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About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 1900)
0R( i SON. ‘ TRUTH BEARS THE TORCH IN THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH . "—Lucretius- VOL. 4. S IL V E R T O N , O R EG O N , T H U R S D A Y , AUGUST 16, E . M. 300 (1900.) Dishonest Critics. NO. 32. solid stars are apt to collide, and inherence of an other th an m ater rational soul a certain orig in ality , the enorm ous heat generated is suf ial force. A gainst th is we have not an independence of relation peculiar BY G . L. M A CK EN ZIE. ficient to reduce them to their sim only the theory of selection, but we to itself. T he faith o f the in d iv id plest elem ents, and the whole evo have quite a science of “ dystfele- ual is exactly w hat is revealed to HN th a n k th e /L o r d for bloody lution begins over again. There is ology.” R u d im en tary , im perfect, him by th e world w ithout and graves, O C h ristia n s p harisaic? no ground w hatever for assum ing h u rtfu l organs negative the idea of w ithin. There m ust be differences W hy praise him , pious fools and knaves, a beginning to this cyclic process. prevision and preo rd in atio n . T he — no two see alike— and when the Professional and laic? The idea th a t all force is being whole question of teleology, of p u r individual finds the a u th o rity for In praisin g God we criticise As m uch as in a rra ig n in g ; g rad u ally transform ed into heat, pose and of chance, including the his faith in him self he will recog And if, w hen th a n k in g , we are wise, which is only p artially reconvert problem of a m oral purpose in his nize the a u th o rity for the o th er W e’re d itto w hen com plaining. ed, is of no consequence, as the tory, is treated at length. T here is m an 's faith in him , and there can If God we praise for w hat is good, m ere collision of two masses gener no proof w hatever, from end to end be no d itp u te , no friction, no pious W ith R eason for o u r m aster, We o ught, w hen in a thou g h tfu l mood, ates enough “ living force” for a new of the universe, from the beautiful hatred of each other. There can To blam e H im for disaster. cosmic process; those who fear th a t m arkings of a diatom to the vicis oe no such things as bigotry, pre If Reason argues from success this points to an end of the world situdes of hum an history, of any judice, intolerance or persecution. To God w ith com m endation, It also argues from distress are misled by p artial experim ents. prevision or preordination. Sci The man th a t fights for a faith has To God w ith condem nation. Geology has taken up the thread ence, when its d ata are soberly in received th a t faith a t second h an d . To praise and blam e as facts suggest of the story from astronom y and terpreted, finds one e n tity — nature I he man who rests his faith upon Is rig h tly using R eason; worked out the developm ent of the — slowly, blindly, painfully unfold his own reason, does not find it Ignoring “ w o rst” and praising “ b e s t” Is fear and m en tal treason. earth . M any m illio r years ago—- ing itself on the th eatre of time. necessary to kill, or im prison, or “certainly more than a h u n d red O ur p raise to God for sieges raised torture anybody else who can n o t Im p lies th is fact egregious: m illion”— the globe th a t had been see things as he sees them . The T h at God m u st surely be dispraised Faith in One’s Faith. For le ttin g foes besiege us. cast off by the condensing nebula m ore a u th o rity religion has, the cooled down sufficiently to allow The pious person is an ass less au th o rity it has. BY D R . J . E . R O B E R T S. W ho praises God for glad things, the water to settle on it. Then be U nless he th in k s it rig h t to pass gan the long dram a of organic H is censure for the sad th in g s. Jehovah and Brahma. H IS world has been cursed, evolution, of whose last act we are These fru itless G od-belauders fill not in fact, but in the thoughts the witnesses and the p articipants. The th o u g h tfu l m an w ith pity, BY R. Q. IN G ER SO LL. As though he saw them try to till of men, until it is distrusted, Biological evolution is now as irre T he cu rb sto n es of a city. sistible as astronom ical and geo and life is feared, and death is AN we believe th a t Jehovah Bestow your praise and blam e on men logical. D arw in, says Dr. Haeckel, thought of as a horror; u n til we do ever said of any one: “ Let W ho profit by and need th em , And not on ghosts beyond your ken, “ has been the Copernicug of the not know w hether wo are sorrier his children be fatherless W ho n e ith e r need n o r heed them . th a t we came or gladder th a t we organic w orld.” and his wife a widow; let his c h il —[London F re e th in k e r. cannot stay. The crown has been dren be co n tin u ally vagabonds, T H E U N ITY O F T H E COSMO8. filched from the brow of m an. The and beg; let them seek their bread Cosmic Evolution. In the next chapter Dr. Haeckel church has bound into a bundle the also out of th eir desolate places; sets out to prove the correctness of sceptres th a t she has stolen from let the extortioner catch all th a t he [E x tra c ts from a sum m ary of th e “ W e ltra th se l” (w orld enigm a) of Prof. the fundam ental and titu la r idea the hands of the individual and has h ath and let th e stran g er spoil his E rn e st H aeckel, by Joseph M cCabe, in of his philosophy— the m onism , or m ade cow ards and slaves of men. W a tts’ L ite ra ry G uide for A pril.] labor; let there be none to extend unity, of all things. The au th o r is I he faith of the individual is such mercy unto him , n eith er let there H E old m yth of creation, sometimes described as a m a te ria l a faith as reveals itself to the in be any to favor his fatherless c h il with its varied m odern re ist; but he resents the title. He is dividual. No great faith can be d re n ” ? If he ever said these w ords, strictions and elaborations, neither a sp iritu alist nor a m ateri forced upon any one. T he church surely he had never heard th is has been swept aside by the tr i alist. The fount and base of all is m istaken if it thinks, even though line, this strain of m usic, from the um ph of evolution. The unity, or existence is an inscrutable sub- it has the tru th , it can compel its H in d u : “ Sweet is the lute to those co n tin u ity , of the wrorld in point of stance of which m atter and spirit belief. A belief is not a m atter of who have not heard the p ra ttle of time has been proved as u tterly as (in the sense of force; im m aterial choice, it is a m atter of necessity. th eir own ch ild ren .” its u n ity in actual existence. In substance he entirely rejects) are Beliefs are the result of persuasive Jeh o v ah , “ from the clouds an d the first place, all talk about the the two chief aspects. The real an- arg u m en t or conclusive evidence, darkness of S in ai,” said to the “beginning of the world” and the tithesis of his philosophy is d u a l or a harm ony with the n atu re of Jew s: “ Thou sh a lt have no o th er m ystery in which it is said to be ism — the theory th a t holds we can- things. There could be nothing gods before me. . . T hou s h a lt involved is pure assum ption. The not explain life, or thought, or the more ab su rd than for a m an to say, not bow down thyself to them nor earlier evolutionists, u n fortunately, cosmos as a whole, w ithout postu “ I will believe.” I t isn’t a m atter serve them ; for I, the Lord th y lent them selves to this in terp ré ta - lating spiritual and transcendental subject to volition. It is a m atter God, am a jealous God, visiting th e tion. M odern astronom y and phy- agencies. The first position taken solely of evidence and proof. No iniquities of the fathers upon the sics have shown th a t the “ law of up by the dualist is at the origin of two men can look upon the sam e children, unto the th ird and fourth substance” rules in the remotest life. The au th o r points out con- thing and have the sam e m ental geneiation of them th a t h ate m e.” regions of space as it does on earth , fusion which is usually associated condition as the result. I suppose C ontrast this with the words p u t “ We are logically driven to the im- with the idea of spontaneous gen- the heavens hxik different to every by the H indu in the m outh of portant adm ission th a t the persist- eration. Modern scientific experi- beholder; I suppose the everlasting B rahm a: “ I am the sam e to all ence of m atter and force has been m ents— such as those of P asteur sea tells a different story to every m ankind. They who honestly serve as universal in all tim e as it is to and T y n d all— prove nothing w hat listener, and I suppose no two other gods, in v o lu n tarily w o rsh ip d ay .” In any case, our observa ever as to the prim eval origin of would hear the birds’ m orning song me. I am he who p arta k eth of all tions force us to conceive the world organism s. In fact, modern chem with exactly the sam e respouse of worship, and I am the rew ard of as illim itable in tim e as well as in ical research into the ch aracter of sy m p ath y or with the sam e th rill all w orshipers.” space. The evolution of worlds is complex com binations of carbon of joy. A celebrated wom an once Com pare these passages. T he a great d ram a th a t is continually has constructed a n a tu ra l bridge said to I urner, “ I confess I cannot first, a dungeon, where craw l th e going on around us. While suns from the inorganic to the organic see w hat you see in the landscape.” things begot of jealous slime; the are dying out in one corner of world. In the developed organism “ A l l , ” the a rtis t replied, “do you other, great as the domed firm a space, others are just com m encing the ap p aren t “ purpose” of the vari- not wish you could?” G reat m ent inlaid with s u n s .— [P ro se their life; moreover, the extinct ous parts is invoked as proof of the n a tu re ’s plan allows each th in k in g Poems. W T T