The secularists, the opinion of the theists to the contrary, are also
agreed. It matters not what a man calls his mental process; be he
infidel, sceptic, rationalist, agnostic, or atheist; he is firm in the
conviction that religions of all varieties are rapidly sinking into the
limbo of all other ancient superstitions. To him it is but a matter of
time for the inevitable crumbling and disappearance of these
superstitions, and the time involved is directly proportional to the
ease and rapidity with which scientific knowledge is disseminated to men
who have the mental capacity to understand the value of this knowledge
and its utter destruction of all forms of supernaturalism. When man
becomes fully cognizant of the fact that all the knowledge acquired by
the human race has been the result of human inquiry, the result of
reasoning processes, and the exercise of mind alone, then secularism
will have overcome the long night of supernaturalism. And it is this
mental attitude of secularism that proceeds with an ever accelerated
rapidity to overcome the problems that confront humanity by substituting
human inquiry for divine revelation. Thus this attitude of man to
proceed through life dependent only on his own resources will expand and
strengthen his mentality by doing away with the inferiority complex of
the God-idea. This vision of man, the master of his own destinies, the
searcher for truth and the shaper of a better life for the only
existence that he knows anything about, this reliance of _man upon man_,
and without the supposed interference of any god, constitutes atheism in
its broadest and true sense.
Science and reason, the constituents of secularism, are the mortal
enemies of supernaturalism. Secularism, however, is at a disadvantage at
this stage of our mental development, since it is approached only by the
calm light of the intellect. And intellect can but make an appeal to
reason. If the seeds of these appeals fall on the fertile minds of
mentally advanced humanity, they will flourish; if they fall on the
barren ground of creed-bound minds, they take no root. Recognition of
facts and honest deductions are not natural to the human mind. As far as
religious matters are concerned, the vast majority of men have not
reached a mental maturity; they are still in the infantile state where
they have not as yet learned that the sequences of events are not to be
interrupted by their desires. The easier path lies in the giving way to
the unstable emotions. The primitive instincts are for emotion and for
loose imaginings, and these are the provinces of supernaturalism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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