OCR Text |
Show 1 Agnosticism and I Deism Explained 1 , if ( 1 ( Agnosticism, in Its Ultimate Results, is No Different from I that of Downright AtheismConfession of u St. Augustine. if If Editor of Th Jntermountain Catholic: i( X perceive that in replying to my late I f communication regarding agnosticism, !! you quote from Herbert Sponger ana1 Jliixley. 1 have read both authors from ,-ovpr to cover, and in all their works I fail to remember the texts as you give. I M 1 would like to verify these, 1 vould j respectfully ask the names of the j vorks in which they can be found. Any I association of their principles with i those of anarchists seems unjust. A DAUBTER. I Salt Lake, Aug. 12, 102. Our esteemed correspondent who I Earned to doubt from the writings of i Herbert Spencer and Huxley will, if he ! has time and patience to re-read their works, find Spencer's explanation of the. I origin of the universe in his "First Principles of a New System of Philos-ii Philos-ii ophy." part I. No. 11, second edition. Huxley's teaching regarding future ex-J ex-J iFtence in the unseen world will be t found in his "Life and Letters," p. 242. The injustice to which our oorro-j oorro-j fjmndent refers is. in theory correct, but not in the practical as wcli as the i logical consequences of their princi- j ' pies. Both, as well as numberless fol- lowers who accept their teaching, deny - ,a they are atheists. The reason is! f , obvious,' for neither reason nor science i j Fiipply any argument for the denial i That God is. or that the soul is, im-i im-i mortal. This fact i universally ad-t ad-t mitted ry all great minds. Hence only ' i j "the fool says in his heart there is no s ;od." Yet the new form of unbelief 'J Vnown as agnosticism is no different in its ultimate results from that of I upright atheism. 5 hi the socJal order, if two narlics are I interested in d"ine something which wans --som nluH'l" pMiuniarr ?Tin." one doubts if there is any existing law . spainst the means to b adopted to te-I te-I rure his end. and the other says th?re ;l it no law. Would the former be any j nior restrained inseouring the prize i thfin the latter? He certainly would not. The old principle that "there is , tin obligation unless one is certain of j I it." would be immediately applied and l the prize secured. In the moral order. v hn one man denies the existence of I j Gud and the immortality of the soul. C pnd another says he does not know the .1 rsme results as to the violation of his I J !pt s will be reached when passion and II s-lf-interst are at stake, as Dante in 1: if- "Tnfrrno" expresses it. '.'reason by I lust is swayed." All the intelligent an-I an-I arr-hist eould at best say is that he I f!"rs not know w hoihor a supreme be-I be-I irg rules the desiinies of men and na- P'or,s and of future existence he is to- i It.iliy ignorant. He stands on the same platform lhat has been carefully built i by modem leaders in the world of thought. ITe indulges in the samp ex- I S of intellectual pride as Draper. Huxley. Spencer and a host of others who have implanted in the heart's of I Millions a yearning to be emancipated 1 from the. restraints of all laws human at'd divine, and whi h nature and com- t'ton sense tel us arc incompatible with isorioty and its perpetuation. The source as well as th foundation f'f all law is God. "There is ;o power." Fdys St. Paul, "unless it be from God." This fundamental principle, which has a'v. a;.-s ruled society and underlies evry creed, the anarchist calls an il-3::sion il-3::sion and the agnostic a superstition. , The former carries out his principles t . 1 their logical conclusion. All know :: 'he results. From such resn'ts the ; avowed agnostic shrinks. Seeing the c-aJ!y consequences of the liberty, they proclaim and its fascinations for the r - young who groan under every form of j restraint, their only appeal is to the J state: that is, the agnostic depends on I the executive to punish any violation j of the law. Hut the youthful agnostics who have no conscience, will not be deterred from following the bent of their inclinations because old foggies have no right to restrain their liberty. St. Augustine tells of the effect of unbelief on his mind when he was only I 9 years old. In a conversation with his j friend, Honoratus, he relates his experience, ex-perience, namely, that he "fell amongst ; men" who said that "by pure and sim ple reason they would lead to God and deliver from all error those who had the will to listen to them. What eise impound me, about the age of 9 years, to reject the religion planted in me by my parents, and to follow and diligently diligent-ly listen to these men, but the fact that ! they declared that we were terrified by superstition and ruled by faith before the use of reason; whereas, they pressed no one to believe until the truth had been discussed and disentangled? disen-tangled? Who co-uld be proof against these promises, least of all a boy with I his mind thirsting for the truth, as well j as proud and talkative in matters dis-I dis-I puted amongst the learned? In such j guise -they found me, despising, as it were, old women's tales, and longing to hold and exhaust the manifest and open truth which they promised." St. Augustine had no equal as a philosopher, phil-osopher, and his great mind, whether defending error or truth, was almost invincible. As a young man he taught philosophy in Milan, and his defense of unbelief, which was instilled into his mind as a substitute for truth, was so plausible and reasonable that St. Ambrose Am-brose (then bishop of Milan) had ordered or-dered to be said in the public prayprw of the ...church the T words,.. "Prom the loeic of Augustine, deliver us, O Lord." When he descneded the ladder of unbelief unbe-lief to its lowest depths, he knew no restraint. re-straint. There was no law to circumscribe circum-scribe his liberty of action. Of his degredation he made an open confession. confes-sion. Which shows his great humility after he was rescued by the influence and prayers of a pious mother from the depths to which he had fallen. Statesmen and others who are practical prac-tical agnostics in their daily life, may vail against anarchy, but their total disregard for a higher law begets in the hearts of the rising generation disrespect dis-respect and disregard for all law, which is incipient anarchy. Lord Bacon, Ba-con, in one of his essays, wrote that "They that deny a God destroy man's nobility, for certainly man is of kin to I the beasts by his body: and if he be. not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. It destroys likewise magnanimity and the raising of human nature." Edmund Burke i stvlor! (hp agnostics as "foes to all the dignity and consolation of mankind." To its consequences when all vestige of . Christian sentiment is wiped away its i adherents now protest. The delicate sense of honor, justice and brotherly love are the last rays of Christian teaching which still light up the soul and conscience, though seared and wcllnigh dead, is yet awe-stricken at the deeds of the consistent agnostic, namely, the anarchist. A nation without with-out the knowledge of God. or people j without any form of religion to be sub-' missive to authority and guided by moral principles, would be such an anomaly an-omaly in the world s history that it would take first place in modern discoveries dis-coveries and rank as the highest achievement of science, ' (To be continued.) |