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011 - Part II Substitutes For Atheism A Question of Prejudice · Theism or Atheism, The Great Alternative

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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten of Theism or Atheism, The Great Alternative by
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  Speaker 1: Chapman Cohen. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Part two substitutes for atheism. Chapter ten A question of prejudice.
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  Speaker 1: It affords some ground for surprise that there should be
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  Speaker 1: so great a resentment shown against religious disbelief in general,
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  Speaker 1: and against atheism in particular. We have here more than
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  Speaker 1: the mere rejection of a theory or view of life.
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  Speaker 1: There is a certain emotional resentment, a shrinking from the
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  Speaker 1: one who is guilty of disbelief, such as is not
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  Speaker 1: explainable on ordinary grounds. The attitude is ridiculous, so ridiculous
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  Speaker 1: that many who adopt it are ashamed to openly acknowledge it.
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  Speaker 1: But it is there, and its existence calls for explanation.
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  Speaker 1: We believe this is to be found in the peculiar
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  Speaker 1: history of the God idea, combined with primitive theories of
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  Speaker 1: social life. Like many frames of mind that persist in
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  Speaker 1: civilized society, this attitude towards disbelief has its roots in
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  Speaker 1: a conception of the world that has been generally discarded,
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  Speaker 1: and in social conditions that have ceased to exist among
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  Speaker 1: civilized people. To begin with, we have the fact that
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  Speaker 1: religion dominates the life of primitive man to a degree
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  Speaker 1: that is almost inconceivable to the modern mind. The anger
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  Speaker 1: of the tribal gods has to be always reckoned with
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  Speaker 1: What they desire must be done. What they do not
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  Speaker 1: desire must be avoided. In the next place, there exists
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  Speaker 1: a very strong sense of collective responsibility. What one member
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  Speaker 1: of a tribe does, the whole of the tribe is
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  Speaker 1: responsible for, both to the members of other tribes and
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  Speaker 1: to the gods. We see a survival of this in
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  Speaker 1: the reversion to a more primitive state of things that
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  Speaker 1: takes place during a war. In some circumstances, hatred of
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  Speaker 1: the whole of a people with whom a nation is
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  Speaker 1: at war becomes a duty, and all are responsible for
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  Speaker 1: the offenses of each. So in primitive times, an offense
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  Speaker 1: against the gods became an act of treason against the tribe.
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  Speaker 1: It might expose the whole of the tribe to disaster.
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  Speaker 1: It is not. It must be noted that primitive man
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  Speaker 1: is fond of the gods or jealous of their honor.
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  Speaker 1: He is not any more fond of them than is
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  Speaker 1: the modern citizen of the tax collector, and no one
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  Speaker 1: will ever really understand the question of religion until he
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  Speaker 1: rids himself of the notion that primitive man spends his
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  Speaker 1: time looking for gods, or that he is happy in
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  Speaker 1: their company. He is simply afraid that a single unruly
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  Speaker 1: member may get the whole tribe into a serious difficulty.
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  Speaker 1: The savage is severely practical, His conduct rests upon grounds
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  Speaker 1: of to him, the most obvious utility, and his treatment
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  Speaker 1: of the heretic leaves little to be desired on the
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  Speaker 1: score of effectiveness. The unbeliever is a dangerous person, and
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  Speaker 1: he is promptly suppressed. The first heretic died a martyr
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  Speaker 1: to the tribe. The last heretic will die a martyr
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  Speaker 1: to the race. Primitive conditions die out, but primitive feelings linger.
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  Speaker 1: And although in theory we have reached the stage of
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  Speaker 1: believing that each person must bear the consequences of his
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  Speaker 1: own religious opinions, the deeply rooted dislike to the man
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  Speaker 1: who rejects the rule of the gods remains. Historically, we
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  Speaker 1: also have to reckon with the operations of an interested priesthood.
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  Speaker 1: But leaving that on one side. As a secondary development,
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  Speaker 1: it would seem that one must trace to some such cause,
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  Speaker 1: as the one above indicated the deep and widespread dislike
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  Speaker 1: to such a term as atheism, even by many who,
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  Speaker 1: to all intents and purposes, are atheist in their opinion,
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  Speaker 1: certainly in this country, where compromises more fashionable than in
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  Speaker 1: many other places. The dislike to the word is partly
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  Speaker 1: due to its uncompromising character. It is clear cut and definite.
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  Speaker 1: Its connotations cannot be misunderstood by any one who takes
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  Speaker 1: the word in its literal meaning. The theist is one
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  Speaker 1: who believes in a personal God. The atheist is one
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  Speaker 1: who is without belief in a personal god. The meaning
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  Speaker 1: is clear and the implied mental attitude is plain. It
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  Speaker 1: is opposed to theism and has no significance apart from theism,
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  Speaker 1: and as will be seen when non theists quarrel with it, it
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  Speaker 1: is only because it is misstated or misunderstood. But most
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  Speaker 1: people dislike clear cut terms. They prefer to exist in
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  Speaker 1: an atmosphere of mental ambiguity and intellectual fog which blurs
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  Speaker 1: outlines and obscurest differences. Unbeliever is preferable to some skeptic,
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  Speaker 1: presumably because of its age and philosophical associations. Is a
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  Speaker 1: greater favorite, and agnostic is more beloved than either. The
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  Speaker 1: latter has indeed been pressed into the service of a
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  Speaker 1: more or less nebulous religion. As it is said we
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  Speaker 1: are all socialists nowadays, so it is said that we
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  Speaker 1: are unbelievers or agnostics nowadays. But no no one says
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  Speaker 1: we are all atheists nowadays. Timidity can find no use
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  Speaker 1: for a word of that character. Of course, if a
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  Speaker 1: man believes that some word other than atheism best describes
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  Speaker 1: his state of mind, he has a perfect right to
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  Speaker 1: select the one that seems fittest. But when one finds
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  Speaker 1: non theist repudiating the name of atheist with as much
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  Speaker 1: moral indignation as though they had been accused of shoplifting,
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  Speaker 1: one cannot help the suspicion that the heat displayed is
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  Speaker 1: not unconnected with some lurking fear of the respectabilities. It
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  Speaker 1: does seem that while many may have outgrown all fear
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  Speaker 1: of the God of orthodoxy, the fear of the god
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  Speaker 1: of social pressure remains. So far as the theist is concerned.
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  Speaker 1: It is quite understandable that his objection to atheism should
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  Speaker 1: involve a certain moral element that would result from what
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  Speaker 1: has already been said concerning the cause of the fear
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  Speaker 1: of heresy. Still, one would have thought that in these
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  Speaker 1: days it would require a person of almost abnormal stupidity
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  Speaker 1: to assume that disbelief in God has its roots in
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  Speaker 1: a defective moral character. The facts would warrant a quite
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  Speaker 1: opposite conclusion. In the first place, the rejection of any
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  Speaker 1: well established belief argues a degree of independence of mind
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  Speaker 1: that is unfortunately not common. The ordinary mind follows the
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  Speaker 1: common root. It is the extraordinary mind that strikes out
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  Speaker 1: from the beaten path. The heretic, whether in politics or
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  Speaker 1: in religion, may be wrong, but there is always with
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  Speaker 1: him the guarantee of a certain measure of mental strength
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  Speaker 1: that is not, on the face of the matter, present
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  Speaker 1: with one who follows the orthodox path, and that in
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  Speaker 1: itself represents a type of mind of no little social value. Moreover, I,
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  Speaker 1: for one, am quite ready to assert that, class for class,
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  Speaker 1: the freethinker does represent a type of mind considerably above
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  Speaker 1: the average. That this is not more generally recognized is
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  Speaker 1: due to the policy of the religious advocate in contrasting
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  Speaker 1: the uneducated freethinker with the educated believer. Secondly, it strikes
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  Speaker 1: one as almost insane to assume that in a Christian
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  Speaker 1: country atheism should be professed as a cloak or as
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  Speaker 1: an excuse for misconduct. They who talk in this strain
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  Speaker 1: greatly undervalue the accommodating power of religion. Is there a
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  Speaker 1: single form of rascality known to man for which religion
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  Speaker 1: has not been able to provide a sanction? If there is,
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  Speaker 1: I have failed to come across it. The use of
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  Speaker 1: religion made by tyranny in all ages and in all countries,
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  Speaker 1: is proof of how accommodating it is to man's passions
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  Speaker 1: and interests. The picture of the dying murderer meeting his end,
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  Speaker 1: filled with the consolation of religion and certain of his
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  Speaker 1: speedy salvation, contains a lesson that all may read if
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  Speaker 1: they will error. There may be in any case where
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  Speaker 1: opinion is concerned, but profession of an opinion that paves
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  Speaker 1: the way for suspicion and persecution provides a prima facie
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  Speaker 1: guarantee of honesty that cannot be furnished by the advocacy
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  Speaker 1: of one who stands high in the public favor for aught.
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  Speaker 1: I know. To the contrary, every one of England's bishops
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  Speaker 1: may be quite honest men, but there can be no
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  Speaker 1: certainty about it, so long as the profession carries with
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  Speaker 1: it all it does. The dice are loaded in favor
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  Speaker 1: of conviction. But the man who faces social ostracism and
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  Speaker 1: even loss of liberty in defense of an opinion is
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  Speaker 1: giving a hostage to truth such as none other can give.
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  Speaker 1: This association of heresy with a defective moral character is
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  Speaker 1: a very old game. It has been played by all religions,
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  Speaker 1: and it must be admitted with considerable success. Writing in
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  Speaker 1: the second century, Lucian shows us the same policy at
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  Speaker 1: work in his day. In one of his dialogues, when
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  Speaker 1: the atheist has refuted one after another of the theistic arguments
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  Speaker 1: of his opponent, the defender of the gods turns on
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  Speaker 1: his opponent, with you god, robbing, shabby villain, infamous, halter,
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  Speaker 1: sick vagabond. Does not everybody know that your father was
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  Speaker 1: a tattered demalion and your mother know better than she
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  Speaker 1: should be that you murdered your brother and are guilty
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  Speaker 1: of other exorable crimes. You lude lying, rascally, abdominable varlet.
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  Speaker 1: That type of disputant is still with us, and is
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  Speaker 1: still supporting his beliefs with the same tactics, and it
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  Speaker 1: is successful with some. There is a certain snobbishness in
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  Speaker 1: human nature that makes it seek the association of well
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  Speaker 1: known names and shown all of those with an unfashionable reputation.
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  Speaker 1: To observe. The way in which some people will introduce
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  Speaker 1: into their conversation, speeches, or writings the names of well
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  Speaker 1: known men is a revelation of this mental snobbery. And
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  Speaker 1: the moral equivalent of this is the fear of being
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  Speaker 1: found in the company of an opinion that has been
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  Speaker 1: branded as immoral. Such people have all the fear of
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  Speaker 1: an unpopular opinion that a savage has, of a tribal taboo.
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  Speaker 1: It is, in fact a survival of the same spirit
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  Speaker 1: that gave the tribal taboo its force. It is thus
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  Speaker 1: not a very difficult matter to warn people off an
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  Speaker 1: undesirable opinion. Samuel Taylor Coleridge relates how the clergy raised
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  Speaker 1: the cry of atheism against him, although he had never
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  Speaker 1: advanced further than deism. And it is to his credit that,
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  Speaker 1: in referring to this charge, he said, little do these
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  Speaker 1: men know what atheism is? Not one man in a
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  Speaker 1: thousand has either strength of mind or goodness of heart
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  Speaker 1: to be an atheist. I repeat it not one man
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  Speaker 1: in a thousand has either strength of mind or goodness
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  Speaker 1: of heart to be an atheist. And we have also
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  Speaker 1: the oft quoted testimony of the late Professor Tyndall. It
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  Speaker 1: is my comfort to know that there are amongst us
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  Speaker 1: many whom the gladiators of pulpit would call atheists and materialists,
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  Speaker 1: whose lives, nevertheless, as tested by any accessible standard of morality,
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  Speaker 1: would contrast more than favorably with the lives of those
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  Speaker 1: who seek to stamp them with this offensive brand. When
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  Speaker 1: I say offensive, I refer merely to the intention of
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  Speaker 1: those who use such terms, and not because atheism or materialism,
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  Speaker 1: when compared with many of the notions ventilated in the
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  Speaker 1: columns of religious newspapers, has any particular offensiveness to me.
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  Speaker 1: If I wish to find men who are scrupulous in
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  Speaker 1: their adherence to engagements, whose words are their bond, and
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  Speaker 1: to whom moral shiftiness of any kind is subjectively unknown,
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  Speaker 1: if I wanted a loving father, a faithful husband, an
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  Speaker 1: honorable neighbor, and a just citizen, I would seek him
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  Speaker 1: among the band of atheists to which I refer. I
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  Speaker 1: have known some of the most pronounced amongst them, not
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  Speaker 1: only in life but in death, seeing them approaching with
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  Speaker 1: open eyes the inexorable goal, with no dread of a
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  Speaker 1: hangman's whip, with no hope of a heavenly crown, and
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  Speaker 1: still as mindful of their duties as if their eternal
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  Speaker 1: future depended upon their latest deeds. Still the moral cry
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  Speaker 1: is too useful with the crowd to lead to the
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  Speaker 1: conviction that anything one could say would lead to its disuse.
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  Speaker 1: In the Dialogue of Lucians to which we have referred,
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  Speaker 1: and after the theist has been refuted by the atheist,
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  Speaker 1: Hermes consoles the chief deity Zeus, by telling him that
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  Speaker 1: even though a few may have been won over by
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  Speaker 1: the arguments of the atheist, the vast majority, the whole
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  Speaker 1: mass of uneducated Greeks and the barbarians everywhere, still remain
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  Speaker 1: firm in their faith. And although Zeus replies that he
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  Speaker 1: would prefer one sensible man to a thousand fools, when
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  Speaker 1: a case depends upon the adherents of the relatively foolish
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  Speaker 1: numbers will always bring some consolation to the champions of
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  Speaker 1: an intellectually distressed creed. End of Chapter ten,