Christianity Teaches: Materialism Teaches:
1. The existence of a God 1. The self-existence, the
infinite in presence, yet a eternity, and the sufficiency of
personal being; infinite in nature, and the universality and
knowledge, yet a being who invariableness of natural law.
cogitates, contrives, plans, and
designs, like man; infinite in 2. That in the history of this
power, yet the author of a world world there has been an evolution
full of imperfections; infinite from the simple to the complex,
in goodness (as well as power), from the special to the general,
yet permits martyrs to expire from the homogeneous to the
amid flames, and patriots and heterogeneous.
philanthropists to languish in
dungeons; unchangeable, yet at a 3. That good and evil are relative
certain time after a terms. All morality is founded on
beginningless state of inaction, utility and evolved by the wants
aroused from his idleness and and necessities of human existence.
made a universe out of nothing; Honesty is right, not because a God
is not the cause of evil, yet the has so declared, but because man's
creator of everything and security, safety, and happiness are
everybody save himself; is free promoted by it.
from infirmities, yet is pleased
with some things and displeased 4. That man's condition, although
with others; is without body, imperfect, is improvable by his own
parts, or passions, and yet is of unaided efforts.
the masculine gender.
5. That man should look to himself
2. The original perfection of and not to a spectacle of suffering
everything. and death of eighteen hundred years
ago, for improvement and elevation.
3. The existence of a devil--a
creature made by God, and the 6. That belief and unbelief are
author of evil that will exist involuntary and without moral merit
forever. or demerit.
4. That man is a "fallen 7. That instead of worshiping God,
creature," and unable to improve we should direct all our efforts to
by his own unassisted efforts. improve ourselves, letting "gods
attend on things for gods to know."
5. That man can be "saved" only
through the blood and merits of 8. That man, wherever he may exist,
Christ. it is rational to believe, will be
fitted to his condition. An
6. That belief in the Christian unbroken everlasting sleep, which
system involves moral merit; probably awaits us all, affords no
disbelief, sin. ground for fear. And how infinitely
preferable to a future state of
7. That it is man's duty to punishment in which the majority of
worship God by prayer and praise. our race will be forever miserable!
8. That a comparatively small 9. That the teachings of reason and
portion of mankind in the future the lessons of experience are the
will be happy; the greater only revelations man has received.
portion will be in torment
eternally. 10. That the Bible should be tested
by the same rules of historical and
9. That man has received a book modern criticism that are applied
revelation, of which, however, to other ancient documents.
but a comparatively small part of
the race has ever obtained 11. That the barbarous acts of the
information. Israelites, like those of other
ancient nations, were the result of
10. That reason should be their undeveloped, and uncivilized
subordinated to the teachings of condition.
the Bible.
12. That the universe is full of
11. That the acts of the Jews, mysteries, above our comprehension,
such as are practiced now by but none contrary to our reason.
barbarians only, were commanded
by God, and were, therefore, 13. That the difference of opinion
right. among Liberals is consistent with
their common position that man has
12. That there are mysteries no infallible standard. That the
contrary to experience and enlightened reason of man is the
reason, which must nevertheless highest and best standard he
be believed. possesses.
13. Although God has given man a 14. That woman is man's equal and
revelation, there is great natural companion--exists for him
uncertainty as to what he meant only in the sense in which he
to say on several subjects of exists for her.
great importance.
15. That slavery, polygamy, and
14. That woman is man's inferior despotism are evils whenever and
and subordinate, was made for his wherever they exist.
gratification and convenience,
while man was made for himself 16. That man should attend to the
and the glory of God. affairs of this world, and,
contrary to the notion of Jesus,
15. That God has approved and should take "thought for the
sanctioned polygamy, slavery, and morrow."
despotism.
17. That evil is due to natural
16. That man should take no causes. Man can gradually remove
thought for the morrow. He should the evils that afflict him by
pattern after the lilies of the becoming acquainted with his
field. nature, relations, and
surroundings.
17. That man's ills and
sufferings are ascribable largely 18. Jesus was probably a reformer,
to the immediate agency of a a "come-outer," an "Infidel" of his
personal, malicious Devil--a time. We can esteem him as a
being of extended presence, of benefactor without worshiping him
almost infinite knowledge, of as a God.
great strategy, and immense
power. 19. The present is better than the
past, and the golden age of the
18. That Jesus was God Almighty world is in the future.
incased in human flesh.
19. That the golden age of the
earth was in the past.
B. F. Underwood.
"Safest to Believe."
It has often been argued that credulity is safer than skepticism--that
"it is safest to believe;" inasmuch as if a man believes in heaven and
hell, and there be no such places, he is, if no gainer, at least no
loser; whereas the Infidel may lose, and cannot gain. Upon the same
principle, it were safest to believe all the religions of the world
at once--Christian, Mohammedan, Jewish, Hindoo, Confucian, and all
the rest; because it is but insuring the matter by halves to trust
to one only. If Allah be not the only God and Mahomet be an imposter,
there is no harm done and nothing lost; and if there be not a paradise
in another world, there has been a pleasant dream of anticipated joys
in this.
Let us ask, is the balance of profit and loss fairly struck? Are the
chances all in favor of the believer and all against the skeptic? Is
there nothing to be thrown into the opposite scale? Surely much. If
religion be a fallacy, it is a fallacy pregnant with mischief. It
excites the fears without foundation; it fosters feelings of
separation between the believer and the unbeliever; it consumes
valuable time that can never be recalled, and valuable talents that
ought to be better employed; it draws money from our pockets to
support a delusion; it teaches the elect to look upon their fellow
men as heathen and castaways, living in sin here, and doomed to
perdition hereafter; it awakens harassing doubts, gloomy despondency,
and fitful melancholy; it turns our thoughts from the things of the
world, where alone true knowledge is found; it speaks of temporal
miseries and temporal pleasures as less than nothing and vanity,
and thus fosters indifference to the causes of the weal and woe of
mankind; worse than all, it chains us down to an antiquated orthodoxy,
and forbids the free discussion of those very subjects which it most
concerns us to investigate. If religion be a fallacy, its votaries are
slaves. Whereupon, then, rests the assertion, that if the believer does
not gain, he cannot lose? Is it nothing to lose time and talents, to
waste our labor on that which is not bread, and our money upon that
which profiteth not? Is it nothing to feel that the human beings
that surround us are children of the devil and heirs of hell? Is
it nothing to think that we may perhaps look across the great gulf
and see some one we have loved on earth tormented in a fiery lake;
and hear him ask us to dip a finger in water that it may cool his
parched tongue? Is it no loss to live in disquiet by day, and in
fear by night; to pass through dark seasons of doubt and temptation,
and to be conscious that we are but as strangers and pilgrims here,
toiling through a weary valley of cares and sorrows? Is it no loss to
hold back when truth oversteps the line of orthodoxy, and when there
ought to be free discussion, to shrink before we know not what? Is
all this no loss? Or, is it not rather the loss of all that a free
and rational being most values?
Those engaged in the trade of religion, imagine themselves to have a
mighty advantage against Infidels upon the strength of the old, worn
out argument that whether the Christian religion be true or false
there can be no harm in believing; and that belief is, at any rate,
the safer side. Now to say nothing of this old popish argument, which a
sensible man must see is the very essence of popery, and would oblige
us to believe all the absurdities and nonsense in the world: inasmuch
as if there be no harm in believing, and there be some harm and danger
in not believing, the more we believe, the better; and all the argument
for any religion whatever would be, that it should frighten us out of
our wits; the more terrible, the more true; and it would be our duty
to become the converts of that religion, whatever it might be, whose
priests could swear the loudest, and damn and curse the fiercest. This
is a wolfish argument in sheep's clothing. (Truth Seeker tract.)