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About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 1899)
R eason . VOL. 3. S IL V E R T O N , O REG O N , TH U R SD A Y , AVGUST 10, 1899. W h a t is God? BY ALLEN DAVEOPORT. ou ask me, W h at is G od? an d I Ain no wav puzzled to replv. My i nw ard lights so clearly sh in e, T h a t heavenly th in g s I can define, And th o u g h but a finite c re a tu re , Tell w hat is God an d w hat is N ature. W h atev er can be seen or felt, W h atev e r can be h eard or sm elt, W h atev er can be ta ste d , an d All th a t th e m ind can u n d e rsta n d , All th a t o u r w isdom can conceive, All th a t in w hich we can believe, All o ’e r w here fancy ever trod, Is N a tu re ; all th e rest is G od. Y —Freethought Readings. T he R ig h t To E x p ress O pinions. BY HORACE SE A V E R . of th e most im portant rights which hum an beings possess, ab stractly , and which ought to be guaranteed to them by th e society of which they are m em bers, is the rig h t to ex press opinions, w ithout fear or mo lestation. T h at men o u ght to pos sess this right, not only as a m atter of ab stract justice, but as a m atter of political expediency, is a propo sition which carries its own evidence along with it. The rig h t to th in k freely upon all subjects belongs to us n atu ra lly , and no governm ent can deprive us of it. Now the right to th in k involves the rig h t to ex press our opinions; for if we were to be deprived of the power of com m unicating our ideas to tach other, we should be unable to benefit society by developing tru th s which we m ight discover. The right to express opinions on all subjects, save religion and poli tics, is conceded by alm ost all gov ernm ents to th eir people. The a u tocracy of R ussia, and th e p atern al despotism of A ustria, prohibit d is cussion am ong the people on politi cal affairs, and E ngland and our own country som etim es punish those who d are to express opinions derogatory to C h ristian ity . The persecution of Abner K neeland for blasphem y — the sta tu te against which u n m ean in g crime is not even yet repealed— proves the correct ness of th e la tte r statem ent. A brief ex am in atio n of th e principal arg u m en ts usually urged in defence of such prosecutions, m ay suffice to show th eir irju stic e , and to place the rig h t of m an to the unrestricted expression of opinion in a cleai lig h t:— 1.— It is said th a t if men were perm itted to publish opinions de rogatory to religion, the public would be induced to regard it with contem pt. To this it m ay be re plied, th a t religion m ust be a thing which are obuoxious to reason, and contrary to common sense? Does ne O in its self contem ptible, or the pub lic intellect m ust be very defect ively educated, or such an effect would never be produced. Every prosecution for the »indefinable crim e of blasphem y, therefore, is a tacit acknow ledgm ent th a t the gov ernm ent and the priesthood have not done th eir du ty in educating the people; or it is a tacit acknow ledgm ent th a t religion is not found ed in argum ent, and th a t it requires the terrors of corporal punishm ent for its support. Hence all such prosecutions are the m ost b itter and galling satires which could be launched against the governm ent, priests, and religion. 2.— It has been urged th a t the m oral sense of the com m unity is outraged by the publication of libels on religion, and th a t it is fitting and right th a t the publishers of such libels should be prosecuted. We see no force in this argum ent, be cause alm ost everything th a t a m an m ight say of religion, while ex er cising his right of free inquiry, could be construed by the law and the church into a libel. Now it is well known th a t free inquiry has been in stru m en tal in establishing science, in reform ing jurisprudence, and in effecting the p artial aboli tion of superstitious absurdities. It cannot therefore, do any harm to religion, if religion is founded in tru th ; and if not, free inquiry will expose its errors, and consequently ought to be encouraged. Moreover the nature of belief is in v o lu n tary and proportionate to the am ount and clearness of the evidence pre sented to the m ind; hence it is un ju st to punish a man for e n te rta in ing any opinion. Besides, as the individual right to inquire after tru th obviously im plies the right to express w ithout fear the results of inquiry; so it m ay be argued th a t those who could restrict the free ex pression of opinion m ust either deny the abstract right of m an to inquire after tru th , or act incon sistently by denying in practice the right which the former involves. And finally, as tru th is alw ays beneficial, and error alw ays per nicious to society, and as inquiry is the only mode by which we can ever arrive at tru th , so all attem pts to restrict inquiry are wrong and unjust. These are some of the grounds upon which the right to free in quiry and to the free expression of opinion may be defended. And in view of them we m ay ask, why allow statu tes to rem ain unrepealed C hristianity require the strong arm of the law to prop it up? We should th in k not, if it is from Heaven. W hy then, do professed C hristians persecute unbelievers? F or no other purpose, it would seem, th an to gratify a th irst for vengeance, which their principles and religion are unable to repress.— M an ’s P a s t an d P re se n t. NO. 31. scopes of more advanced construc tion th an any known in Europe, BY DR. L. BUCHNER. and other indications of perfection in the arts and sciences, such as the M an, created by G od, passed from nineteenth ce n tu ry has not yet w it th e h a n d s of th e c re ato r as a perfect w ork, com plete in body and s p irit. nessed. Still farther would the W h atev er m ay l)e th e d eg rad atio n of triu m p h of inventive genius be m any m en, civilization is th e ir final goal, as it was th e ir original s ta te .— found to have been carried, when C ount de Salles. the later deposits, now assigned to T is difficult to conceive,” says the ages of bronze and iron, were Quatrefuges, “ upon w hat facts formed. V ainly should we lie stra in this au th o r relies.” In point ing our im aginations to guess the of fact, such an opinion as this possible uses and m eaning of such having sprung solely from theoret- relics—m achines, perhaps, for nav ii al considerations, can only appeal igating the air or exploring the to theoretical grounds, whilst it is depths of the ocean, or for calcu in the plainest contradiction to ev lating arithm etical problem s, be ery known fact. If the men now yond the wants or even the concep I living were really only the degen tion of living m ath em atician s.” erate and p artially corrupted de Now we do not find in th e d ep th s scendants of a former higher and of the earth such th in g s as are here better race, it would he difficult to described by L yell, h u t in all cases understand how the hum an race just the reverse, and we m ust th ere could still exist, as it is a law g e n fore feel convinced th a t man did erally recognized and proved by not, in accordance with this op in experience th a t degenerate or de ion which we find com ing to the graded tribes and individuals are surface from tim e to tim e, com never of long d u ratio n , but th a t mence with great things to end with they g rad u ally disappear. I sm all, but th at beginning with Lvell argues ad m irab ly ag ain st sm all things, he has ended with this view in the following words: great, as indeed is the rule in a l “ But had the original stock of m an most all hum an affairs. kind been really endowed with such W hich of the opinions here de superior intellectual power and with scribed is not merely the more inspired knowledge, and had they probable, but the more encouraging possessed the same im provable n a and satisfactory, the au th o r may ture as their posterity, the point of well leave to the judgm ent of the advancem ent to which they would reader. It is only by a complete have reached ere this would be m isapprehension of the tru th an d im m easurably higher. We cannot of right sentim ents th a t so m any ascertain a t present the lim its, men have been induced to reject w hether of th e beginning or the view here developed of the a n of the end, of the first tiq u ity and origin of our race upon stone period, when man co-existed the earth as being repulsive and with the extinct m am m alia, but discouraging, and to im agine th a t th a t it was of great duration we if it be adopted the elevated se n ti cannot doubt. D uring those ages m ent of the dig n ity of hum an n a W e do there would have been tim e for ture m ust he endangered. progress of which we can scarcely not know how to com bat this false form a conception, and very differ pride which regards a lowly origin ent would have been the character as som ething contem ptible and d e of the works of a rt which we should grading better th an in the a d m ira now be endeavoring to in te rp re t,— ble words of Prof. H uxley, who those relics which we are now dis speaks as follows in his rem arkable in terrin g from the old gravel-pits of m em ior on th e “ Place of Man in St. A cheul, or from th e Liege caves. N atu re” : “ T houghtful men, once In them , or in the upraised bed of escaped from the blinding influence the M editerranean, on th e south of trad itio n al prejudice, will find coast of S ardinia, instead of the in the lowly stock whence m an has rudest pottery or flin t.to o ls so ir I sprung tho best evidence of the regular in form as to cause the u n of the splendor of his capacities; practiced eye to doubt w hether they and will discern in his long pro are u n m istak ab le evidence of de gress through the past a reason sign, we shoufd now be finding able of faith in his a ttaim en t of a sculptured forms, surpassing in nobler fu th re .” In reality the hum bler our o ri beauty the m asterpieces of P hidias or P raxitiles; lines of buried ra il gin, the more elevated is our pres ways or electric telegraphs, from en t place in nature! the sm aller the which the best engineers of bur day com m encem ent, the g reater is the m ight gain invaluable hints; a s tr o term ination! the h ard er the strug- uomical in stru m en ts and m icro ( in clu d ed on 6th page. 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