THE FREETHOUGHT REVIEW.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 2, 1 November 1883, Page 1

THE FREETHOUGHT REVIEW.

VOL. I.— 2.

It has become the fashion to distinguish between theology and religion. At one time, not so long since, the terms were synonymous, but they now seem to be diverging with the development of the thought which associates religion with the natural, and theology with the supernatural. Theology is that which expresses a knowledge of a personal deity. It is sometimes called a science, and it has certain generalisations which give its pretensions a color of exactitude. To discard theology is simply to abandon or discredit the supernatural. That this is the line of movement of the best thought of the age hardly admits of much doubt. On the other hand new interpretations are given to religion. The worship of art or science is religion in the natural sense. The worship of Humanity Father Man—is religion with the Positivists. The desire to be good and do good, is a religious impulse in the eyes of the clerical author of " Village Politics." (See Reviews). And religion may be confined to the cultivation of morals. An Oxford professorthe author of Ecce Homo and of Natural Religion—finds the synonym of Religion in the term Culture, a word closely allied with Worship, but with an appropriate meaning of its own. Thus the word has become a shield to protect those who are in transition from a recognition of the supernatural to positive belief only. In this sense all intelligent earnest men are religious. Though the interpretation may be strained, the meanings indicate the vastness of the change that is rapidly disintegrating old forms of religious belief.

The death-beds of Freethinkers are a perennial source of comfort and joy to the faithful. The subject formed the staple argument in Mr Forlong's attempt to establish the truth of Christianity in Wanganui; Tom Paine" serving as an example of what a man may come to whose belief and life are not governed by the fear of punishment after death. If true that Thomas Paine did shrink in the last moments and confessed his life a lie —and no greater untruth than the statement about this great man has ever done duty in vouching for the credibility of a hard-pressed religion— would not be a good argument for the truth of Christianity. The weakness of the body immediately preceding death is generally an index to the mind. That is not the time when men are most likely to take just and comprehensive views of evidence or of questions involving sustained reasoning power. The death-bed argument tells against the system of rewards and punishments, for these are the inducements which tend to silence reason, acting as they do on the self-preserving instincts of the weak. There are of course weak natures who in weak moments would recant former opinions, but the fact expresses nothing more than a distressing phase of human nature. A belief in the " innocency of honest error," as Lecky has it, is the best protection against contingencies. Paine had braved death more than once without changing his opinions. The evidence moreover is overwhelming that the Christian story about his death-bed recantation is a pious fraud.

SCIENCE. RELIGION. PHILOSOPHY.

WANGANUI, N.Z.: NOV. i, 1883.

PprrT7 ■ fin res per annum; or, postpaid! JTKiUJi. OD, Lto any part of N.k., 6« 6 d. J

Geology has something to say about the theory of earthquakes, but it is equally certain that the time is far distant when the ' last word' will have been said on the subject. One thing is known, that the capacious bosom of mother earth contains the fires, the gases, the vapours, or other agencies which cause these visitors to fright so many isles from their propriety. The disaster at Ischia in Italy by which so many as 5000 human beings lost their lives shows the energy of the forces at work. Does it at the same time show a Providence ? A Providence that observed the fall of a sparrow would be directly responsible for every life lost in that fearful catastrophe. It is more rational to suppose, however, that the conflicting elements of Nature were the efficient agents, and that Providence was asleep or non-existent. For, a Providence which does not provide is a contradiction. How silent are the ecclesiastics over the calamity ! To-day, thanks to the spread of knowledge, they are content to see the Government issue an order that the houses in Ischia shall in future have no masonry in their structure, but be built of wood or iron. The deposition of Providence is a scientfic fact.

The Rev. Charles Strong's orthodoxy is to be tested by the Melbourne Presbytery in a practical manner. Imagining that he is unsound on the divinity of Christ, he is to be questioned by the Presbyterian Inquisition as to his belief in the doctrines revolving in the system of which the god-man is the centre. If he refuse to answer he will be held contumacious. If he answer hesitatingly, his heresy will be met by a " libel," in the technical vocabulary of the Corporation. If he answer that he does not believe in the godhead of Jesus, he will be pronounced a heresiarch at once and perhaps deposed. Of Presbyterian actions of " libel" we know as little as one outside the pale ought to know of affairs of the kind, and therefore it is necessary to say that we cannot speak with authority on points of procedure. Mr. Strong is said not to have given prominence to the atonement and its associated doctrines. The inference might be drawn from this that he is in doubt, and in that transition state where conscientious minds hold opinions in abeyance or provisionally until a kind of certitude has been reached. The feature of the controversy affording edification, is where the life of the alleged heretic has attached to the man a large body of the laity of Melbourne, and his own congregation unanimously, who are ready to place it above all doctrines and confessions—a very hopeful outlook for the progress of the reformation which is gradually eliminating the supernatural and finding its account in good works alone.

The publisher of this Review informs us that he has no reason to complain of the general willingness of booksellers to undertake the agency on the usual business terms, but he has met with a number of refusals, chiefly on prudential grounds— fearful consequences of being found selling freethought literature. The dread of being boycotted by their Christian customers has in-

fluenced these tradespeople, who however are well enough disposed towards us personally. Now we do not think they have correctly appreciated the state of public opinion, and that their timidity is not justified by the spirit of the age. Many ecclesiastics of course maintain the traditions of Cyril, and when they cannot refute incline to ban, but as a rule there is a wide tolerance among the laity, at least in the colonies, which, unless outraged, tends to judge fairly. It'would be out of place to speak harshly of such refusals, for there are responsibilities of which we have no knowledge. For instance, when a man thinks he would be injuring his family by an act of what might be termed boldness, he is entitled to much consideration. But we are informed that in one instance the hand that condemned the Review in the press wrote privately congratulating the publisher. Nothing will justify such an act. As time goes on we have the hope that the courage of opinion unobtrusively expressed will be among the highest claims to the regard of one's neighbours.

Among the notices in the press on our first number, there is one to which a reply is perhaps due. Objection is made that we have taken reason as our guide,—an evident mistake, thinks this Christian editor, as " during the French Revolution this injunction was followed, and we know with what appalling consequences ! " Then we have a reference to the thousands slaughtered and other horrors, painted in Rembrandt colors. " They [the devotees of the goddess of Reason] demonstrated in a terribly forcible manner the truth of the Christian's contention that a populace unrestrained by religion will soon degenerate into an assembly of devils in human shape." This ill-digested piece of history forms the strongest indictment against Christianity. For fourteen centuries France had been under Christian teaching, and for its faithfulness its ruler had been styled by the Vicar of Christ the " Eldest Son of the Church," when all at once the fruits of these centuries in the Revolution were exhibited. The crimes of the French Revolution therefore may not illogically be directly charged to the official Christianity which had been directing the religious education of the people. The political, religious, and social rebellion, led for a time by the Girondists (who were the representative Freethinkers of the period) was one of the most memorable and justifiable attempts ever made to overthrow tyranny based on the false doctrine of absolute submissiveness taught by Jesus. There are some Christians who will not learn or profit by the plainest facts of history.

Mr. Gordon Forlong has given two lectures in Wanganui on " Bible Difficulties," —the beginning of a series on the evidences of Christianity. He represents himself as a converted Deist, and takes care to inform his audience that, having been educated as a barrister, he can translate Greek words and give them a meaning highly calculated to remove difficulties. This, we understand, is in keeping with the business of barristers in Court, but out of Court it has been held that Greek ought to be construed, even by barristers, according to recognised philological rules. It is quite proper for Mr. Forlong to contend that the standards are not infallible and need revision, that certain Greek words bear different meanings to those generally given to them, and that a revised New Testament, according to Forlong, is the want of the age. But if this is his opinion, on what moral ground does he withhold from the world at large knowledge so precious ? Mr. For-

long, however accommodating, cannot personally be accessible to all who are perishing for want of a little pure Greek. Why does not this Grecian, greater than Bentley, at once issue a proper translation, and let it go forth with the imprimatur of ' Forlong and Infallibility' ? We are told by those who heard the lecture and understand English, that when Mr. Forlong got away from Greek, his arguments in the vulgar tongue disappointed his Christian friends, and greatly amused Freethinkers. But then it is generally understood that people who cannot reason in English are often overpowering in the tongue of Socrates.

The Wellington clergy came forward at a meeting of the Bible Society to defend the character of David from the attacks of " Ivo," who had made the life of the "sweet singer" the subject of one of his discourses. Archdeacon Stock ingeniously suggested that " it would have been easy to leave out David's faults, as human biographies usually did ; yet it was this very difference, this impartial history of his faults and his excellencies, which showed the divine origin of that record." It requires more than impartiality to show a divine record. Has the Archdeacon not read Froude's Reminiscences of Carlyle ? David's biographers may have been unconscious of the fact that he was so great a sinner, and so narrated with approval those very acts of which an Archdeacon now seems ashamed. It is not a little curious that the authenticity of the Bible is of more importance to the cleric, than the Bible picture, presented by the Freethought orator, of a very immoral personage being a man " after God's own heart " !

The apologies made for Christianity are sometimes very amusing. Archdeacon Stock the other day defended the Bible by producing an array of men who were devout believers in the book. He " mentioned Clarke-Maxwell, Faraday, Herschell, and Sir Isaac Newton, all firm b elievers in their day ; also Havelock among pious warriors, Macgregor, the traveller, better known as Rob Roy ; and the eminently useful Earl Shaftesbury." This galaxy, we think, might have been considerably improved upon without much effort. It would be strange if the great institution of Christianity had not believers among eminent men, who, while engaged in physical research, do not trouble themselves greatly about a faith whic* ranscends their reason and is beyond experiment. If miracles could have been arranged and examined like Faraday's lines of magnetic force, he would probably have told the Christian apologists all about them. Since he could not experiment, he read the penitential psalms on a Sunday among his Sandemanians, and resumed his philosophy on Monday. One Mr. Gordon Forlong has added a very notable name to the list. He has announced that Napoleon Bonaparte was " converted " at St. Helena, and acknowledged " the truth." After this, who will doubt the truth of Christianity ? It must, however, have been an oversight on the part of the " divine founder " that he left the matter in such doubt that it had to be resolved by " The Little Corporal."

The circulation of Bibles by a wealthy Society does not appear to keep pace with the vice and heathenism of a large part of London. The Saturday Review has the following account of the success of Christianity in modern times:—"What a frightful picture might be drawn, and without exaggeration,, of the things that go on daily in our streets ; the millions of men who never open their mouth without an oath, and never utter a

single noun substantive without prefixing one and the same meaningless adjective ; the shameless vice which hides not its head even at high noon ; the Embankment, where men are nightly set upon, robbed, and thrown into the river; the gambling clubs; the suburban races ; the court into which no decent person may venture by night or day ; the music halls and their senseless and mischievous songs ; the drinking ; the wife-beating; the starvation. Were all these things written down, a picture might be produced which would make the London of Victoria compare with the Rome of Nero." —If it be true that London of to-day can be compared with Rome in the time of Nero, in those respects so forcibly described in the quotation we have given, Christianity has been a greater failure than might have been supposed from its wealth, command of power, and organisation.