Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903, May 24, 1900, Image 1

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    OF
R eason .
•TRUTH BEARS THE TORCH IN THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH.” - £ wcreZÎM S.
VOL.
SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, MAY 24, E. M. 3CO (A. D. 1900.)
NO. 20.
Reason.
which m ay be found the features F aith can flourish and trium ph
and lineam ents of the national lift. only where Ignorance is cultivated Abolition of Revealed Religions.
* oy to th e w orld ! th e light is come,
I appeal to those who know the as a virtue. Clothe yourself with
T he oniy law ful k in g ;
BY HERBERT JUNIUS HARDW ICKE, M.D.
L et every h e a rt p rep are it room ,
( lassies best; and I m ake bold to prejudice as with a garm ent, and
And m oral n a tu re sing.
ask the m an who is deeply learned a rra y yourself in bigotry as with
/
he am ount of money th a t is
Joy to th e earth ! Now reason reigns;
»n Latin and who is a m aster of raim ent, and obstinately refuse to
Let m en th e ir songs em ploy;
an n u ally spent in the sup­
investigate and to judge, and you
W hile fields and floods, rocks, h ills, and English, if he ever in all his life
port of priests and o th er
plains,
^aw a rendering out of the one m ay oe able to believe th a t the
R epeat th e sounding joy.
Bible is the infallible word of God. m inisters of the various religious
language into the other which was, — [God and H is Book.
bodies throughout the world is tr u ­
No m ore let su p erstitio n grow,
in
all
respects,
satisfactory.
This
No th o rn s infest th e ground ;
ly appalling. In great B ritain an d
This lig h t will m ake its blessings flow
can be predicted of L atin , a la n ­
A First Cause.
Ireland alone nearly eleven m il­
To e a r th ’s rem otest bound.
guage
known
by
thousands
and
—[Selected.
lions of money is expended each
well known by tens. Then what of
BY JOHN STUART MILL.
year in the support of the clergy,
this sh ep h erd ’s jargon, Hebrew,
whose sole occupation consists in
A Specimen from the W ritin gs of
th a t, properly speaking, in its w rit­
he
argum
ent
fo
ra
F
irst
Cause
j
:
conducting
the religious services of
the Holy Ghost.
ten form, seems never to have been
adm its of being, and is pre­ the various churches, and, if they
a language a t all, but only a num ­
sented as a conclusion from feel so disposed, visiting the sick;
ust to give the E nglish reader
ber of clum sy and ungainly scrawls, the whole of hum an experience.
their incomes being derived m ostly
some faint idea o f the infinite intended to assist the memory of a
E verything th a t we know (it is from the overburdened people, who
and tender mercies of J e ­ rude and all but illiterate people?
I argued) had a cause, and owed its are the dupes of th eir in sin u atin g
hovah in sending his own Ghost,
It is clear to the m eanest cap- j existence to th a t cause. How then subtlety.
in whom he was well pleased, to acity th a t the G host wrote in a can it be but th a t the world which
How long will this condition of
write a Bible, I will quote here the language which was no language, is but a nam e for the aggregate of
first seven verses of Genesis in H e­ but in an indefinite jargon of which all th a t we know, has a cause to things last? How long will m an
brew, using, however, the Rom an the unlearned know nothing, and which it is indebted for its exist- continue to be oppressed by the a r­
rogance and greed of the church on
characters:—
which no two learned hum an beings 1 ence?
the one hand, and the ty ran n y of
B R A SH Y T H B R A A L H Y M A T H tran slate the sam e way. And yet | The fact of experience however. despotic rulers on the other? How
I rs IIM Y M V A TH H A RT SH A R TN this Scripture is “ the very word of when correctly expressed, tu rn s
SH Y T H H T H H V V B H V V C H S H K very G od,” an d we have to believe out to be, not th a t everything long will darkness and superstition
reign, and light and intelligence be
G N LPN YT H H V M V R VCH A L H Y
in
it
under
the
penalty
of
being!
*
H
ch
we
know
derives
its
exist
M M RC H P H T H G N L P N Y H M YM
stifled? Not one m om ent longer
dam
ned.
For
this
and
all
his
other
I
ence
from
a
cause,
but
only
every
VYAM RALHYM YHYAVRVYH
than the united will of the people
Y A V R V Y R A A LH Y M A TH H A V R tender mercies, glory be to God in [event or change. There is in Na-
allow it to continue. Once let the
KYTVBVYB R LA LH Y M B Y N H A the highest!
tu re a p erm anent elem ent, and
voice of the people be raised in u n ­
V R V B Y N H C H SH K V Y K R A A L H
All th a t is sweet and b e a u tifu l! also a changeable: the changes are ison, and their voice will be law.
V M L A V R Y Y M V L C H SH K K R A L
Y L H V Y H Y N G R B V Y H Y B K R Y V and elevating in life is due to ¡alw ays th e effects of previous
Man is superior to his fellows o n ­
E very
preacher I changes; the perm anent existences,
MACH DVYA M R A L H Y M Y IIY R C hristianity.
ly so far as his moral worth and
K Y G N B TH R K H M Y M V Y H Y M B whines th a t and every baby knows! so far as we know, are not effects at intelligence are of a higher order;
DYLBYNM YM LM YM VYGNSHA it. But for the creed of the man- all. Tt is true we are accustomed
lhymathhrkygnvybdlby ger, our deportm ent would be th a t ’ to say not only of events, but of despotic rulers, h ered itary legislat­
ors, all superstitious in stitu tio n s
nhmymashrmtchthlrkyg
of
bears
and
our
m
orals
th
a
t
of
objects,
th
a
t
they
are
produced
by
N V B Y N H M Y M A S H R M G N L L R K
and other organs of slavery being
goats—
vestality
would
he
nowhere
causes,
as
water
by
the
union
of
ygnvyhykn .
repugnant to the purposes of m a n ’s
and bestiality everywhere.
hydrogen and oxygen. B ut by this existence, and calculated u tterly to
it was so considerate of Jehovah
We are, of course, stiff-necked; j we only m ean th a t when they be- dem oralize the race,whose m em bers
io send his Ghost to to furnish us
we have gone away backw ard, and gin to exist, their beginning is the should co-operate with each other,
with the foregoing beautiful sen­
have all deserved “God’s wrath effect of a cause. B ut th e ir begin* and devise m eans for the common
tences! The only thing to be re­
and curse, both in this life and th a t ning to exist is not an object, it is welfare.
gretted is th at, since he sent the
which is to come ” But a really an event. If it be objected th at
The only way of arriv in g a t a n y ­
Ghost to write them , he did not
effective g o sp e l-g rin d e r, s ta n d in g
c a u se of a th in g ’s beginning to
thing like a perfectly m oral and
come down him self to tran slate up on his hind-legs in a ranting- " ’’J "?ay be Ra’d
propriety
them. But his ways are not as our . v
„
• u i
i
to b<? the cause of the thing itself, prosperous condition of the com ­
box «ell varnished, and telling us I sh a || not q llarrel with the e x ’
m unity is by abolishing once for all
ways (for which Jet us be tru ly
forever and forever how Jehovah pression. But th a t which in an
every so-called revealed religion,
thankful), and he has vouchsafed
kicked Adam out of Paradise for object begins to exist, is th a t in it
unto us a composition w ithout be­ eating an apple, and how Je h o v a h ’s which belongs to th e changeable and educating the m asses, so as to
raise them from the condition of
ginning of words or end of sen­
son, who was at the same time J e ­ elem ent in n ature; the outw ard
form and the properties depending abject m ental slavery in to which
tences, for which blessed be his
hovah’s self, got nailed to a stick,
on m echanical or chem ical com bin- they have sunk under th e baneful
h y name. As far hack as the
is sufficient to _ keep
us
pure
and
.
.
r
__
r
—
----
ations
of its com ponent parts. There influence of priestcraft, and to teach
flays of N ehem iah, as we have seen,
holy and divorced from the world, >R in every object an o th er and a
very Jews them selves do not the flesh, and the devil. If we onlv Pe rm anent elem ent, viz., the specific each one to respect th e d ig n ity of
his nature, and his moral obliga­
3eem to have been able to m ake genuflect
properly
and
how] e' Pmp? ta ly subatBnce or substances tions.
head or tail of the language in “ Am en,” one professional gospel h e rX ‘t .‘r ^ n ' e ^ ^ T h ^ e ' h: i r ,in,'
'*'?.,
* * this
lh i’ desirable end i(
To £ effect
it
"hich the Ghost had w ritten, and
g r.n d e rw .il be sufficient to “ save” known to us as beginning to exist: en t mode of conducting religious
1 y the learned rabbis, who, on about <00 of us from being pickled w ithin the range of hum an know- exercises should undergo a radical
subject, peradventure, knew in brim stone, and from being gnaw-
they had no beginning, con- m odification; and instead of the
' ’ r- little more th an the vulgar, ed by a worm of considerable ‘Tq ’, e n t n o caU8e5 though they old m ythological doctrines of heav-
„ ..
,
.. ,
.
tnemselves are causes or con-causes en, hell, the devil the trinnp
i • tended to tran slate and expound. , length,
and I which no vertn.n- 0, everyth!,
th a , , ake6 plac(, R x.
Strictly speaking, no one lan- p >»di r m il destroy.
perience, therefore, affords no evi- preached from th e pulpit and
gnage can be tran slated into any
If you are determ ined to believe dences, not even analogies, to ju stify tau g h t ir. the cottage, an elevating
"ther. A language itf not merely in the Scriptures, leave their history our ex t«nding to the ap p a ren tly hum anism should be proclaim ed
au iries as
o h
o w t they
h e v ; i T " ,
,le’a
generalization ground-
ground- and the n a tu ra l ______________
revelations of the
a vocabulary of verbal counters and
and all
all in
inquiries
as t to
how
M generalization
_
originated
and
how
they
have
c
a
n
g
lah
e
t
.
“
n
Z
"
and
Un,0,ded
to
' h their exact equivalents in oth-
,
, ' ,
j changeable.— [ J hree Essays on Re- the m u ltitu d e.—[The P opular F aith
er languages; it is a m atrix in . been preserved,
severely alone, ligion.
■ Uu veiled
L
*
rra itn
T
J