English Secularism: A Confession of Belief — John Shaqi
English Secularism: A Confession of BeliefHolyoake, George Jacob
Religion
English Secularism: A Confession of Belief
Holyoake, George Jacob
Secularism
Secularism divides life into what is secular and what is religious,
and would consign all matters of religion to the sphere of private
interests. The Religion of Science would not divide life into a secular
and a religious part, but would have both the secular and the religious
united. It would carry religion into all secular affairs so as to
sanctify and transfigure them; and for this purpose it would make
religion practical, so as to be suited to the various needs of life; it
would make religion scientifically sound, so as to be in agreement with
the best and most scientific thought of the age; it would reform church
doctrines and raise them from their dogmatic arbitrariness upon the
higher plain of objective truth.
In emphasising our differences we should, however, not fail to recognise
the one main point of agreement, which is our belief in science. Mr.
Holyoake would settle all questions of doubt by the usual method of
scientific investigation. But there is a difference even here, which
is a different conception of science. While science to Mr. Holyoake
is secular, we insist on the holiness and religious significance of
science. If there is any revelation of God, it is truth; and what is
science but truth ascertained? Therefore we would advise all preachers
and all those to whose charge souls of men are committed, to take off
their shoes when science speaks to them, for science is the voice of
God.
The statement is sometimes made by those who belittle science in the
vain hope of exalting religion, that the science of yesterday has been
upset by the science of to-day, and that the science of today may again
be upset by the science of to-morrow. Nothing can be more untrue.
Of course, science must not be identified with the opinion of
scientists. Science is the systematic statement of facts, and not the
theories which are tentatively proposed to fill out the gaps of our
knowledge. What has once been proved to be a fact has never been
overthrown, and the actual stock of science has grown slowly but surely.
The discovery of new facts or the proposition of a new and reliable
hypothesis has often shown the old facts of science in a new light, but
it has never upset or disproved them. There are fashions in the opinions
of scientists, but science itself is above fashion, above change,
above human opinion. Science partakes of that stern immutability, it is
endowed with that eternality and that omnipresent universality which
have since olden times been regarded as the main attribute of Godhood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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