HERESY.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 1, 1 October 1883, Page 5

HERESY.

Probably every shade of religious opinion has, in its turn, been condemned as heretical. As a rule, heresy is, to each man, just that which he thinks erroneous ; and the heresy of one sect is the orthodoxy of another. A dismal, disgraceful, and disgusting history it has been. Any opinion which the so-called and self-called Catholic Church pronounced heretical, was regarded as worse than any vice, than any crime. It signified not how just, how pure, how benevolent a man might be : if he were tainted with heresy, the most ferocious scoundrel on the face of the earth, provided he were Orthodox, was more acceptable to God than he. Happily the progress of civilisation has been such that now, in most countries, heretics are allowed to live. But still, men of almost all schools condemn each other’s opinions as heretical; and still it is believed by many that, although man has ceased to punish heresy, God will punish it with a tremendous penalty; still, too, many an error, or alleged error, in religious opinion, is considered by not a few more serious than any immorality, and a drunkard of Evangelical views is supposed to have a better chance of salvation

than the most sober man who doubts the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, or the Evangelical purport of Solomon’s Song. A. man is not good for much unless there be something of 1 the heretic in him ; unless he has a mind so independent, honest, and courageous as to think for himself, and also to choose his own opinions. And to the man who would not be a heretic, our advice is, Sir, give up your right of private judgment, give up your mental freedom, give up your intellect and moral manhood, shut your eyes, open your mouth, and take and swallow whatever priests and other parsons may give you. Heresy ! Why, the Apostle Paul distinctly and deliberately commands us to be heretics; for what else is the meaning of his words when he says, “ Prove all things —hold fast that which is good 1 ” We cannot prove all things, we cannot prove anything, unless we be at perfect liberty to prove an opinion concerning it; and the forming of an opinion is heresy. Heresy is a neutral word ; it may be the choice of what is good, it may be choice of what is bad. We hope that we are no less desirous than other men of avoiding the evil choice, the heresy in a bad sense ; but we believe that the best way of avoiding it will, in the long run, prove to be the free and honest exercise of individual minds upon all religious questions.—Rev. Hugh Stowcll Brown.