The Churches and Modern Thought: An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candourPhelips, Vivian
Religion
The Churches and Modern Thought: An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candour
Phelips, Vivian
Rationalism
Leaving the sceptic, let us examine another extremely common type--the
man who is under the impression that he is a Christian, without either
being particularly devout or having inquired at all deeply into
the grounds of his faith. He is ignorant of the causes for doubt,
because he has not had, or has not cared to afford, any time for
such matters. I do not refer so much to the masses, who obviously
have very little leisure, but to the more leisured and influential
classes. Such a man's scientific education, if he ever had any, was
broken off early in life. A large proportion of those all-important
years of his boyhood were devoted probably to an unwilling study
of the "humanities." His faith is decidedly vague, and according to
his own peculiar interpretation, an adjustment between his heavenly
aspirations and his earthly inclinations. It has never been thought
out, and is not the result of a thorough study of its tenets. He
was born and bred a Christian, and all the nicest people he knows
are Christians, or he thinks they are. He is, all unconsciously, a
social chameleon taking his colour from the conditions in the midst
of which he happens to live. He, too, like his heterodox brother,
sneers at organised Freethought in this country, because it owes
its inception and conduct chiefly to poor and lowly men, forgetting
that it was from such a source that the mighty creed of Christendom
itself arose. He forgets that the first Christian apostles were
mostly working men. If he has heard or read anything of a sceptical
nature, he has never stopped to inquire any further into it. He has
no idea that the central features of the Bible have been attacked
by men of the greatest learning and integrity, with the result that
even the defenders of the faith ask for a reverent agnosticism as
to the historical circumstances out of which, in the first instance,
belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ arose. [8] Not knowing that
the essentials are called in question, he sees no reason to trouble
himself about mere details. It is enough for him that he feels sure
that there must be some object in our existence, and that there must
be a First Cause. It never occurs to him to consider whether his and
the Christian conception of God can be reconciled. For him the truth of
the Christian dogma is proved sufficiently by the unsatisfying nature
of materialism. Has he not been taught that he must have faith, and
that faith is a feeling of trust divinely implanted, and not needing
to be fed on evidences? Is not Christianity the civilising agent of
the world, and the origin of all morality and all good works? Does
not scepticism lead to atheism? If thought only leads to disbelief
in God, he for one is not going to think.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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