I have been asked why I have "gone out of my way to attack religion,"
why I do not "confine myself to my own sphere and work for Socialism,
and what good I expect to do by pulling down without building up."
In reply I beg to say:
1. That I have not "gone out of my way" to attack religion. It was
because I found religion _in_ my way that I attacked it.
2. That I am working for Socialism when I attack a religion which is
hindering Socialism.
3. That we must pull down before we can build up, and that I hope to
do a little building, if only on the foundation.
But these questions arose from a misconception of my position and
purpose.
I have been called an "Infidel," a Socialist, and a Fatalist. Now, I
am an Agnostic, or Rationalist, and I am a Determinist, and I am a
Socialist. But if I were asked to describe myself in a single word, I
should call myself a Humanist.
Socialism, Determinism, and Rationalism are factors in the sum; and the
sum is Humanism.
Briefly, my religion is to do the best I can for humanity. I am a
Socialist, a Determinist, and a Rationalist because I believe that
Socialism, Determinism, and Rationalism will be beneficial to mankind.
I oppose the Christian religion because I do not think the Christian
religion is beneficial to mankind, and because I think it is an obstacle
in the way of Humanism.
I am rather surprised that men to whom my past work is well known should
suspect me of making a wanton and purposeless attack upon religion.
My attack is not wanton, but deliberate; not purposeless, but very
purposeful and serious. I am not acting irreligiously, but religiously.
I do not oppose Christianity because it is good, but because it is not
good enough.
There are two radical differences between Humanism and Christianity.
Christianity concerns itself with God and Man, putting God first and Man
last.
Humanism concerns itself solely with Man, so that Man is its first and
last care. That is one radical difference.
Then, Christianity accepts the doctrine of Free Will, with its
consequent rewards and punishments; while Humanism embraces Determinist
doctrines, with their consequent theories of brotherhood and prevention.
And that is another radical difference.
Because the Christian regards the hooligan, the thief, the wanton, and
the drunkard as men and women who have done wrong. But the Humanist
regards them as men and women who have been wronged.
The Christian remedy is to punish crime and to preach repentance and
salvation to "sinners." The Humanist remedy is to remove the causes
which lead or drive men into crime, and so to prevent the manufacture of
"sinners."
Let us consider the first difference. Christianity concerns itself with
the relations of Man to God, as well as with the relations between man
and man. It concerns itself with the future life as well as with the
present life.
Now, he who serves two causes cannot serve each or both of them as well
as he could serve either of them alone.
He who serves God and Man will not serve Man as effectually as he who
gives himself wholly to the service of Man.
As the religion of Humanism concerns itself solely with the good of
humanity, I claim that it is more beneficial to humanity than is the
Christian religion, which divides its service and love between Man and
God.
Moreover, this division is unequal. For Christians give a great deal
more attention to God than to Man.
And on that point I have to object, first, that although they _believe_
there is a God, they do not _know_ there is a God, nor what He is like.
Whereas they do know very well that there are men, and what they are
like. And, secondly, that if there be a God, that God does not need
their love nor their service; whereas their fellow-creatures do need
their love and their service very sorely.
And, as I remarked before, if there is a Father in Heaven, He is likely
to be better pleased by our loving and serving our fellow-creatures (His
children) than by our singing and praying to Him, while our brothers
and sisters (His children) are ignorant, or brutalised, or hungry, or in
trouble.
I speak as a father myself when I say that I should not like to think
that one of my children would be so foolish and so unfeeling as to erect
a marble tomb to my memory while the others needed a friend or a meal.
And I speak in the same spirit when I add that to build a cathedral, and
to spend our tears and pity upon a Saviour who was crucified nearly two
thousand years ago, while women and men and little children are being
crucified in our midst, without pity and without help, is cant, and
sentimentality, and a mockery of God.
Please note the words I use. I have selected them deliberately and
calmly, because I believe that they are true and that they are needed.
Christians are very eloquent about Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, and Our Father which is in Heaven. I know nothing about gods and
heavens. But I know a good deal about Manchester and London, and about
men and women; and if I did not feel the real shames and wrongs of the
world more keenly, and if I did not try more earnestly and strenuously
to rescue my fellow-creatures from ignorance, and sorrow, and injustice
than most Christians do, I should blush to look death in the face or
call myself a man.
I choose my words deliberately again when I say that to me the most
besotted and degraded outcast tramp or harlot matters more than all the
gods and angels that humanity ever conjured up out of its imagination.
The Rev. R. F. Horton, in his answer to my question as to the need of
Christ as a Saviour, uttered the following remarkable words:
But there is a holiness so transcendent that the angels veil
their faces in the presence of God. I have known a good many
men who have rejected Christ, and men who are living without
Him, and, though God forbid that I should judge them, I do not
know one of them whom I would venture to take as my example if
I wished to appear in the presence of the holy God. They do
not tremble for themselves, but I tremble for myself if my
holiness is not to exceed that of such Scribes and Pharisees.
Oh, my brothers, where Christ is talking of holiness He is
talking of such a goodness, such a purity, such a transcendent
and miraculous likeness of God in human form, that I believe
it is true to say that there is but one name, as there is but
one way, by which a man can be holy and come into the presence
of God; and I look, therefore, upon this word of Christ not
only as the way of salvation, but as the revelation of the
holiness which God demands.
I close these answers to the questions with a practical word
to everyone that is here. It is my belief that you may be
good enough to pass through the grave and to wander in the
dark spaces of the world which is still earthly and sensual,
and you may be good enough to escape, as it were, the torments
of the hell which result from a life of debauchery and cruelty
and selfishness; but if you are to stand in the presence of God,
if you are ever to be pure, complete, and glad, "all rapture
through and through in God's most holy sight," you must believe
in the name and in the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
only begotten son of God, who came into the world to save
sinners, and than whose no other name is given in heaven or
earth whereby we may be saved.
Such talk as that makes me feel ill. Here is a cultured, educated,
earnest man rhapsodising about holiness and the glory of a God no mortal
eye has ever seen, and of whom no word has ever reached us across the
gulf of death. And while he rhapsodised, with a congregation of honest
bread-and-butter citizens under him, trying hard with their blinkered
eyes and blunted souls, to glimpse that imaginary glamour of ecstatic
"holiness," there surged and rolled around them the stunted, poisoned,
and emaciated life of London.
Holiness!--Holiness in the Strand, in Piccadilly, in Houndsditch, in
Whitechapel, in Park Lane, in Somerstown, and the Mint.
Holiness!--In Westminster, and in Fleet Street, and on 'Change.
Holiness!--In a world given over to robbery, to conquest, to vanity, to
ignorance, to humbug, to the worship of the golden calf.
Holiness!--With twelve millions of our workers on the verge of famine,
with rich fools and richer rogues lording it over nations of untaught
and half-fed dupes and drudges.
Holiness!--With a recognised establishment of manufactured paupers,
cripples, criminals, idlers, dunces, and harlots.
Holiness!--In a garden of weeds, a hotbed of lies, where hypnotised
saints sing psalms and worship ghosts, while dogs and horses are
pampered and groomed, and children are left to rot, to hunger, and to
sink into crime, or shame, or the grave.
Holiness! For shame. The word is obnoxious. It has stood so long for
craven fear, for exotistical inebriation, for selfish retirement from
the trials and buffets and dirty work of the world.
What have we to do with such dreamy, self-centred, emotional holiness,
here and now in London?
What we want is citizenship, human sympathy, public spirit, daring
agitators, stern reformers, drains, houses, schoolmasters, clean water,
truth-speaking, soap--and Socialism.
Holiness! The people are being robbed. The people are being cheated. The
people are being lied to. The people are being despised and neglected
and ruined body and soul.
Yes. And you will find some of the greatest rascals and most impudent
liars in the "Synagogues and High Places" of the cities.
Holiness! Give us common sense, and common honesty, and a "steady supply
of men and women who can be trusted with small sums."
Your Christians talk of saving sinners. But our duty is not to save
sinners; but to prevent their regular manufacture: their systematic
manufacture in the interests of holy and respectable and successful and
superior persons.
Holiness! Cant, rant, and fustian! The nations are rotten with dirty
pride, and dirty greed, and mean lying, and petty ambitions, and
sickly sentimentality. Holiness! I should be ashamed to show my face at
Heaven's gates and say I came from such a contemptible planet.
Holiness! Your religion does not make it--its ethics are too weak, its
theories too unsound, its transcendentalism is too thin.
Take as an example this much-admired passage from St. James:
Pure religion and undefiled is this before God and the Father,
to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and
to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
The widows and the fatherless are our brothers and sisters and our flesh
and blood, and should be at home in our hearts and on our hearths. And
who that is a man will work to keep himself unspotted from the world if
the service of the world needs him to expose his flesh and his soul to
risk?
I can fancy a Reverend Gentleman going to Heaven, unspotted from the
world, to face the awful eyes of a Heavenly Father whose gaze has been
on London.
A good man mixes with the world in the rough-and-tumble, and takes his
share of the dangers, and the falls, and the temptations. His duty is
to work and to help, and not to shirk and keep his hands white. His
business is not to be holy, but to be useful.
In such a world as this, friend Christian, a man has no business reading
the Bible, singing hymns, and attending divine worship. He has not
_time_. All the strength and pluck and wit he possesses are needed in
the work of real religion, of real salvation. The rest is all "dreams
out of the ivory gate, and visions before midnight."
There ought to be no such thing as poverty in the world. The earth is
bounteous: the ingenuity of man is great. He who defends the claims of
the individual, or of a class, against the rights of the human race is a
criminal.
A hungry man, an idle man, an ignorant man, a destitute or degraded
woman, a beggar or pauper child is a reproach to Society and a witness
against existing religion and civilisation.
War is a crime and a horror. No man is doing his duty when he is not
trying his best to abolish war.
I have been asked why I "interfered in things beyond my sphere," and why
I made "an unprovoked attack" upon religion. I am trying to explain. My
position is as follows:
Rightly or wrongly, I am a Democrat. Rightly or wrongly, I am for the
rights of the masses as against the privileges of the classes. Rightly
or wrongly, I am opposed to Godship, Kingship, Lordship, Priestship.
Rightly or wrongly, I am opposed to Imperialism, Militarism, and
Conquest. Rightly or wrongly, I am for universal brotherhood and
universal freedom. Rightly or wrongly, I am for union against disunion,
for collective ownership against private ownership. Rightly or wrongly,
I am for reason against dogma, for evolution against revelation; for
humanity always; for earth, not Heaven; for the holiest Trinity of
all--the Trinity of Man, Woman, and Child.
The greatest curse of humanity is ignorance. The only remedy is
knowledge.
Religion, being based on fixed authority, is naturally opposed to
knowledge.
A man may have a university education and be ignorant. A man may be a
genius, like Plato, or Shakespeare, or Darwin, and lack more knowledge.
The humblest of unlettered peasants can teach the highest genius
something useful. The greatest scientific and philosophical achievements
of the most brilliant age are imperfect, and can be added to and
improved by future generations.
There is no such thing as human infallibility. There is no finality
in human knowledge and human progress. Fixed authority in matters of
knowledge or belief is an insult to humanity.
Christianity degrades and restrains humanity with the shackles of
"original sin." Man is not born in sin. There is no such thing as sin.
Man is innately more prone to good than to evil; and the path of his
destiny is upward.
I should be inclined to call him who denies the innate goodness of
mankind an "Infidel."
Heredity breeds different kinds of men. But all are men whom it breeds.
And all men are capable of good, and of yet more good. Environment can
move mountains. There is a limit to its power for good and for evil, but
that power is almost unimaginably great.
The object of life is to improve ourselves and our fellow-creatures, and
to leave the world better and happier than we found it.
The great cause of crime and failure is ignorance. The great cause of
unhappiness is selfishness. No man can be happy who loves or values
himself too much.
As all men are what heredity and environment have made them, no man
deserves punishment nor reward. As the sun shines alike upon the evil
and the good, so in the eyes of justice the saint and the sinner are as
one. No man has a just excuse for pride, or anger, or scorn.
Spiritual pride, intellectual pride, pride of pedigree, of caste, of
race are all contemptible and mean.
The superior person who wraps himself in a cloak of solemn affectations
should be laughed at until he learns to be honest.
The masterful man who puts on airs of command and leadership insults his
fellow-creatures, and should be gently but firmly lifted down many pegs.
Genius should not be regarded as a weapon, but as a tool. A man of
genius should not be allowed to command, but only to serve. The human
race would do well to watch jealously and restrain firmly all superior
persons. Most kings, jockeys, generals, prize-fighters, priests,
ladies'-maids, millionaires, lords, tenor singers, authors,
lion-comiques, artists, beauties, statesmen, and actors are spoiled
children who sadly need to be taught their place. They should be treated
kindly, but not allowed too many toys and sweetmeats, nor too much
flattery. Such superior persons are like the clever minstrels, jesters,
clerks, upholsterers, storytellers, horse-breakers, huntsmen, stewards,
and officers about a court. They should be fed and praised when
they deserve it, but they cannot be too often reminded that they are
retainers and servants, and that their Sovereign and Master is--
The People.
In a really humane and civilised nation:
There should be and need be no such thing as poverty.
There should be and need be no such thing as ignorance.
There should be and need be no such thing as crime.
There should be and need be no such thing as idleness.
There should be and need be no such thing as war.
There should be and need be no such thing as slavery.
There should be and need be no such thing as hate.
There should be and need be no such thing as envy.
There should be and need be no such thing as pride.
There should be and need be no such thing as greed.
There should be and need be no such thing as gluttony.
There should be and need be no such thing as vice.
But this is not a humane and civilised nation, and never will be while
it accepts Christianity as its religion.
These are my reasons for opposing Christianity. If I have said anything
to give pain to any Christian, I am sorry, and ask to be forgiven.
I have tried to maintain "towards all creatures a bounteous friendly
feeling."
As to what I said about holiness, I cannot take back a word. Dr. Horton
said that without that form of holiness which only a belief in Christ
can give we shall only be good enough to barely escape Hell, and, "after
passing through the grave, to wander in the dark spaces of the world,
which is still earthly and sensual."
I say earnestly and deliberately that if I can only attain to Heaven and
to holiness as one of a few, if I am to go to Heaven and leave millions
of my brothers and sisters to ignorance and misery and crime, I will
hope to be sent instead into those "dark spaces of the world which is
still earthly and sensual" and there to be permitted to fight with all
my strength against pain and error and injustice and human sorrow. I
know I shall be happier so. I think I was made for that kind of work,
and I fervently wish that I may be allowed to do my duty as long as ever
there is a wrong in the world that I can help to right, a grief I can
help to soothe, a truth I can help to tell.
Let the Holy have their Heaven. I am a man, and an Infidel. And this is
my Apology.
Besides, gentlemen, Christianity is not _true_.