Latest / The Principles of Secularism / Characteristics of Secularism, part 1

Transcript

Characteristics of Secularism, part 1 · The Principles of Secularism

0:00
Chapter nine, Part one of the Principles of Secularism by George Jacob Holyoake.
0:07
This liprivox recording is in the public domain. Chapter nine Characteristics of Secularism,
0:15
Part one one. Secularism means the moral duty of man in this life,
0:24
deduced from considerations which pertain to this life alone. Secular education is by some
0:31
confounded with secularism, whereas the distinction between them is very wide. Secular education
0:38
simply means imparting secular knowledge separately by itself, without the admixture of theology with
0:46
it. The advocate of secular education may be, and generally is, also
0:52
an advocate of religion, but he would teach religion at another time and treat
0:57
it as a distinct subject, too sacred for course. If at mixture into
1:02
the heart and vexatious routine of a school, he would confine the inculcation of
1:07
religion to fitting seasons and chosen instruments. He holds also that one subject at
1:14
a time is mental economy in learning, secular education is the policy of a
1:19
school. Secularism is a policy of life. To those who do not accept
1:25
theology. Secularity draws the line of separation between the things of time and the
1:30
things of eternity that is secular, which pertains to this world. The distinction
1:38
may be seen in the fact that the cardinal propositions of theology are provable only
1:45
in the next life, and not in this. If I believe in a
1:49
given creed, it may turn out to be the true one, but one
1:53
must die to find that out. On this side of the grave, all
1:57
is doubt. The truth of biblical creeds is an affair of hope and anxiety,
2:02
while the truth of things secular becomes apparent in time. The advantages arising
2:08
from the practice of veracity, justice, and temperance can be ascertained from human
2:14
experience. If we are told to fear God and keep his commandments lest his
2:21
judgment overtake us, the indirect action of this doctrine on human character may make
2:27
a vicious, timid man better in this life. Supposing the interpretation of the
2:31
will of God and the commandments selected to be enforced are moral. But such
2:38
teaching is not secular because its main object is to fit men for eternity.
2:44
Pure secular principles have for their object to fit men for a time, making
2:50
the fulfillment of human duty. Here the standard of fitness for any accruing future.
2:57
Secularism proposes to regulate human affairs by considerations purely human. Its principles are
3:04
founded upon nature, and its object is to render man as perfect as possible
3:08
in this life. Its problem is this, supposing no other life to be
3:14
before us, what is the wisest use of this? As the Reverend Thomas
3:20
Binney puts it, I believe that even if there were really no God over
3:25
him, no Heaven above, or eternity in prospect, things are so constituted
3:31
that men may turn the materials of this little life poem, if not always
3:37
into a grand epic, mostly into something of interest and beauty, and it
3:42
is worth his while doing so, even if there should be no sequel to
3:46
the peace. Chalmers, Archbishop Whatley, and earlier distinguished divines of the Church
3:53
of England, the most conspicuous of whom is Bishop Butler, have admitted the
3:58
independent existence of morality. But we hear signed mister Binney's words, because among
4:03
dissenters this truth is less readily admitted. A true secular life does not exclude
4:11
any from supplementary speculations, not until we have fulfilled our duty to man as
4:16
far as we can ascertain that duty. Can we consistently pretend to comprehend the
4:21
more difficult relations of man to God. Our duties to humanity, understood and
4:28
discharged to the best of our ability, will in no way unfit us to
4:32
reverently meditate on things far beyond us, on power unlimited, on space unfathomed,
4:40
on time uncounted, on whence we came? And whither we go.
4:46
The leading ideas of secularism are humanism, moralism, materialism, utilitarian unity.
4:54
Humanism the physical perfection of this life. Moralism founded on the laws of native
5:00
as the guidance of this life, Materialism as the means of nature for the
5:04
secular improvement of this life, unity of thought and action. Upon these practical
5:11
grounds, Secularism teaches that the good of the present life is the immediate concern
5:16
of man, and that it should be his first endeavor to raise it.
5:20
Secularism inculcates a morality founded independently upon the laws of nature. It seeks human
5:28
improvement through purity and suitableness of material conditions, as being a method at once
5:33
moral, practical, universal, and sure. Two. The province of positivism
5:43
is not speculation upon the origin, but study of the laws of nature.
5:47
Its policy is to destroy error by superseding it. August Kand quotes as a
5:54
cardinal maxim of scientific progress the words nothing is destroyed until it is replaced,
6:00
a proverbial form of a wise saying of Monsieur Nikica that in political progress,
6:06
nothing is destroyed for which we do not find a substitute. Negations useful in
6:13
their place, are iconoclastic, not constructive. Unless substitution succeeds destruction, there
6:20
can be no sustained progress. The secularist is known by setting up and maintaining
6:26
affirmative propositions. He replaces negations by affirmations, and substitutes demonstration for denunciation.
6:34
He asserts truths of nature and humanity, and reverses the position of the priests,
6:40
who appears as the skeptic, the denia, the disbeliever in nature and
6:45
humanity. Statesmen not otherwise eager for improvement will regard affirmative proposals. Lord Palmerston
6:54
could say, show me a good and I will realize it. Not an
6:58
abuse to correct. Three. All science, says Monsieur Comte, has provision
7:06
for its end, an axiom which separates science from air yudition. Which relates
7:12
to events of the past without any regard to the future. No accumulation of
7:17
facts can effect provision until the facts are made the basis of reasonings. A
7:23
knowledge of phenomena leads to provision, and provision to action, or in other
7:29
words, when we can foresee what will happen under given circumstances, we can
7:33
provide against it. It by no means follows that every secularist will be scientific.
7:40
But to discern the value of science, to appreciate and promote it may
7:45
be possible to most. Science requires high qualities of accurate observation, close attention,
7:51
careful experiment, caution, patience, labor. Its value to mankind is
7:58
inestimable. One physician will do more to alleviate human suffering than ten priests.
8:05
One physical discovery will do more to advance civilization than a generation of prayer makers.
8:11
To get acquaintance with the usual course of nature, which science alone can
8:16
teach us, is a kind of knowledge which pays very good interest. The
8:22
value of this knowledge becomes more apparent the longer we live. There may be
8:26
a general superintending providence, there may be a special providence, but the first
8:33
does not interfere in human affairs, and the interpositions of the second are no
8:37
longer to be counted upon. The aide of prayer for temporal deliverance has confessedly
8:43
passed away. But without disputing these points, it is clear that the only
8:48
help available to man, the sole dependence upon which he can calculate, is
8:54
that of science. Nothing can be more impotent than the fate of that man
9:00
who seeks social elevation by mere faith. All human affairs are a process,
9:05
and he alone who acts upon this knowledge can hope to control results. Loyola
9:11
foresaw the necessity of men acting for human purposes as though there were no God.
9:18
Let us pray, said he, as if we had no help in
9:22
ourselves, Let us labor as if there was no help for us in heaven.
9:26
Society is a blunder, not a science, until it ensures good sense
9:31
and competence for the many. Why this process is tardy is that creedists get
9:37
credit for hoping and meaning well. Creedests of good intent who make no improvement
9:43
and attempt none are very much in the way of human veterans. The spiritualist
9:50
regards the world theoretically as a gross element which he is rather to struggle against
9:54
than to work with. This makes human service a mortification instead of pure passion.
10:01
We would not deify the world that is set up the sensualism of the
10:05
body, as spiritualism is set up as the sensualism of the soul. Secularism
10:11
sees the material purity of the present life, which is at once the means
10:16
and end of secular endeavor. The most reliable means of progress is the improvement
10:22
of material condition, and purity implies improvement, for there can be no improvement
10:28
without it. The aim of all improvement is higher purity. All power,
10:35
art, civilization, and progress are summed up in the result purer life.
10:41
Strength, intellect, love are measured by it. Duty, study, temperance,
10:46
patience are but ministers to this. There is that, says Ruskin,
10:52
to be seen in every street and lane of every city, that to be
10:56
found and felt in every human heart and countenance, that to be loved in
11:01
every roadside, weed and moss grown ball, which in the hands of faithful
11:07
men may convey emotions of glory and sublimity, continual and exalted. Four.
11:18
It is necessary to point out that sincerity does not imply infallibility. There is
11:24
a truth which could it be stamped on every human mind would exterminate all bigotry
11:28
and persecution. I mean the truths that worth of character and true integrity,
11:35
and consequently God's acceptance, are not necessarily connected with any particular set of opinions.
11:43
If you admit that Mark and Paul were honest, most Christians take that
11:48
to be an admission of the truth of all related under their names. Yet
11:54
if a man, in defending his opinions, affirm his own sincerity, Christians
11:58
quickly see that it is no proof of their truth and proceed to disprove them.
12:03
Sincerity may account for a man holding his opinions, but it does not
12:09
account for the opinions themselves. Nothing is more common than uninformed, misinformed,
12:15
mistaken, or self deluded honesty. But sincere error, though dangerous enough,
12:22
has not the attribute of crime about it personal intention of mischief. Because human
12:28
nature is frail and fallible. The ground of our acceptance with God under the
12:33
Gospel is sincerity. A sincere desire to know and do the will of God
12:39
is the only condition of obtaining the Christian salvation. Every honest man will be
12:45
saved. But sincerity, if the reader recurs to our definition of it,
12:52
includes a short intellectual and moral education with respect to it. Those worthy of
12:58
the high descriptive sincere where are those who have thought inquired examined, are in
13:03
earnest have a sense of duty with regard to their conviction, which is only
13:09
satisfied by acting upon it. These processes may not bring a man to the
13:13
truth, but they bring him near to it. The chances of error are
13:18
reduced hereby as far as human care can reduce them. Secularism holds that the
13:24
Protestant right of private judgment includes the moral innocency of that judgment when conscientiously formed,
13:33
whether for or against received opinion. That though all sincere opinion is not
13:37
equally true nor equally useful, it is yet equally without sin. That it
13:43
is not sameness of belief, but sincerity of belief which justifies conduct, whether
13:50
regard be had to the esteem of men or the approval of God. Sincerity,
13:56
we repeat, is not infallibility. The conscientious are often as mischievous as
14:01
the false, but he who acts according to the best of his belief is
14:05
free from criminal intention. The sincerity commended by the fortuitous insipid a pathetic,
14:13
inherited consent, which so often passes for honesty because too indolent or too cowardly
14:20
to inquire and too stupid to doubt. The man who holds merely ready made
14:26
opinions is not to be placed on the same level with him whose convictions are
14:31
derived from experience. Through sincerity is an educated and earnest sentiment. Secularist is
14:39
an active sentiment, seeking the truth and acting upon it. Five. In
14:48
the formation and judgment of opinions, we must take into account the consequences to
14:52
mankind involved in their adoption. But when an opinion seems true in itself and
14:58
beneficial to society, the consequences in the way of inconvenience to ourselves is not
15:05
sufficient reason for refusing to act upon it. If a particular time of enforcing
15:11
it seems to be one when it will be disregarded or misunderstood or put back,
15:16
and the sacrifice of ourselves on its behalf produce no adequate advantage to society,
15:22
it may be lawful to seek a better opportunity. We must, however,
15:26
take care that this view of the matter is not made a pretext of
15:31
cowardice or evasion of duty. And in no case is it justifiable to belie
15:37
conscience or profess a belief the contrary of that which we believe to be true.
15:43
There may, in extreme cases be neutrality with regard to truth, But
15:46
in no case should there be complicity in falsehood. So much with respect to
15:52
this life, with respect to deity or another life. We may in all
15:58
cases rely upon is that in truth alone is safety with God. Conscience can
16:04
have no penal consequences. Conscience is the voice of honesty, and honesty with
16:11
all its errors. A God of truth will regard we have, says Blanco
16:17
White, no revealed rule which will ascertain with moral certainty which doctrines are right
16:23
and which are wrong, that is, as they are known to God.
16:29
Salvation therefore cannot depend on orthodoxy. It cannot consist in abstract doctrines about which
16:36
men of equal abilities, virtue, and sincerity are and always have been divided.
16:42
No error on abstract doctrines can be heresy in the sense of a wrong
16:48
belief which endangers the soul. The father of the universe accommodates not his judgment
16:53
to the wretched wranglings of pedantic theologians, but everyone who seeks truth, whether
17:00
he findeth it or not, and work ath righteousness will be accepted of him.
17:07
Thomas Carlyle was the first English writer having the ear of the public,
17:11
who declared in England that sincere doubt is as much entitled to respect as sincere
17:18
belief. Six going to a distant town to mitigate some calamity there will illustrate
17:27
the principle of action prescribed by secularism. One man will go on this errand
17:33
from pure sympathy with the unfortunate. This is goodness. Another goes because his
17:40
priests bid him. This is obedience. Another goes because the twenty fifth chapter
17:45
of Matthew tells him that all such persons will pass to the right hand of
17:49
the Father. This is calculation. Another goes because he believes God commands him.
17:56
This is piety. Another go oh is because he believes that the neglect
18:02
of suffering will not answer. This is utilitarianism. But another goes on the
18:07
errand of mercy because it is an errand of mercy, because it is an
18:12
immediate service to humanity, and he goes to attempt material amelioration rather than spiritual
18:19
consolation. This is secularism, which teaches that goodness is sanctity, that nature
18:26
is guidance, that reason is authority, that service is duty, and that
18:30
materialism is help. The policy of secular controversy is to distinguish and assert its
18:41
own affirmative propositions. It is the policy of secularism not so much to say
18:48
to error it is false, as to say, of truth this is true.
18:53
Thus, instead of leaving to the popular theology the prestige of exclusive affirmation
19:00
accorded to it by the world, although it is solely employed in the incessantry
19:04
assertion of error, secularism causes it to own and publish its denial of positive
19:11
principle. When the popular theology proves itself to be but an organized negation of
19:15
the moral guidance of nature and its tendencies to progress, a secularist sees clearly
19:22
upon what he relies as a secularist. To him, the teaching of nature
19:29
is as clear as the teaching of the Bible, and since if God exists,
19:33
nature is certainly his work. While it is not so clear that the
19:37
Bible is, the teaching of nature will be preferred and followed where the teaching
19:42
of the Bible appears to conflict with it. A secular society contemplating intellectual and
19:49
moral progress must provide for the freest expression of opinion on all subjects which its
19:56
members may deem conducive to their common objects. Christianism, theism, materialism,
20:03
and atheism will be regarded as open questions subject to unreserved discussion. But these
20:10
occasions will be the opportunity of the members, not the business of the society.
20:15
All public proceedings accredited by the Society should relate to topics consistent with the
20:22
common principles of secularism. In necessary things, unity in doubtful things, liberty
20:30
in all things, charity. The destruction of religious servitude may be attempted in
20:36
two ways. It may be denounced, which will irritate it, or it
20:41
may be superseded by the servitude of humanity. Attacking it by denunciation generally inflames
20:47
and precipitates the persecution of the many. Upon the view when the weak are
20:52
liable to be scattered, the cowardly to recant, and the brave to perish.
21:00
End of Chapter nine, Part one