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.