any loss and we will ary
know just where we sta n d .
enough of priestcraft.
w hat eternal, infinite, etc., mean.
We request you to semi us th e nam es
If m atter has existed and acted
T here seems to be a contradic­
of Secularists who m ight Incom e su b ­
scribers and we will m ail sam ple copies. tion when one says th a t m atter is upon itself forever, it had no cause
the “ eternal cause” of m atter a c t­ and, as we c a n ’t conceive of a be­
T H U R S D A Y , A P R IL 6, E. M . 299
ing on m atter, for an y th in g that ginning, “ we don’t know” but bro­
never had a beginning (etern al) ther W ettstein is right; hut we
T e n T h o u s a n d D o lla rs .
can’t com prehend how m atter could
never could have had a cause.
We are atheistic, that is, we do have existed forever. We can con­
One of the Libera! U niversity’s
not believe in gods, hut realizing ceive of a time when all m atterex ist-
friends expects to soon put ten th at we are in the “evolutionary pe­ ed in a gaseous state and if it ever
thousand dollars into the only in ­ riod 0 / our intellectual develop­ did, we can conceive of m illions
stitution
th a t stands for m or­ m ent” and cannot com prehend the and m illions of years rolling hv
al scientific, Secular Erect bought. universe, either with or without a while it rem ained thus but the
Phis means the greatest of suc­ beginning, perhaps we m ight be a l­ hum an m ind trying to com prehend
cess, for when we begin to succeed lowed to tell the t r u ’h and say the idea of no beginning must here
others will see things in the light th a t there are some things th a t “ we give up and say “ I do not know."
A beginning is equally as impos­
th a t success alw ays sheds upon an do not know.”
In a very friendly private letter sible of com prehension. “ A first
enterprise and they will come for­
ward, some with larger and some brother W ettstein says: “ When great cause” is an absurdity to a
with sm aller am ounts until we your U niversity is ready to endow’ scientific m ind. T here is no foun­
will have w hat the present gener­ a chair of Atheistic philosophy at dation for such a thing to stand on.
ation dem ands of a great U niversi­ $2000 a year, I will resign my in­
The fact is, when we have a rriv ­
terest in the old store and give ed at this point we have reached
ty.
M eanwhile let us show our gen­ your school my whole time and the present lim it of hum an investi­
erous friend th at we are willing to energy and contribute radical gation and the little child knows
labor as well as to wait.
weekly articles to The Torch and as much as the wise W ettstein or the
We are th in k in g of closing our come and live in Silverton.”
talkative Talmage. As we said be­
W ell, this is a good offer and we fore we fullv agree with most our
y ea r’s work on May 5, in order to
get to work on our building so as wish we were able to pay the friend says in his criticism . He
to. have it readv for next y ea r’s $2000, hut when we are, as presi- only m isunderstood our position.
W’ork. There is much to be done and dent of the Liberal U niversity we In regard to a god or gods, the ab ­
we hope th at every F reethought will instruct brother W ettstein, if sence of proof of such things is proof
lover of Science will help all in his we close a bargain with him, to enough to us th a t they do not
or her power.
leave all isms out and teach what exist. I11 asking the questions, “ Is
—
“ we do know .” Such men as there one suprem e cause or are
Spencer, Huxley, Darwin, T yndall, the m any powers co-equal? W hat
N o Spooks.
etc., teach scientific tru th s and the is the cause of m atter? etc.,” we did
The criticism by brother W ett- student is left to draw his own con- not mean to convey the idea th a t
stein, on page 3 of this issue, elusions in regard to questions of we believe in any kind of spooks;
is excellent.
We agree with theology; and this plan would be we were only th in k in g of the n a t­
nearly every word our radical better lor Prof. W ettstein in his ural powers possessed by m atter.
brother says and realize as he does labors in the liberal I Diversity,
But let us turn our atten tio n to
the dangers of Agnosticism . Per-
But the designer of the great the things of ei,rth (at home) th a t
haps in the editorial he criticises agnostic’s souvenir spoon m ust re- need fixing, lest in trying to solve
we left the subject too soon a n d m em ber th a t our U niversity is in the unsolvable we become dem ent­
was m isunderstood by some; hut an “ evolutionary” state. We are ed and neglect our d u ty to our fel­
let us say here w hat most of our working hard w ithout endowm ent low men.
friends know, th a t we have no he- or salary to establish this school of
There is suffering, crime, ignor­
lief w hatever in gods— no first Science and Freethought and he ance and superstitions, which en­
great cause or causes— no spirit act- should not wait for a $2000 salary slave and destroy on every hand.
ing on m atter or an y th in g of the before putting his shoulder square- The war for H um anity calls for
kind. M atter “ acting upon m a t- . ly to the wheel, m aking it possible. volunteers and the Savior Science
T n ir h
D p flC n n
lO r C Il
UI
The O nly P ap er of Its K ind.
-
Published Weekly by the Liberal I ni-
te r” is the alp h a and omega of our
know |edgH> and although we are
in the ‘ evolutionary period of our
intellectual developm ent”
(and
who is not?) yet we have come to
for disciples; and this we do know
th at if enough respond to the call,
hum an life will be lengthened and
brightened and the old d ark days
of pretentious priestcraft will be at
an end.
E a s te r S u n d a y .
The E aster exercises a t the S il­
verton M. E. church last Sunday
evening were w hat C arlysle calls,
“ phosphorescent punk and nothing­
ness.”
It causes a feeling of sadnes3 as
well as a feeling of dizziness to
he crowded into an ill-ventilated
room, foul with the breath of sever­
al hundred people to hear the u t­
terances of little children who have
been tau g h t like parro ts to sing
and speak those things of which
they have not the slightest idea as
to the m eaning. But we pity the
children less than we do the older
ones who, having been brought up
to it, have no pangs of conscience
as they sing and repeat the things
they m ust know are dark and false
as their im aginary hell. And yet,
one who has some sense of hum or,
is struck at times by the ridiculous
side of the high flights of the
cracked anthem s, the m onotonous
sing-song of the poorly trained
parr<»t children, the solemn prayer
of the good old deacon, the holy-
ghost harangue of the saintly pastor,
ending with an account of the aw ­
ful stale of the poor heathen and an
urgent call to be generous in giv­
ing, the contribution, the doxology
and lhe “ And now may the bless­
ing of the father, the son and the
holy spirit, be and abide with you
all ever more, A m en” .
Talk about heathens! W here in
1 he world is an y th in g more h e a th ­
enish than the ideas and actions of
C hristians in their E aster exercises?
The idea of the resurrection of
the body is of heathen origin and
was first tau g h t when people knew
nothing about our bodies being
formed of the chem ical elem ents of
the earth and th a t after death they
decompose and go into other forms.
W hat nonsense, w hat m ental
suicide to keep up this old blunder
of the resurrection and how’ wicked
it is to teach such things to the
little children.
Prof. K raps, principal of the
public schools and a m an of more
than
M ethodist understanding,
gave the audience a short talk on
The Gods of O ther Countries, which
was instructive and interesting.
In closing, of course, he com pli­
mented the C hristians’ god very
highly; and perhaps the modern
god is better in some respects. He
is about as near nothing as one
can th in k and when he becomes
entirely nothing perhaps people
will have more tim e to devote to
science and m orality.
We believe th a t every orthodox
preacher who talked about E aster
told more falsehoods, perhaps un-