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Characteristics of Secularism, part 2 · The Principles of Secularism

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Chapter nine, Part two of the Principles of Secularism by George Jacob Holyoake.
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This liprivox recording is in the public domain. Chapter nine, Characteristics of Secularism,
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Part two eight. The essential rule upon which personal association can be permanent
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or controversy be maintained in the spirit in which truth can be evolved is that
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of never imputing evil motives, nor putting the worst construction on any act.
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Free inquiry has no limits but truth. Free speech no limits but exactness.
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Policy here the law of speech no limits but usefulness, unfettered and uncompromising.
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Are they who pursue free inquiry throughout measured and impassable. May those become who
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hold to a generous veracity, far both from out or civility, too proud
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to court and too strong to hate? Are those who learn to discard all
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arts but that of the austereo's service of others, exacting no thanks and pausing
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at no curse. Wise words of counsel to theological controversialists have been addressed in
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a powerful quarter of public opinion. Religious controversy has already lost much of its
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bitterness. Open abuse and exchange of foul names are exploded and even the indirect
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imputation of unworthy motives is falling into disuse. Another step will be made when
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theologians have learned to extend their intellectual as well as their moral sympathies, to
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feel that most truths are double edged, and not to wage an unnecessary war
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against opinion, which, strange, incongruous, and unlovely as they may at
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first appear, are built perhaps on as firm a foundation, and are held
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with equals, inceney and good faith as their own. This is advice which
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both sides should remember. Nine. No society can be in a healthy state
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in which eccentricity is a matter of reproach. Conventionality is the tyranny of the
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average man, and a despicable tyranny. It is the tyranny of genius is
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hard to be borne. That of mediocrity is humiliating. That idea of freedom,
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which consists in the absence of all government, is either mere lawlessness or
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refers to the distant period when each man, having attained perfection, will be
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a law unto himself. Just rule is indispensable rule, and none other.
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The fewer laws consistent with the public preservation, the better there is. Then
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as mister Mill has shown in his Liberty, the more room for that ever
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recurring originality which keeps intellect a life in the world towards law kept within the
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limits of reason. Obedience is the first of virtues, Order and progress,
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says Qante, which we should express. Thus, order without which progress is
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impossible, progress without which order is tyranny. The world is clogged with men
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of dead principles. Principles that cannot be acted upon are probably either obsolete or
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false. One certain way to improvement is to exact consistency between profession and practice,
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and the way to bring this about is to teach that the highest merit
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consists in having earnest views and in endeavoring to realize them. And this,
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whether the convictions be contained within or without accredited creeds, there will be no
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progress except within the stereotyped limits of creeds unless means are found to justify independent
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convictions. To the conscience. To the philosopher, you have merely to show
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that a thing is true, to the statesman that it is useful, but
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to a Christian that it is safe. The grace of service lies in its
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patients to promote the welfare of others. Irrespective of their gratitude or claims,
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is to reach the nature of the gods. It is a higher sentiment than
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is ascribed to the deity of the Bible. The abiding disposition to serve others
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is the end of all philosophy. The vow of principle is always one of
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poverty and obedience, and few are they who take it, and fewer who
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keep it. If hate obscure for a period the path of duty, let
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us remember nothing should shake our attachment to that supreme thought which at once stills
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human anger and educates human endeavor. The perception that the sufferings and errors of
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mankind arise out of want of knowledge, rather defect of goodness. Ten.
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A leading object of secularism is the promotion of the material purity of the present
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life, material purity which includes personal as well as external condition. The question
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of spiritualism, without employing it and without disparaging it, it regards as a
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distinct question, and hence the methods by which secularists attempt improvement will be material
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as being the most reliable. The tacit or expressed aim of all freethinking has
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ever been true thinking and pure thinking. It has been a continued protest against
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the error's theology has introduced and the vicious relations it has conserved and sanctified.
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It is necessary to mark this, and it can be done by insisting and
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keeping distinctly evident that the aim of secularism is the purity of material influence.
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This precludes the possibility of secularism being charged either with conscious grossness or intentional sin.
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Secularism concerns itself with the work of today. It is always yesterday or
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tomorrow, and never to day is a fair description of life according to theologies.
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Secularism, on the contrary, concerns itself with the things of today.
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The cardinal idea of the popular theology is the necessity of revelation. It believes
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that the light of nature is darkness, that reason affords no guidance, that
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the scriptures are the true chart, the sole chart, and the sufficient chart
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of man. And it regards all attempts to delineate a chart of nature as
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impious, as impracticable, and as a covert attack upon the biblical chart.
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In possession of the churches, knowing no other guidance than that of the Bible
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and disbelief, leaving the possibility of any other theology denounces doubt, which inspires
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it with a sense of insecurity. It fears inquiry, which may invalidate its
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trust, and deprecates criticism which may expose it if deficient. Having nothing to
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gain, it is reluctant to incur risk. Having all to lose, It
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dreads to be disturbed. Having no strength but in faith, it fears those
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who reason, and less from ill will than from the tenderness of its position,
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it persecutes in self defense. Such are the restrictions and the logic of
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theology eleven. On the other hand, rationalism, which is the logic of
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nature, is an attitude and spirit quite the reverse. It observes that numbers
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are unconvinced of the fact of revelation and feel the insufficiency for their guidance of
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that offered to them. To them, when the pages of nature seem clearer
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than those of the apostles, reason, which existed before all religions and decides
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upon all else, the false can never be distinguished from the true, seems
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self dependent and capable of furnishing personal direction. Hence, rationalism, instructed by
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facts, winning secrets by experiments, establishing principles by reflection is assured of a
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morality founded upon the laws of nature. Without the advantage of inductive science to
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assist discoveries or the printing press to record corroborations of them, the pre Christian
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world created ethics, and Socrates and Epictetus, and Zoroaster and Confucius delivered precepts
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to which this age accords a high place. Modern rationalists therefore sought, with
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their new advantages, to augment and systematize these conquests. They tested the claims
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of the Church by the truths of nature. That freethought, which had won
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these truths, applied them to creeds, and criticism became its weapon of propagandism.
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Its consciousness of new truth stimulated its aggression on old error. The pretensions
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of reason being denied as false, and rationalists themselves persecuted as dangerous, they
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had no alternative but to criticize in order to vindicate their own principles and weaken
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the credit and power of their opponents. To attack the misleading dogmas of theology
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was to the early freethinkers well understood self defense. In some hands, and
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under the provocations of vindictive bigotry, this work, no doubt, became wholly
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antagonistic, But the main aspiration of the majority was the determination of teaching the
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people to be a law unto themselves. They found prevailing a religion of unreasoning
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faith. They sought to create a religion of intelligent conviction, whose uniformity consisted
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in sincerity. Its believers did not all hold the same tenets, but they
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all sought the same truth and pursued it with the same earnestness. It was
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this inspiration which sustained Vanini, Hammond, luz ket Legate, and white men
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at the stake, and which armed Cervitus to prefer the fires of Calvin to
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the creed of Calvin, which supported Anni in the Pillory, and Woolston and
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Carlyle in their imprisonments. It was no capricious taste for negations which dictated these
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deliberate sacrifices, but a sentiment purer than interest and stronger than self love.
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It was the generous passion for unfriended truth. Twelve. The intellectual no less
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than the heroic characteristics of freethought have presents features of obvious unity. Tyndall,
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Shaftesbury, Voltaire, Pain and Bentam all vindicated principles of natural morality Shelley struggled
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that the pure and lofty ideal of life should prevail, and Byron had passionate
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words of reverence for the human character of Christ. The distrust of prayer for
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temporal help was accompanied by trust and science, and all saw in material effort
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and available deliverance from countless ills which the Church can merely deplore. Those who
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held that a future life was unproven taught that attention to this life was of
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primary importance, at least highly serviceable to humanity, even if a future sphere
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be certain. All strove for free inquiry. Rationalism owed its existence to it.
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All required free speech. Rationalism was diffused by it, all vindicated free
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criticism. Rationalism established itself with it all demanded to act out their opinions.
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Rationalism was denuded of conscience without this right. In all its mutations and aberrations
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and conquests, freethought has uniformly sought the truth and shown the courage to trust
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the truth. Freethought uses no persecution, for it fears no opposition, for
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opposition is its opportunity. It is the cause of enterprise and progress of reason
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and duty, and now seeking the definite and the practical it selects for its
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guidance the principle that human affairs should be regulated by considerations purely human. These
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the characteristics which the term secularism was designed to express, are therefore not inventions,
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not assumptions, but the general agreements of the freethought party, inherent,
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traditional, and historic. That which is new and of the nature of a
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development is the perception that the positivism of freethought principles should be extended, should
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be clearly distinguished and made the subject of energetic assertion, that the freethought party,
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which has so loudly demanded toleration for itself, should be able to exercise
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it towards all earnest thinkers, and especially towards all co workers. That those
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who have protested against the isolation of human effort by sectarian exclusiveness should themselves set
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the example of offering in good faith practical conditions of unity, not for the
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glory of sects or coteries or schools, but for the immediate service of humanity.
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Thirteen. The relation of secularism to the future demands a few words.
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To seek after the purity and perfection of the present life, neither disproves an
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another life beyond this nor disqualifies man for it. Nor is secularism opposed to
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the future, so far as that future belongs to the present world. To
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determine which we have definite science susceptible of trial and verification. The conditions of
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a future life being unknown, and there being no imaginable means of benefiting ourselves
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and others in it, except by aiming after present goodness, we shall confessedly
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gain less towards the happiness of a future life by speculation than by simply devoting
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ourselves to the energetic improvements of this life. Men have a right to look
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beyond this world, but not to overlook it. Men, if they can,
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may connect themselves with eternity, but they cannot disconnect themselves from humanity without
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sacrificing duty. Secular knowledge relates to this life. Religious knowledge to another life.
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Secular instruction teaches the duties to man. Religious instruction the duties to God
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apart from man. Religious knowledge relates to celestial creeds. Secular knowledge relates to
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human duties to be performed. The religious teacher instructs us how to please God
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by creeds, the secular teacher how to serve man by sympathy and science.
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Archbishop Whatley tells the story of a lady at Bath who, being afraid to
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cross a tottering bridge lest it should give way under her. Fortunately, bethought
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herself of the expedient of calling for a Saedan chair, and was carried over
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in that conveyance. Some of our critics think that we shall resemble this ingenious
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lady. But those who fear to trust themselves to the ancient and tottering biblical
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bridge will hardly get into the Saddan chair of obsolete orthodoxy, and add the
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weight of that to the danger. They prefer going round by the way of
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reason and fearless private judgment. Fourteen. Secularism, we have said, concerns
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itself with four rights. One the right to think for one's self, which
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most Christians now admit, at least in theory. Two the right to differ,
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without which the right to think is nothing worth. Three the right to
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assert difference of opinion, without which the right to differ is of no practical
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use. Four the right to debate all vital opinion, without which there is
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no intellectual equality, no defense against the errors of the state or the pulpit.
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It is of no use that the Protestant concedes the right to think unless
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he concedes the right to differ. We may as well be Catholic unless we
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are free to dissent. Rome will concede our right to think for ourselves,
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provided we agree with the Church. When we have done, and when Protestantism
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affects to award us the rank of private judgment and requires us to agree with
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the thirty nine articles in the end, or when evangelical ministers tell us we
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are free to think for ourselves, but must believe in the Bible. Nevertheless,
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both parties reason on the papist principles, but mock us with a show
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of freedom and impose the reality of mental slavery upon us. It is mere
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irony to say search the scriptures, when the meaning is you must accept the
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scriptures, whether they seem true or not. Of the temper in which theological
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opinions ought to be formed, we have the instruction of one as eminent as
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he was capable. Jefferson remarks. In considering this subject, divest yourself of
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all bias, shake off all fears and servile prejudices under which weak minds crouch.
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Fix reason in her seat firmly question with boldness, even the existence of
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God, because if there be one, he must approve the homage of reason
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more than that of blindfolded fear. Read the Bible as you would Tacitus or
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Livy. Those facts in the Bible which contradict the laws of nature must be
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examined with care. The New Testament is the history of a person called Jesus.
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Keep in your eye what is related? They say he was begotten by
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God, but born of a virgin. How reconcile this? That he was
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crucified to death and buried, that he rose and descended bodily into heaven,
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thus reversing the laws of nature. Do not be frightened from this inquiry by
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any fear. And if it ends in a belief that the story is not
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true, or that there is no God, you will find other incitements to
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virtue and goodness in fine lay aside all prejudices on both sides. Neither believe
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nor reject anything because others have rejected or disbelieved it. Your reason is the
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only oracle given you by Heaven, and you are answerable not for the rightness,
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but for the uprightness of your opinion. And never mind evangelists, or
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as pseudo evangelists who pretend to inspiration. It is in vain the Christian quotes
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to Pauline injunction, prove all things, hold fast that which is good,
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if we are to hold fast to His good, which may be evil to
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us. For a man to prove all things needful and hold fast to that
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which he considers good is the true maxim of freedom and progress. Secularism therefore
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proclaims and justifies the right to differ and the right to assert conscientious difference on
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the platform through the press, in civil institutions, in parliament, in courts
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of law, where it demands that the affirmation of those who reject Christianity shall
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be as valid as the oath of those who accept it. End of Chapter
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nine, Part two,