Essays Upon Some Controverted QuestionsHuxley, Thomas Henry
Religion
Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Science
To those who admit the authority of the famous Vincentian dictum that the
doctrine which has been held "always, everywhere, and by all" is to be
received as authoritative, the demonology must possess a higher sanction
than any other Christian dogma, except, perhaps, those of the Resurrection
and of the Messiahship of Jesus; for it would be difficult to name any
other points of doctrine on which the Nazarene does not differ from the
Christian, and the different historical stages and contemporary
subdivisions of Christianity from one another. And, if the demonology is
accepted, there can be no reason for rejecting all those miracles in which
demons play a part. The Gadarene story fits into the general scheme of
Christianity; and the evidence for "Legion" and their doings is just as
good as any other in the New Testament for the doctrine which the story
illustrates.
It was with the purpose of bringing this great fact into prominence; of
getting people to open both their eyes when they look at Ecclesiasticism;
that I devoted so much space to that miraculous story which happens to be
one of the best types of its class. And {465} I could not wish for a better
justification of the course I have adopted, than the fact that my
heroically consistent adversary has declared his implicit belief in the
Gadarene story and (by necessary consequence) in the Christian demonology
as a whole. It must be obvious, by this time, that, if the account of the
spiritual world given in the New Testament, professedly on the authority of
Jesus, is true, then the demonological half of that account must be just as
true as the other half. And, therefore, those who question the demonology,
or try to explain it away, deny the truth of what Jesus said, and are, in
ecclesiastical terminology, "Infidels" just as much as those who deny the
spirituality of God. This is as plain as anything can well be, and the
dilemma for my opponent was either to assert that the Gadarene
pig-bedevilment actually occurred, or to write himself down an "Infidel."
As was to be expected, he chose the former alternative; and I may express
my great satisfaction at finding that there is one spot of common ground on
which both he and I stand. So far as I can judge, we are agreed to state
one of the broad issues between the consequences of agnostic principles (as
I draw them), and the consequences of ecclesiastical dogmatism (as he
accepts it), as follows.
Ecclesiasticism says: The demonology of the Gospels is an essential part of
that account of that spiritual world, the truth of which it declares to be
certified by Jesus.
Agnosticism (_me judice_) says: There is no good {466} evidence of the
existence of a demonic spiritual world, and much reason for doubting it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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