Huxley quotes with satirical gusto Dr. Wace's declaration as to the
word "Infidel." Said Dr. Wace: "The word infidel, perhaps, carries an
unpleasant significance. Perhaps it is right that it should. It is, and
it ought to be, an unpleasant thing for a man to have to say plainly
that he does not believe in Jesus Christ."
Be it pleasant or unpleasant to be an unbeliever, one thing is quite
clear: religious people intend the word Infidel to carry "an unpleasant
significance" when they apply to it one. It is in their minds a term of
reproach. Because they think it is _wicked_ to deny what they believe.
To call a man an Infidel, then, is tacitly to accuse him of a kind of
moral turpitude.
But a little while ago, to be an Infidel was to be socially taboo. But
a little while earlier, to be an Infidel was to be persecuted. But a
little earlier still, to be an Infidel was to be an outlaw, subject to
the penalty of death.
Now, it is evident that to visit the penalty of social ostracism or
public contumely upon all who reject the popular religion is to erect an
arbitrary barrier against intellectual and spiritual advance, and to put
a protective tariff upon orthodoxy to the disadvantage of science and
free thought.
The root of the idea that it is wicked to reject the popular religion--a
wickedness of which Christ and Socrates and Buddha are all represented
to have been guilty--thrives in the belief that the Scriptures are the
actual words of God, and that to deny the truth of the Scriptures is to
deny and to affront God.
But the difficulty of the unbeliever lies in the fact that he cannot
believe the Scriptures to be the actual words of God.
The Infidel, therefore, is not denying God's words, nor disobeying God's
commands: he is denying the words and disobeying the commands of _men_.
No man who _knew_ that there was a good and wise God would be so foolish
as to deny that God. No man would reject the words of God if he knew
that God spoke those words.
But the doctrine of the divine origin of the Scriptures rests upon the
authority of the Church; and the difference between the Infidel and
the Christian is that the Infidel rejects and the Christian accepts the
authority of the Church.
Belief and unbelief are not matters of moral excellence or depravity:
they are questions of evidence.
The Christian believes the Scriptures because they are the words of God.
But he believes they are the words of God because some other man has
told him so.
Let him probe the matter to the bottom, and he will inevitably find that
his authority is human, and not, as he supposes, divine.
For you, my Christian friend, have never _seen_ God. You have never
heard God's voice. You have received from God no message in spoken
or written words. You have no direct divine warrant for the divine
authorship of the Scriptures. The authority on which your belief in the
divine revelation rests consists entirely of the Scriptures themselves
and the statements of the Church. But the Church is composed solely of
human beings, and the Scriptures were written and translated and printed
solely by human beings.
You believe that the Ten Commandments were dictated to Moses by God. But
God has not told _you_ so. You only believe the statement of the unknown
author of the Pentateuch that God told _him_ so. You do not _know_ who
Moses was. You do not _know_ who wrote the Pentateuch. You do not _know_
who edited and translated the Scriptures.
Clearly, then, you accept the Scriptures upon the authority of unknown
men, and upon no other demonstrable authority whatever.
Clearly, then, to doubt the doctrine of the divine revelation of the
Scriptures is not to doubt the word of God, but to doubt the words of
men.
But the Christian seems to suspect the Infidel of rejecting the
Christian religion out of sheer wantonness, or from some base or
sinister motive.
The fact being that the Infidel can only believe those things which his
own reason tells him are true. He opposes the popular religion because
his reason tells him it is not true, and because his reason tells him
insistently that a religion that is not true is not good, but bad. In
thus obeying the dictates of his own reason, and in thus advocating what
to him seems good and true, the Infidel is acting honourably, and is as
well within his right as any Pope or Prelate.
That base or mercenary motives should be laid to the charge of the
Infidel seems to me as absurd as that base or mercenary motives should
be laid to the charge of the Socialist. The answer to such libels
stares us in the face. Socialism and Infidelity are not popular, nor
profitable, nor respectable.
If you wish to lose caste, to miss preferment, to endanger your chances
of gaining money and repute, turn Infidel and turn Socialist.
Briefly, Infidelity does not pay. It is "not a pleasant thing to be an
Infidel."
The Christian thinks it his duty to "make it an unpleasant thing" to
deny the "true faith." He thinks it his duty to protect God, and to
revenge His outraged name upon the Infidel and the Heretic. The Jews
thought the same. The Mohammedan thinks the same. How many cruel
and sanguinary wars has that presumptuous belief inspired? How many
persecutions, outrages, martyrdoms, and massacres have been perpetrated
by fanatics who have been "jealous for the Lord?"
As I write these lines Christians are murdering Jews in Russia, and
Mohammedans are murdering Christians in Macedonia to the glory of God.
Is God so weak that He needs foolish men's defence? Is He so feeble that
He cannot judge nor avenge?
My Christian friend, so jealous for the Lord, did you ever regard your
hatred of "Heretics" and "Infidels" in the light of history?
The history of civilisation is the history of successions of brave
"Heretics" and "Infidels," who have denied false dogmas or brought new
truths to light.
The righteous men, the "True Believers" of the day, have cursed these
heroes and reviled them, have tortured, scourged, or murdered them. And
the children of the "True Believers" have adopted the heresies as true,
and have glorified the dead Heretics, and then turned round to curse or
murder the new Heretic who fain would lead them a little further toward
the light.
Copernicus, who first solved the mystery of the Solar System, was
excommunicated for heresy. But Christians acknowledge now that the earth
goes round the sun, and the name of Copernicus is honoured.
Bruno, who first declared the stars to be suns, and "led forth Arcturus
and his host," was burnt at the stake for heresy.
Galileo, the father of telescopic astronomy, was threatened with death
for denying the errors of the Church, was put in prison and tortured as
a heretic. Christians acknowledge now that Galileo spoke the truth, and
his name is honoured.
As it has been demonstrated in those cases, it has been demonstrated
in thousands of other cases, that the Heretics have been right, and the
True Believers have been wrong.
Step by step the Church has retreated. Time after time the Church
has come to accept the truths, for telling which she persecuted, or
murdered, her teachers. But still the True Believers hate the Heretic
and regard it as a righteous act to make it "unpleasant" to be an
"Infidel."
After taking a hundred steps away from old dogmas and towards the truth,
the True Believer shudders at the request to take one more. After two
thousand years of foolish and wicked persecution of good men, the True
Believer remains faithful to the tradition that it "ought to be an
unpleasant thing" to expose the errors of the Church.
The Christians used to declare that all the millions of men and women
outside the Christian Church would "burn for ever in burning Hell." They
do not like to be reminded of that folly now.
They used to declare that every unbaptised baby would go to Hell and
burn for ever in fire and brimstone. They do not like to be reminded of
that folly now.
They used to believe in witchcraft, and they burned millions--yes,
millions--of innocent women as witches. They do not like to hear about
witchcraft now.
They used to believe the legends of Adam and Eve, and the Flood. They
call them allegories now.
They used to believe that the world was made in six days. Now they talk
mildly about "geological periods."
They used to denounce Darwinism as impious and absurd. They have since
"cheerfully accepted" the theory of evolution.
They used to believe that the sun revolved round the earth, and that
he who thought otherwise was an Infidel, and would be damned in the
"bottomless pit." But now--! Now they declare that Christ was God, and
His mother a virgin; that three persons are one person; that those who
trust in Jesus shall go to Heaven, and those who do not trust in Jesus
will be "lost." And if anyone denies these statements, they call him
Infidel.
Are you not aware, friend Christian, that what was Infidelity is now
orthodoxy? It is even so. Heresies for which men used to be burned alive
are now openly accepted by the Church. There is not a divine living
who would not have been burned at the stake three centuries ago for
expressing the beliefs he now holds. Yet you call a man Infidel for
being a century in advance of you. History has taught you nothing. It
has not occurred to you that as the "infidelity" of yesterday has become
the enlightened religion of to-day, it is possible that the "infidelity"
of to-day may become the enlightened religion of to-morrow.
Civilisation is built up of the "heresies" of men who thought freely and
spoke bravely. Those men were called "Infidels" when they were alive.
But now they are called the benefactors of the world.
Infidel! The name has been borne, good Christian, by some of the noblest
of our race. I take it from you with a smile. I am an easiful old pagan,
and I am not angry with you at all--you funny, little champion of the
Most High.