Image provided by: Silverton Country Historical Society; Silverton, OR
About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1900)
2 THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, FEBRUARY 1, 1900. war, ai.d perhaps political intrigue, and which bring peace and content Genoa, which had long held the ment to the great mass of strug False Pretences. commercial supremacy of the Med gling and toiling humanity, which iterranean, was rapidly being out has not been, in its inception, and BY C H A R L E S K E N T TEN N EY . stripped by its rival Venice. “ With for long years after, bitterly fought Not many years ago, by compar ruin before it, and unwilling to and resisted by the churches? Yet, ison with the years through which yield its Eastern commerce,’’ says when the goal is reached, after it has passed, the earth, according Prof. Draper, “it was thought nec these long, weary year« of ceaseless to true Christian doctrine, was flat, essary to look elsewhere for trade.” strife, after these many centuries of and around it revolved the sun and There were many of its citizens who darkness, ignorance and woe, after stars, and over all was a huge were well acquainted with the all the battlements have been cover, the sky lights of which were globular form of the earth. Why taken, and the battlefields strewn sometimes opened to let the rain not reach the East Indies from the with unnumbered dead, after all fall through. To question this west? By the church this sugges this has been accomplished by Free- Christian arrangement of nature tion was received with little favor. thought and Science, we are serene was death bv most cruel torture. It gave no encouragement, because ly told that modern civilization is Yet we are informed that to Christ such schemes were unsuited to its entirely due to Christianity. Such ianity alone is due modern learning former arguments. It was disliked colossal cheek ‘‘surely passeth un because of its irreligious nature. derstanding.” and civilization. Madison, Wisconsin. There is no known scientific fact This globular form had been con which the Christian church has so demned by the holy fathers. By strenuously resisted as the rotund the Patristic geography the earth is F o r the Torch of Reason. ity of the earth, and that it revolves a flat surface, bounded by the What Is Science? upon its axis and around the sun; water« of the seas, on the yielding no tortures too cruel or horrible for surface of which rests the crystall BY C H A R L E S CLARK M IL L A R D . the exponents of such theories. The ine dome of the skies. These doc thumb screw, the rack, and the fire trines were supported by passages In controversial writings, it is were its opposing arguments. To from the holy scriptures. This doubt was cruel death. Such were geography had been the authority frequently asserted that Science the methods of those who are said of the church for more than eight teaches whatever it is that the to have been the fathers of our pre hundred years, and of course settled writer wishes his readers to believe, the matter. Something must, how and thus the most unscientific spec sent civilization. Before Christianity there had ever, be done for Genoa, and Col ulations and the wildest imagin existed a very respectable civiliza umbus took up the idea. He knew ings are supposed, by many uncrit tion. By the dark methods of the earth was globular in form. ical readers, to be vouched for by Christianity this early civilization Receiving no encouragement or that vague, undefined thing called had almost ceased to exist in so- substantial aid at home, he sought Science; and when such specula called Christian countries. To the support of Ferdinand and Isa tions and imaginings become asso maintain its power, and to pre bella, who, seeing great possibili ciated and classed with scientific vent men from thinking in any line ties for their kingdom from such a facts, their truth seems assured. other than promulgated by it.- cor route, gave him their support, and But a clear understanding of what rupt and venal head, it, for nearly he made the voyage. liven then is and what is not Science will fourteen hundred years made the the church would not renounce its eliminate this source of error. Science is “classified knowledge.” acquiiing of knowledge and educa theory of the flatness of the earth, tion a crime, with punishment and it was not until Magellan had But since we only know things by which would have brought tears to actually circumnavigated the earth, classifying them, it follows that all the eyes of the lowest savage. By and returned to the port from knowledge is classified knowledge, its remorseless persecutions it stran which he sailed, that it reluctantly although the term is commonly gled all former traces of civilization let go. The influences of the restricted to that part of human during this time, and left our an church in the discoveries of Colum knowledge which is arranged sys cestors in abject ignorance, wretch- • bus and Magellan, like many other tematically and published in books. edness and poverty. Yet almost things, are only apparent to Christ- j But, using the word in its widest any Christian will tell us that the ians. The discovery of America,' sense, Science includes only what is Christian church is the mother of aided by the remains of civilization known. True, Science has its fic so faithfully preserved and guarded tions and theories, but these are not present civilization. All scientific investigation in its by the Mohammedan Arabs of put forth as facts, they are only beginning, in astronomy, geology Spain, was the beginning of our the means used to discover facts, or and all other sciences requiring present civilization. America was the unfinished product of the work such investigation, has been uni discovered by the demands of com er in Science, which may yet be formly strenuously resisted by this merce at Genoa; not by the church, altered, mended or rejected alto would be civilizer. Alchemy, the but egainst its most strenuous gether. Science is based upon the experi mother of chemistry, was permitted opposition. The Moorish civiliza only because the church thought it tion of Spain, from whom we de ences common to all normally con saw the possibility of making arti rive many of our most useful in stituted human beings, and the pro ficial gold. The early physician, ventions, and some of our most im positions—axioms—which are self- to whom modern civilization owes portant knowledge of the past, W ’as evident to human reason; and the so much, was frowned upon, and not preserved by the church, but highest, or most far-reaching con the practice of his profession for that most enlightened people were clusions cannot be more certain bidden. In case of sickness, only actually exterminated by it, through than these basic experiences and the use of shrines, or saints’ bones, the instrumentality of Ferdinand axioms. On this humble and sure were permitted, and the price for and Isabella, who had so materially foundation rests all truth ; and other such use regulated by the so-called aided Columbus. foundation can no man lay. Every civilizer. The debt of gratitude Since the days of the Christian scientist must begin with simple due from modern physicians and church, has there ever been any ad truisms, which even the uneducat surgeons to this great civilizer can vance in human liberty, has there ed can comprehend; and increase surely never be paid. ever been any advance in human his knowledge by extending his There were, however, other forces knowledge, has there ever been any experience, observing phenomena, at work which the church, with its advance in Science, or has there and reasoning from the known to ever watchful eye, had not reckoned ever been any advance in the ways the unknowu. Of course, in doing upon. Through the misfortunes of which make men’s burdens lighter, this he borrows and uses the know For th e T orch o f Reason. ledge others have acquired and made a part of Science. The facts of Science may be div ided into primary and secondary facts, according to the means by which they are acquired, the second class always being connected by a chain of reasoning with the first, and depending upon the primary facts and the chain of reasoning for its certainty. At each link of the chain an error in logic is possible; and therefore the longer the chain the less certain is the ultimate con clusion, and vice versa. If the rea soning is logical and it leads back step by step to primary facts, then the ultimate conclusion is true and a part of Science. But the reasoning may proceed from assumed fact. Many assump tions have been put forward as primary or secondary facts of sci ence, but comparatively few have been able to hold a place within her sacred domain. Her pathway down through the ages is strewn with re jected and ejected assumptions which were not able to stand the test of truth. If a proposition is assumed as true and an argnment based thereon, and there is no fault in the logic, the conclusion arrived at is true if the assumption is a fact, and false if the assumption is false; and in such a case nothing is gained by the argument. Christian historians deal largely in this kind of argument. They as sume that an intelligent being gov erns the world for the best inter ests of mankind; and using this as a major premise, it is easy to prove that in every act of the historic drama, every crisis in human affairs, and in every great contest between nations,right has triumph ed, and that no other result would have been of so much benefit to the human race. And as all minor acts helped to bring about the final result, all was for the best because it was the “will of God”. The fatal defect in this argument is, that the major premise is not a primary fact, and as it cannot be established by testimony nor by argument, it is not a secondary fact. It cannot be established by reasoning, because the conclusion covers all the experiences of man kind, and these same experiences must be used to prove the major premise; the conclusion depends on the premise, the premise must be supported by the conclusion and there is no escape from the “vicious circle”. This explains the fact that all arguments for the existence of a god are unsatisfactory; and also the further fact that every religion depends upon faith or belief in a god or gods. A “Religion of Science” and a science of religion are equally im possible except as products of the imagination. All material things — entities— with their properties and relations may be included in science, and nothing more. Every