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09 - Characteristics of Secularism Part 1 - The Principles of Secularism - George J Holyoake · Logic Library

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