leap in saying this, but I cannot help it. How can there be anything
in the universe outside of God? Whatever distinctions of being there
may be within the universe it is surely clear that they must all be
transcended and comprehended within infinity. There cannot be two
infinities, nor can there be an infinite and also a finite beyond it.
What infinity may be we have no means of knowing. Here the most devout
Christian is just as much of an agnostic as Professor Huxley; we can
predicate nothing with confidence concerning the all-comprehending
unity wherein we live and move and have our being, save and except as
we see it manifested in that part of our universe which lies open to
us. One would think that this were so obvious as to need no
demonstration. But how do ordinary church-going Christians talk about
God? They talk as though He were (practically) a finite being
stationed somewhere above and beyond the universe, watching and
worrying over other and lesser finite beings, to wit, ourselves.
According to the received phraseology this God is greatly bothered and
thwarted by what men have been doing throughout the few millenniums of
human existence. He takes the whole thing very seriously, and thinks
about little else than getting wayward humanity into line again. To
this end He has adopted various expedients, the chief of which was the
sending of His only begotten Son to suffer and die in order that He
might be free to forgive the trouble we had caused Him. I hope no
reader of these words will think I am making light of a sacred subject;
I never was more serious in my life. What I am trying to show is that,
reduced to its simplest terms, the accepted theology of the churches
to-day is pitiably inadequate as an explanation of our relationship to
this great and mysterious universe. There is a beautiful spiritual
truth underneath every venerable article of the Christian faith, but as
popularly presented this truth has become so distorted as to be
falsehood. It narrows religion and belittles God. It is dishonouring
to human nature, and is absolutely ludicrous as an interpretation of
the cosmic process. Of course, the dogmatic theologian will maintain
that this is a caricature of the way in which the relationship of God
to the world is set forth in religious treatises and from the Christian
pulpit. But is it? I think I can appeal with confidence to the
thoughtful man who has given up going to church as to whether it is or
not. The God of the ordinary church-goer, and of the man who is
supposed to teach him from study and pulpit, is an antiquated
Theologian who made His universe so badly that it went wrong in spite
of Him and has remained wrong ever since. Why He should ever have
created it is not clear. Why He should be the injured party in all the
miseries that have ensued is still less clear. The poor crippled child
who has been maimed by a falling rock, and the white-faced match-box
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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