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vol. title: vol. period: 1882 pages in vol.: 174 |
THE PHILOSOPHIC INQUIRER.
MADRAS:—SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1882.
RELIGIOUS MORALITY
AND
ATHEISM.
Indeed much confusion of ideas has been existing among unthinking and ungenerous men for centuries past, with regard to the true import of that much abused term, Atheism. Indeed the misapprehension of the true meaning of Atheism by bigots, religious fanatics, and hypocritical pietists, has engendered manifold evils too numerous to mention. The term Atheism has been from the age of Socrates, or even from remoter ages, a bye word of reproach with men who lacked moral courage to speak and act virtuously for virtue’s sake; who cared more for the creed of man than for his deed. The misapprehension noted above of atheism, did not merely end in the bigots’ detestation of atheism, but cost the lives of many honest minds who though not atheists, were yet candid utterers of Truth. Who can compute the lives of many valuable men and heroic women of the stamp of Bruno, and Hypatia who perished as victims of religious intolerance? Who can guage the amount of innocent human blood shed at the altars of the Christian Church; the amount of blood of the innocent Buddhists, shed during the glorious reign of a Sivite Pandya; the amount of blood shed in the interminable war between the followers of the ever-vicious Vishnu, and the ever-ravenous Siva; the amount of blood unceasingly shed by the followers of Mahomet, during their iniquitous reigns in this very land? Ah! all these heinous deeds, were the outcome of Providence. All these horrors, forsooth were dictated by religious motives, and were the fruits of religious ideas. Religion engenders hatred of man; religion encourages prostitution; religion incites persecution and torture of heretics; religion fetters human thought; curbs the human mind, and manacles human liberty. Religion rejoices in a circle of damsels, and sanctifies these cankerworms in temples; religion promises heaven even to the worst characters upon earth under the penalty of repentance in their death-bed, in their unconscious state. Many indeed among religionists in all climes have been pure and sincere in their lives; but their purity and sincerity have been in spite of their religion; have been the fruits of their heart,—their church. In face of such horrors, and inhuman deeds perpetrated by religion, well attested by candid and philosophic historians, men even in this enlightened age have not ceased to revile at atheists, and malign atheism, the highest point in the evolution of thought; the ultimate goal of human happiness. Heresy has never been seen among indolent priests, and barren minds. Atheism has ever been the profession of honest heretics, and true lovers of the human race. Atheism infuses into the mind of man honest doubt; excites in him a love for study of the mysteries of the Universe; and dictates the duty of man to man for the sake of man, and not for the sake of God. Atheists hope not for heaven, as reward for their actions upon earth, nor have they to fear Hell, for ‘it is a hangman’s whip ‘to haud’ the religious ‘wretch in order.’ In this, the aim of atheism is palpably superior to the aim of theism. And it is this atheism that made a Christian Theist, S. T. Coleridge admire, and say, “Not a man in a thousand, has either the strength of mind or goodness of heart to be an atheist.” It is this atheism that Max Müller prized, and praised in these undying words:—
“There is another atheism which is the very life-blood of all true faith. It is the power of giving up what, in our best, our most honest moments, we know to be no longer true; it is the readiness to replace the less perfect, however dear, however sacred it may have been to us, by the more perfect, however much it may be detested, as yet, by the world. It is the true self-surrender, the true self-sacrifice, the truest trust in truth, the truest faith. Without that atheism religion would long ago have become a petrified hypocrisy; without that atheism no new religion, no reform, no reformation, no resuscitation would ever have been possible; without that Atheism no new life is possible for any one of us.”
The atheism so well appreciated by this great man, is the atheism professed by the intellectual kings of to day; and above all by Bradlaugh in England, and ‘the millions to whom he does the thinking.’ But the atheism of Madame Blavatsky appears to be of a more searching kind; and she calls herself a metaphysical atheist. Be the distinction what it may. Max Müller’s words are sufficient to convince any uninformed or prejudiced mind of the mission and scope of honest atheism. But there are those who unheeding the testimonies of such eminent judges and pretending to be moral under the guise of religion, do unblushingly cry out against the growth and spread of atheism, as if it were some demoralizing ism. To each of these we would say, with love, and without abuse of liberty, Physician, heal thyself!
Editor's notes
- ↑ Religious Morality and Atheism. by unknown author, Philosophic Inquirer, The, New series, Vol. I, No. 24, Madras, Sunday, December 10, 1882