Flowers of Freethought (Second Series)Foote, G. W. (George William)
Religion
Flowers of Freethought (Second Series)
Foote, G. W. (George William)
Free thought
In "militant Atheism" Mr. Harrison says that "all who have substantive
beliefs of their own find nothing but mischief." But this is only Mr.
Harrison's sweeping style of writing. He is always vivid, and nearly
always superlative. We venture to think that his "all" merely includes
his own circle. At the same time, however, we admit that militant
Atheism is still, as of old, an offence to the superfine sceptics who
desire to stand well with the great firm of Bumble and Grundy, as well
as to the vast army of priests and preachers who have a professional
interest in keeping heresy "dark," and to the ruling and privileged
classes, who feel that militant Atheism is a great disturber of the
peace which is founded on popular superstition and injustice.
Mr. Harrison seems to imagine that Atheists have no ideal beyond that
of attacking theology, but a moment's calm reflection would show him the
absurdity of this fancy. He might as well suppose that the pioneers of
civilisation who hew down virgin forests have no conception of the happy
homesteads they are making room for. We go farther and assert that
all this talk about negative and positive work is _cant_. To call the
destroyer of superstition a negationist is as senseless as to call a
doctor a negationist. Both strive to expel disease, the one bodily and
the other mental. Both, therefore, are working for health, and no more
positive work is conceivable.
SAVE THE BIBLE! *
* March 26,1893.
Thirty-eight clergymen, a year or two ago, gave the Bible a fresh
certificate of inspiration and infallibility. They signed a "round
robin," if we may apply such a vulgar description to their holy
document. But somehow the Bible is in as bad a position as ever. It
seems, indeed, in deadly peril; and if something strong and decisive be
not done for its protection, it will soon be doomed. Such, at any
rate, seems the view of a large number of clergymen, who have signed a
Petition, prepared by the Rev. E. S. Ffoulkes, of St. Mary's, Oxford,
and addressed to "the Most Reverend the Archbishop, and the Right
Reverend the Bishops, of the Church of England, in the House of the
Convocation of Canterbury assembled." The petitioners call upon the
Archbishops and Bishops to use "their sacred office and authority,"
and either to purge the Church of heresy or to "authoritatively and
publicly" recommend certain "orthodox and admirable works," which are
calculated to "arrest the spread" of "disastrous errors in the midst of
Our Beloved Church."
In order to show the precise nature of these "disastrous errors," we
print the following paragraphs from the petition:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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