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Show 1 1 tm THOUGHT. i i Freedom From Creed Not Consistent j With Belief in God God's Right as j Creator to His Creatures' Submission I Religion Is Implicit Trust in God I Catholic Freedom Charge of Intel- j lectual Enslavement Refuted Belief ! Subsequent to the Dictates of Reason Exchanging Fallible Opinions for Au- I thoritative Teaching Brings Certainty . to the Human Mind. I i ! f j (Written for the Intermountain Catholic.) As the tree is known by its fruit, so are Free I Thinkers known by the evil consequences which j .-.gically follow from their principles. "By their ( f fruits you shall know thein. Do men gather grapes I of thorns, or figs of thistles t Even so every good ue bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree I bringeth forth evil fruit.'" The same applies to , I every system social and religious that has not f truth and justice to rest on. The Apostles of Lib- I f ( try when pressed and cornered on the logical de- 1 duct ions which follow from their platform, and which are a menace to society, change their tactics I ; nl say: "We abstract all together from the so- -iul and moral order and say that man should not l.e bound by any religious creed or sect; that his I thoughts should be free from the intellectual en- j 1 shsvement of ecclesiastical dogmas or religious ! teaching. Very plausible thought, no doubt, and well I I adapted to suit the spirit of the age, but if a creed j or sect is true, has truth for its basis, where exists i the intellectual enslavement or how is man's liberty ! j curtailed by submitting his judgment to what his l reason points out to be true. I think the would-be (" free thinker admits, at least in theory, the existence f God. though certainly not in principle, for like I Proudhon, who declared "we must deny God or not I o able to assert liberty," they too if pressed to I J carry out their principles to their logical eonse- j j uences must deny God or give up the liberty of j I which they boast so much. Yet as they profess to t j acknowledge God, on that platform we can meas- j f lire lances with them. I Admitting God as the Creator, you must admit ; j his absolute right to command, and man's duty to J obey him. Xo use in a man saying he will swear J by the American republic and union of states if he I i- nut willing to stand by the constitution and obey I ihe laws of congress. Equally, and in fact more I iihsurd is the confession that God exists, but no ! cEe should be bound by his laws. God has a com-' 1 : T'h'te and absolute right to us, because having made j ,: 'tip from nothing, we are wholly his property, not j i our own. Between us and God nothing stands only I tiie creative act of God. for he created us from I nothing.. We are then his property, body and soul r l belong to him, as does everything we can do or f I squire. f I The omnipotent Ruler of the. universe has com- I h ie dominion over us, because he created us. 1 Tienee his right to command, and whatever he com- 1 tuKiiiN we are bound to obey, because we are his I I'Mpcrty and in no sense our own. This reasoning I i defended as valid in the case of a temporal ruler ar:d his subjects, against whom it is facreligious to j H,oi. " j ' The father has the righ to the obedience of his child ;iud in that right the state will sustain him I J until tho child attains his majority. How much : I greater Cod's claim who created us from nothing, I vhiej) creative act gives God full dominion over us, aisd cr.mjdetc right to our obedience. I Now follows the answer to the free thinker, who I S:!.vs 'hat man should not be bound by any religious I oil d or sect. The essential principle of religion 1 Irfeet trust in God, and obedience to his sov- I I ''''iu will, an unconditional surrender of our I ill to the will of God; and in carrying out this I rniioijile we Mmply do what the moral law en- 1 .Joins, i. (.. . frive to every one his own or his J duo. "if, n as the Savior puts it, "to Caesar j -h" tilings , Vmg to Caesar and to our Heav- '''ily Fit lb. h. ties. that belong to him." But H w- have . o.- ' all that we possess or can pos- 1 belongs ! t ( ' d, and in paying him religious I J Ji 'ihniio. iui-x --.A .;. enslavement, we are simply do- i I - th.'it which ? should do. I If we are'bo'-.-id to obey God we must be bound j 1" 'hey him in the manner and in the way he pre- 1 s-nbes. When God reveals himself to man and that L r' v' l.'ition is promulgated 8nd brought to our 1 hi.' wlcdge we are bound to obey it. Christianity I 'ho revelation of the supernatural; it prescribes j 1 niarmor of our obedience. In following it, there I I K !" morn enslavement, but a lawful and reason- I hle following of truth, as God himself is truth. 1 p living up to its teaching man becomes truly I jl-,f". i(c only truth can set men free. I To prove the veritv of Christianity and truth I reflation Would absorb too much time, besides I If j' has beoji done before in these columns. We will V-'-nhr-r-ask ihe free thinker: Is a Catholic less ir'; in his thoughts than the so-called free Lhink- ' Is bis reason anv more cramped than his, or J"- intolleet any more enslaved? The answer will '"'Mie ringing back: Why certainly he is. We re- j I -"i!d: Be patient, friend: make your indictment J I n(j wli,.n it is mar-; we answer you, and show J ho is more of a free man than you are, for I must remember that it is only the truth, as wo j I '"'fore, that can make any person free. if (Continued on Page 5.) FREE THOUGHT. (Continued from Page 1.) THE INDICTMENT. The Catholic church enslaves your intellect. Pray how comes that, we ask? By her doctrinal authority, the free thinker replies. Then, we say, proceed and explain. God endows man with reason and that reason which he possesses must be always subservient to the teaching of the Catholic church. Your reason may have pointed out to you a certain thing as right, but no sooner does, the Catholic church interpose and tell you authoritatively that ' you were wrong than you must humbly submit, set aside your former convictions, cast aside the teaching teach-ing of that reason which God gave you, bow the head and say "I believe as thou teachest." Is noi that enslavement of the intellect? We have stated the case against Nthe Catholic church as strong as it could be stated, if not as strong as it could be done by others. The reader cannot blame us for we suppress nothing of what we know has been urged on this point. THE ANSWER Almighty God endows man with reason, arid that reason tells him that the Catholic church, which claims his obedience and to whose teaching you charge that his reason is subservient, is not a human institution, but a divine organization. In other words she is the church of God, the bride of I Christ which he died to establish. She is the unerring un-erring expounder of God's revelation to man. When ( he submits his reason to her teaching he submits ( it to an institution which his reason previously told him was unerring and infallible. And when 1 hp accepts her teaching rather than his own con- victions, convictions which his reason tells him arc. often wrong in all men's minds, he accepts it only on the ground that it is true. He has a positive-certainty positive-certainty of it and is no more a slave than the man ' whose reason tells him that the world is not round. I and whom you would style unreasonable if he did , not bow his head to the teaching of science and say : T believe the world to be round as thou teach- 1 est. Docs this belief in the world't rotundity, in I opposition to his former convictic as, make him less i free, or is his intellect enslaved by giving up what , hjs reason taught him for what science teaches him? Decidedly not. On the contrary he is now truly free, because he hats truth, and only the truth I makes him free. So, too, with the Catholic. Reason Rea-son points out to him that according to God's reve- lations, the Catholic church must logically be the church of God, and as representing God in her teaching, she must be unerring. For God, who is the source and fouudation of truth to appoint and commission a church to teach, . and permit that church to teach error would imply a contradiction against which man's whole reason revolts.' Therefore There-fore when he withdraws his previous convictions, and submits to her teaching, he is only exchanging his previous fallible convictions for truth. And as it is only the truth that can make men free, it is only Catholics who have a certainty of an mer-ring mer-ring guide who are really free. - . A man in doubt is never free either in thought , or action, for he may encroach on another's right J when he has not a certainty that he is right himself. him-self. One man has no. right to think so and so of another unless he' is sure that what he thinks is true, for by so thinking he may wrong the other greatly. Without certainty and truth then there is in reality no free thought. Much less is a man free in his actions. Two individuals own adjoining adjoin-ing properties. The fence which incloses one property prop-erty marks its owner's right. Supposing te other thought that some of that property belonged to him, is he free to take possession of it? Xot certainly cer-tainly on- the strength of a doubt, for nothing but certainty on his part could dispossess the other. The law, too, steps in and by the evidence adduced asserts his thought was a mistaken one. He must' then bow before the legal majesty. Therefore truth and right confirmed by certainty are the true marks of real liberty and the person not possessing them is not in the strict sense free. The Catholic possesses pos-sesses that certainty of the truth, the teaching of 1000 years confirms it, and none outside of the Catholic church can, in religious matters, claim that certainty. Therefore Catholics and they alone are free. F. I). |