THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, OCTOBER 11, E. M. 300 (1900.) The Passing of Religious Creeds. We so frequently hear it said to- 1 an orderly occurence—that events Huxley has said: “No educational day that the Christian church is have occurred,aud are occurring system can have a claim to pei- BY H. K. SARGENT. 7 ‘he ,a '’r nCe' ,WhiC\ 8en8iWy dcVia,e ,r° m the ^ " ^ T n ^ e s U « "c'o g n ^th .’ knowledge >“ l»ws‘0f nature and are wrought by truth that education has two erea' (An address intended for the an . . • i any material sense, that it seems the direct interposition of super- ends to which everything else t u s , Twelfth Annual Convention of the O. S. S. U., held at Silverton, Sept. necessary to cite a few instances to natural beings. It cannot be be subordinated The one of thes .how how utterly false is the asser- doubted that the adherence of is the increase of knowledge; tne 28, 29, 30, E. M. 300.) tl0D* the church to a spirit-world and other is to develope the love of In the great social march of hu I take it that every tim earelig- to the miraculous has much to do manity we frequently encounter ious organization encourages a with the popularity of those per- right and the hatred of wrong. what has gone before. Those fam practice that is hurtful, or a belief nicious absurdities known as Spir- (SC. & ED. pl30). A moment ago I men tioned some iliar with that wonderfully inter which is false, it materially inter- ittialism and Christian Science, of the evil effects of Christianity esting work by Dr. Draper, entit feres with the increase of Scientific The greatest blessings to human- I led “ History of the Intellectual De knowledge. The faithful of any ity come from the increase of na- on our present civilization. velopment of Europe,” will remem religion will always consider the tural knowledge, and the persistent did not particularly refer to its ber that it is there shown that man, instructions of their priests as bdt effort of the Church to cling to its bearing upon the moral trainiug in in his social march, in obedience to little short of the command of a ignorant and exploded theories is our system of education. There the majesty of law’, “encounteae god. They are much more worthy ' the blackest spot on the face of are many who claim that the only moral precepts man is bound to and endures an inevitable succes of observance than the statements our modern civilization, observe are those which are includ sion of events.” In that deter of a mere man of Science. Let me say here that no right ed in their religious creed; that by mined march this fact is conspicu L et me first give you an instance minded persoii can have a word to ous: Religious creeds come into which came under my personal no- i say against the purely moral pre- rejecting their creed you overthrow existence, serve their place for a tice. About a year ago I called at cepts which have survived in the the only reason that can exist for time, and then crumble and fall a home in Portland, some of the | Christian creed. But they are no the observance of the precepts. under the weight of their own in members of which were Catholics, peculiarity to Christianity. Jus- But aside from any creed that has ever been invented, man has found consistencies. While there I happened to turn I tice and Mercy are at a higher lev- The priests of Egypt, who once over the pages of a book in which I el to day in Mohammedism than that, in the words of Robertsou, represented the most advanced came across a piece of thin, white they were in Christianity prior to “it is better to be true than to be knowledge of their time, came to paper, about the size of my hand, | the 17th century. These virtues false, better to be pure than to be fancy that man had no more to upon which were printed a number | are not the result of religion. If sensual, better to be brave than to learn and upheld their creed of miniature crucifixes. Upon en-1 there is any relation between them, be a coward.” And so, in the passing of the re against all newer wisdom. So the quiring its use, I was informed by religion is the result of these vir- world passed them by and left a perfectly reliable lady of the tues. When primative man began ligious creeds of our time, it is to school and university education them grovelling in superstition. household that it had been pur- to think of ghosts behind the phe- that we must look for the moral The breaking up of the religions cliased by one of the other mem-j nomena of nature, if he had any of Greece and Rome left the people hers from a Catholic institution in 1 idea of justice and mercy, his grat- instruction of the majority of the generation. I believe that in a deplorable state. For ages Portland, and that the crucifixes ; itude would naturally go out to the I growing before many years our publie they had recognized a duty of right were to be eaten, one at a time, a s ! ghosts from whom he imagined he school system will more adeouat« living to the gods of Olympus. Nat cure for stomach trouble! Aside received these benefits; while he ly meet this growing demand urally, when their enlarged exper from the effect of such a practice will bate and fear the ghost which They have already begun to turn iences taught them that Olympus upon an already deranged diges- he imagined produced the evils. their «Mention to these matters, and its gods had no existence, the tive system, will any sane man say The love of right and the hatred of i ovyLig to the interference of duty of right living was also gone. that it was not hurtful? wrong are no more the result of, tiT m o ra V in stru ^ ^ Their philosophers and teachers About seven years ago the Prot- religion, than are the mother ape’s ' lie schools is far from satisfactory, failed to provide an adequate regu estant Episcopal bishop of Penn- tender love for her infant, or the Much good work in bringing about lative system of morals, and the sylvania issued a call to prayer in robin’s devoted care of his mate. i an improvement in this direction result was that they fell into the order to ward off the cholera. One But to the absence of religious cL au be/lone by the Secular Unions hands of ignorant fanatics and of his clergymen, however refused to creeds, what is to be the object of I throughou* tbe country, and in the scheming ecclesiastics and emper respond declaring that to do so in the observance of rules of right con- encouragement^and ° support ors; whereby Europe was plunged the filthy condition of the streets, duct? Indeed why should there be that institution which is so bravely into an intellectual darkness for then prevailing in Philadelphia, any rules of right conduct? The 8triving for tbe enIightenment and more than a thousand years, the would be blasphemous. It is not conditions of the Roman world af- betterment °f suffering humanity evil effects of which are still seen reasonable to suppose that all the ter the Civil Wars, are r e p e a t i n g “n d • / “ ’f i . Ii,,e8- Tt>e . t « Liberal University of Oregon, among us. faithful in the bishop’s diocese had themselves today. When the cur-1 K No man can read the plain un even as much common sense as rent mythology failed to impel i A Live Society, varnished story of that religious this clergyman. men to duty because their gods . . . . .7 7 ----- — . were found to have no realitv, men ’¿it?!"® , L ,be,r“ ?.oelety night without a shudder of horror. In 1892, a boy in Wemding, Ger ,f4l .. its labors of education and en- The last rays of the sun of Grecian many, became hysterical, and a r felt that there was no object in up-, lightenment along- the lines of learning disappeared when, in the Catholic priest said he was possess rightness. Today, the Christian Freethought, economic, scientific 414th year of our era, Cyril, bishop ed of an evil spirit, and charged a heaven and hell, with their eternal ai?d humanitarian studies this year, of Alexandria, murdered Hypatia, peasant's wife with bewitching blisH and everlasting torment, are *79? moJ‘e encouragement finan- because in her academy she dis him. Thereupon the woman’s found to be as visionary as Olym-1 met < th for ’ ha8 cussed philosophical questions be husband brought a suit against the pus and its deities. Jehova, the The Society is growing rapidly fore the wealth and intellect of priest for slander. Great Ghost of the ancient .Jews, numerically, and its influence is Alexandria, thereby, not only de The defendent claimed that the which is now the chief god in the being felt all over the country, tracting from the interest in Cy boy was possessed of the devil and Christian pantheon, when tested by The lecture committee is nego- ril’s theological sermons, but also the decrees of popes and councils our modern ideas of justice and " '9 1 ce,ebrate^ Eng- making it impossible for the were pleaded in support of the de- mercy, presents a character so u t-! Charles Watts, for an extended thoughtful to accept his dogmatic fense. It is encouraging to notice terly devoid of these qualities that course of lectures. Mr. Watts is assertions. that the court condemned the we turn from it with loathing and known as the Ingersoll of England, From that day to the present, it good father to fine and imprison- disgust. The Society has had in the past, has been the aim of the Christian ment. “ Hell was dismissed with W ithout hope of reward or fear ar|d hopes to have in the future, the church to compel all thought to costs.” But how many people in of eternal damnation, with the be- vv^orld^as'pnjduced^^6 ^ nGS conform to her dogma. For a j that community implicitly believed Lef in ghosts dyingout, why should As an evidence of progress * the thousand years or more, her most that the priest was right and the we be good? The answer to this Society has removed from its* old effective weapons were confiscation, court wrong? momentous question should be headquarters, G. A. R. Hall, 35 N. imprisonment, torture, death. For I think that the position still re- found in the systems of our public ^tb to better quarters and bet- thp last three centuries she has en- tained by the Christian church education. It is as much a ques- i?.r J ocat*on> College Hall, 416 deavorsd to crush and discourage which is most hurtful is that which tion for Science as the question, ple^red^i^see oHfriendif W' H scientific research as dangerous. , denies to the operations of nature “W hy should we be clean?” Prof.' S am ’ l C lark , Sec., Cincinnati, Ohio.