"Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to
laws, to reputation: all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue,
though religion were not. But superstition dismounts all these, and
createth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men; therefore Atheism did
never perturb States, for it makes men wary of themselves, as looking
no further, and we see the limes inclined to Atheism (as the time
of Augustus Caesar) were civil times; but superstition, that bone
of contention of many States, bringeth in a new _primum mobile_ that
ravishes all the spheres of government."
There are thousands of Atheists in almost every civilized country, and
how is it, if Atheism tends to crime, that you will seldom or never
find one in prison for any crime? Buddhism, one of the most ancient
religions, long ante-dating Christianity, is essentially Atheistic. It
has had, and has now, hundreds of millions of followers, and for pure
morality no system of religion has ever equalled it. Webster, the
Christian lexicographer, admits that Buddhism was "characterized by
admirable humanity and morality." The religion of Confucius--of him
who taught the "golden rule" five centuries before Christianity
appeared--was also Atheistic. Therefore, what we "most need" is, not a
"conviction that there _is_ a personal God" (we have that already; all
the murderers, thieves and defaulters believe that doctrine), but we
need more of the "admirable morality" of Buddhism, and more of the
practice of the "golden rule" of Confucius to "do not unto others what
you would not they should do to you." As Emerson has said, "We want some
good Paganism."
Mr. Wendling's next argument for the existence of a personal God is the
assumed universality of the belief in God, "among every people in every
quarter of the habitable globe," now and "from the very furthest reach
of history." As the value of this argument turns simply on a question
of fact, and as every educated or well-read man knows that the facts
in this case are against Mr. Wendling, and that his assertion is
historically incorrect, it is hardly worth while to spend much time over
it. However, as some readers may not have looked into the authorities on
the subject, I may, perhaps not unprofitably quote briefly from some of
them, and simply refer the reader to others.
To say nothing of the _Atheistic_ character of the Buddhistic religion,
already referred to, with its millions of followers, there have been,
and are to-day, tribes and peoples who have no belief whatever in, or
conception of, a God or Gods. This fact is conclusively proved by
such authorities as Livingston, the great African explorer (himself a
Christian), Sir John Lubbock, J. S. Mill, Darwin, and even John Wesley,
the founder of Methodism, who, surely, ought to be good authority
with Christians; and him we will first put in the witness box against
Mr.-Wendling. Wesley says, in his Sermons, vol. 2, Sermon C:
"After all that has been so plausibly written concerning the 'innate
idea of God;' after all that has been said of its being common to all
men, in all ages and nations, it does not appear that man has any more
idea of God than any of the beasts of the field; he has no knowledge
of God at all. Whatever change may afterward be wrought by his own
reflection or education, he is by nature a mere Atheist."
Charles Darwin, the greatest naturalist in the world, and who is
proverbially careful in his statements, has the following on this
subject in his "Descent of Man," vol. 1, p. 62-3:--
"There is ample evidence, derived not from hasty travellers, but from
men who have long resided with savages, that numerous races have existed
and still exist, who have no idea of one or more Gods, and who have no
words in their languages to express such an idea."