PHILIP VIVIAN
“Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely.”—Macaulay.
WATTS & CO.,
17, JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET STREET. E.C.
1911
TO
MY WIFE AND CHILDREN
CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface to First Edition ix
Preface to Second Edition xi
Preface to Third Edition xii
Chapter I.
THE GRAVITY OF THE PRESENT SITUATION
- § 1. The Truth of the Matter 1
- § 2. The Attitude of the Laity 6
- § 3. Christianity and Science not Reconciled 17
- § 4. The Genesis and Character of the New Outburst 25
- § 5. Apologetics “Found Wanting” 29
- § 6. More Things Which Confuse the Issue 36
Chapter II.
THE EXTRAORDINARY STATE OF APOLOGETICS WITH REGARD TO MIRACLES
- § 1. Preliminary Remarks
- The View of Science 41
- Why Have Miracles Ceased? 42
- Belief in Miracles Essential 44
- § 2. Miracle Apologetics 45
- § 3. The Fundamental Miracles 55
- The Resurrection 56
- The Ascension 65
- The Incarnation 68
- Concluding Remarks 70
Chapter III.
THE DESTRUCTIVE CHARACTER OF MODERN BIBLE CRITICISM
- § 1. Clashing Views on Bible Criticism 71
- § 2. A Summary of the Results of Bible Criticism 76
- § 3.
- We Must Accept the Whole or Reject the Whole 100
- Silence of Historians 102
- Thoughts on “Tradition” As God’s Method for The Transmission of Truth To Posterity 105
- The Alleged Sinlessness of Jesus Christ 108
- The Ignorance of Jesus Christ 109
Chapter IV.
THE GRAVE SUSPICIONS AROUSED BY THE STUDY OF ANCIENT BELIEFS
- § 1. The New Theological Theory of a Progressive Revelation 115
- § 2. Parallels in Ancient Religions, and Some Remarks Upon Them 121
- Krishna and Buddha 121
- Parallels Other Than Krishna and Buddha 126
- Are the Krishna and Buddha Legends Borrowed from Christianity? 136
- § 3. Parallels in the Beliefs of Primitive Man, And Some Remarks Upon Them 142
- The Religions of Ancient America 144
- Vegetation Gods 148
- Why Men Eat Their God 151
- § 4. The Solar Myth 154
- Jonah and the Whale 154
- Anticipations of Christianity in Solar Myths 156
- The Christian Theory Ignored by Science 157
- The Sun As a Symbol 158
- § 5. Concluding Remarks on Christian and Anti-Christian Theories 159
- Argument from Essenism 162
- Argument from Mithraism 163
Chapter V.
IRRECONCILABLE DIFFICULTIES CONNECTED WITH EVOLUTION
- § 1. Preliminary Remarks
- The Doctrine of Evolution 169
- Darwinism 171
- The Average Person’s Ideas on the Evolution of Man 173
- The Attitude of the Church 175
- § 2. “
- The Extraordinary Affinity of Bodily Structure 198
- The Revelations of Embryology 202
- The Tale Told by the Useless Rudimentary Organs 205
- The Importance of the Question 208
- An Instructive Criticism 211
- The Bishop of Worcester’s Theory 213
- The Archdeacon of Manchester’s Theory 216
- The Rationalist’s Theory 218
- Conclusions 218
Chapter VI.
THE FAILURE OF THEISTIC ARGUMENTS
- § 1. Preliminary Remarks
- Theism, and Who Are Theists 219
- § 2. The Existence of a First Cause—An Uncaused Cause 221
- § 3. The First Cause an Intelligence 223
- Design and Directivity 223
- Directivity 224
- Design 225
- Differences of Opinion Among Theistic Apologists 228
- § 4. The First Cause a Beneficent Intelligence
- A Personal God 230
- Divine Immanence in Nature 231
- A Fact in History 232
- The Past and Present Position of the Ethical Argument 234
- Evil for which Man is not Held Responsible 235
- Evil for which Man is Held Responsible 240
- Conscience 243
- Free-will 247
- § 5. Religious Experience
- Mysticism and Conversion 251
Chapter VII.
FALLACIES IN POPULAR ARGUMENTS
- § 1. Preliminary Remarks—The Power of Christianity for Good 273
- § 2. Christianity Woman’s Best Friend 277
- § 3. The Overthrow of Christianity Would Endanger Society and the Nation 286
- § 4. The Spread of Christianity a Proof of its Truth 290
- § 5. The Noble Army of Martyrs 296
- § 6. The Universality of the Religious Instinct
- The Hypothesis Stated 298
- The Rationalist’s Contention 299
- The Apologist’s Views concerning Superstition and the Religious Instinct 300
- Beliefs of Savage Man 302
- Magic and Religion 305
- Religion in Modern China 307
- Apostates in Christendom 311
- Religion in Modern Japan 313
- Classical History 314
- Note on Human Sentiment as to a Future Life 315
Chapter VIII.
CONCLUSION
- § 1. A Summary 317
- § 2. Why Lead a Moral Life?
- Preliminary Remarks 323
- The Necessity for Morality 324
- Uselessness of Vague Threats 326
- The Need for an Early Education in Ethical Principles 327
- The Object-Lesson Furnished by the Japanese 328
- Criminality
- (a) “Magna est veritas et prævalebit” 347
- (b) Obscurantism has had its Day 349
- (c) The Effect on Morality 352
- (d) The Real Danger 352
- (e) The Consolations of Belief, and the Distress we may Cause by our Candour 353
- (f) Can we Alter People’s Beliefs? 359
- (g) Can Beliefs be Useful though False? 361
- (h) Is a New Religion Required? 362
- (i) Why be so Impatient of Error? 364
Appendix 379
Index 409
An edition of this book is issued in cloth at 1s. 6d. net, and another on superior paper, gilt lettered, at 3s. 6d. net.
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
What does a man seek when he examines his religious creed? To this question Canon Liddon replies as follows:—“He seeks intellectual satisfaction and moral support. His intellect asks for reliable information upon certain subjects of the most momentous importance. How does he come here? Whither is he going? What is the purpose and drift of the various forms of existence around him? Above all, what is the nature, what are the attributes and dispositions, of that Being to whom the highest yearnings of his inmost self constantly point as the true object of his existence? In asking that the answers to these questions shall be definite, that what is certain shall be affirmed as certain, what is doubtful as doubtful, what is false as false, he is only asking that his religious information shall be presented in as clear and practical a shape as his information on other subjects. In no department of human knowledge is haziness deemed a merit; by nothing is an educated mind more distinguished than by a resolute effort to mark the exact frontiers of its knowledge and its ignorance; to hesitate only when hesitation is necessary; to despair of knowledge only when knowledge is ascertainably out of reach. Surely on the highest and most momentous of all subjects this same precision may be asked for with reverence and in reason; surely the human mind is not bound to forget its noblest instincts when it approaches the throne and presence of its Maker?” (Some Elements of Religion, p. 24).
Again, in his New Year’s message for 1905, the Archbishop of Canterbury condemns indifference to truth as a vice, and “drifting along the current of popular opinion” as a sin. He invites and persuades us to use “the sadly-neglected powers and privileges of rational thought and common sense.”
The duty of thinking, therefore, is now recognised by the Church—it was not formerly. But what will be the result of this thinking? In his book, The Hearts of Men, Mr. Fielding tells us that “no man has ever sat down calmly unbiassed to reason out his religion, and not ended by rejecting it.” Mr. Fielding adds: “The great men, who have been always religious, do not invalidate what I say.... There is no assumption more fallacious than that, because a man is a keen reasoner on one subject, he is also on another. Men who are strictly religious, who believe in their faith, whatever their faith may be, consider it above proof, beyond argument.... It is emotion, not reason; feeling, not induction.” (The Hearts of Men, pp. 142–3.)
Does not this deep and sympathetic writer furnish us with a true picture of men’s hearts? What if, after exercising their privileges of rational thought and common sense, the majority of men find that Christianity no longer gives them either intellectual satisfaction or moral support? What if they finally arrive at the
A man may enter, and generally does enter, upon his inquiry biassed in favour of religious belief of some kind. He approaches the subject in a reverent frame of mind. In his private prayers to his God he does not neglect to ask for heavenly guidance. He evinces precisely the spirit which a divine would consider becoming. But as his inquiry proceeds there comes a time when his religious bias disappears—when he can no longer feel what he could honestly call reverence. He discovers that what he thought was known, and had actually been revealed, is unknown. How can he believe in and worship the Unknown? More than ever he feels his own insignificance and ignorance; but the feeling thus excited, while akin to awe, is divested of reverence. Pursuing his search far enough, he succeeds in extricating himself from a quagmire of demonstrably false superstitions. Finally he reaches solid ground, and builds his life upon it.
Unfortunately, many never pursue their inquiry up to this stage; they become fearful, or they give it up as a hopeless entanglement, or they find they have not the requisite leisure. Perhaps, therefore, the information gained by one of the more fortunate may be of some little service to others. It will be my endeavour to set forth in this book not only the destructive, but also the constructive, results of a search for truth.
P. V.
January, 1906.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
“This book,” writes one of its clerical critics,1 “is evidently the honest, outspoken opinion of one who, having been brought up in an unquestioning acceptance of the orthodox doctrines of Christianity, has gradually drifted into the extreme of Rationalism.” Up to a certain point my friend is right. I was indeed brought up in an unquestioning acceptance of the orthodox teachings of Christianity; but, while my conversion to Rationalism has certainly been gradual, I may fairly claim that the process has been something very different from merely drifting. Long and careful study, the reluctant abandonment of a cherished belief, the adoption of an attitude which is unpopular and which distresses many who are near and dear to me, the practical application of the principles of Rationalism to daily life, involving as it does the serious step of bringing up my children in strict accordance with my firm convictions—these are surely not the ways of one who has permitted himself to drift. A man might—he often does—drift into indifferentism, or, now that theology is so liberal and heterodoxy so rife, into latitudinarianism, but hardly into “the extreme of Rationalism.”
I take this opportunity of cordially thanking all who have assisted me, and specially I have to thank Mr. Joseph McCabe and Dr. H. D. R. Kingston for reading the MS. and the proofs in all their stages, and for pointing out verbal inaccuracies and suggesting improvements both in the matter and in the manner of presenting it. I am also much indebted to a lady, who does not wish her name to appear, for lightening the task of proof correction.
P. V.
January, 1907.
1 In the June (1906) number of Review of Theology and Philosophy, edited by Professor Allan Menzies, D.D.
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION
The present edition consists of 10,000 copies, bringing the total issue to 31,000. Apart from a few alterations in the chapter dealing with ancient beliefs, the work is unchanged.
P. V.
April, 1911.