No "beginning"

Preface

To aid somewhat in the great struggle that reason is making to free mankind from that cumbrous cloak of superstition, fear and misery which it has inherited from past generations, and which still clings to the race like a frightful nightmare to a waking man — to the end that greater freedom of opinion and greater happiness may come to the whole people, is the object of this little volume.

It is undoubtedly true that mankind will cease to be superstitious only in proportion as people come to understand the real causes of events in nature. It is equally certain that people generally will not strive to find natural causes for what occurs until they are convinced that such causes actually exist. It is, therefore, evident that the first step in the eradication of superstition is to have it understood that nature has her own

4 PREFACE

ways of doing things — and that her methods are inherent and invariable.

As long as man is taught the doctrine of so-called special providences — is made to believe that supernatural beings are about him — he will suffer in a two-fold way ; he will be haunted with ill-grounded fears and, anon, be lulled into a feeling of security when real danger surrounds him.

And it is because of such considerations as these that the thoughts in the following pages and the general truths established therein become at once both fundamental as truths and helpful from the standpoint of practical good.

In pointing out the fundamental fallacy in the argument on which rests the doctrine of the "Creation" of the universe out of nothing, and its necessary corollary, the belief in the existence of a being or beings outside of nature, the great truths of the eternity of the substance of things, and of the existence in nature of adequate causes for all that occurs, have been made manifest.

Thus the corner-stone of superstition has

PEEFACE O

been removed and at the same time an enduring basis for a rational system of ethics has been found.

That the introductory part of the work is more lengthy than what follows will not surprise the reader when he is reminded that the formal argument of any proposition may be very brief — that prolixity is not indicative of tne strength of logical structures.

As the principal trouble in raising a great weight is the preparation and placing ] of suitable levers or other mechanical appliances, so in communicating a new truth, the greatest task is the preparation of the mind for its reception.

The mind by its very nature can only reason from data, and hence, if new conclusions are to be arrived at, old impressions (things believed to be facts), to some extent, must be removed before any progress can be made. And it is from this view that the relevancy of all that is said in the introductory part of the work to the main question will appear.

The writer believes that his brief argu-

6 PREFACE

ment establishes immovably the doctrine of the eternity of the substance of things as opposed to the " Creation " theory, and that the general acceptance of this truth must result in great good to humanity, for the simple reason that, in the fullest sense of the word, it is a fundamental one, underlying as it does the whole structure of human knowledge — the science of duty as well as all other branches of learning.

But whether or not the argument on this main question is conclusive, no person can, it is believed, read the little volume without deriving some benefit. Advanced thinkers may possibly see more clearly the strength of their positions. Honest doubters of old doctrines will be encouraged to depend on the natural outgivings of their intellects as having much of real truth. Believers in the common church dogmas, if not so shaken in their views as to make them more independent thinkers themselves, will, at least, be made more tolerant of the views of those who can not see things as they do. Skepticism will be less odious to them than before, and free thought be looked upon as less

PREFACE 7

dangerous than they were wont to consider it. So that if no definite change of opinion on any particular subject result to readers there will still remain to some of them at least the profit of the new thoughts that will be provoked. And it is new thoughts that move the world — all progress depends upon them.

It may not be amiss to state here that the doctrine of the eternity of the substance of the physical universe, as herein established, is not necessarily atheistic. The argument will, in the minds of all readers who are thoughtful and who have a fair knowledge of the principles of Natural Science, destroy the idea of a " Creator," but it at the same time demonstrates beyond question the existence of a " Supreme Being."

It leads the mind by logical and natural processes of reasoning from the ' ' temporal " to the "eternal" and thus brings the reader face to face with God — and all this without any "inspiration" other than that which is the common heritage of every honest thinker.

That the Deity thus found is not a " per-

8 PKEFACE

sonal" one will not be objected to by the deepest religious natures, for the reason that the impersonal is necessarily greater than the personal, and the true God must be that, than which a greater can not be conceived.

Chicago, August, 1892.

Contents

I. Character op the Work— Somewhat Personal — The Faith of the Skeptic — No Unknowable— Being Needs no Apology — Source op Knowledge — Need op Toleration— Other thoughts. . . 13 II. Reason Leads to Truth — Consciousness not a Truth-determining Faculty— To Know is a Property op Man's Organism — Nature Gives no Reasons for her Actions 50

III. Definition of Truth — The Crowning

Glory of Man — A. Duty to Reason— Common-place Facts 68

Chapter I

CHARACTER OF THE "WORK — SOMEWHAT PERSONAL — THE FAITH OF THE SKEPTIC— NO UNKNOWABLE — BEING NEEDS NO APOLOGY — SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE — NEED OF TOLERATION— OTHER THOUGHTS

11 Within the brain's most secret cells, A certain Lord Chief Justice dwells, Ofsov'reiorn power, whom, one and all, With common voice, we ' reason ' call.''

This is not an " orthodox" book. It inferentially and intentionally antagonizes the fundamental doctrines of the so-called orthodox religions. Do not read it, dear brother man, if yon are a believer in the popular creeds of the day, unless you are willing to investigate anew the foundations of your faith. The work is written for the truth it may contain and is published with the hope that it may be instrumental in aiding mankind, somewhat, in finding fundamental facts on which to base and maintain its ethics and its governments. It deals only with basal truths, and is written in the interest of future man. If the reasoning of the work, and the conclusions arrived at, are unsound, it can do no permanent harm, and may, even in such case, lead to truth, by provoking new thoughts in others. Prof. John Tyndall says : ' ' Right or wrong, a thoughtfully uttered theory has a dynamic power which operates against intellectual stagnation ; and even by provoking opposition is eventually of service to the cause of truth."

The writer is a lover of truth. He despises hypocrisy and deception ; and, hence, does not desire to get what he has to say before his readers through false pretenses. The Christian Bible, though the work of man as all other bibles and books are, contains much of truth. It says in substance, somewhere, that we should not do evil that good may come. This is heartily indorsed ; and hence any good that may come from this book will not be at the expense of the evil of dissimulation.

The writer has thought considerably on religious and ethical questions, and for the sole purpose of finding the real facts underlying the systems engaging his attention.

For years he has refrained from giving publicity to some of his most honest convictions through a fear (born as he believes of his early education) that harm to society might come from the too general enlightenment of the masses as to the actual truth lying at the foundation of the popular religious systems. " Santa- Claus," he reasoned, is a source of pleasure, and possibly of profit, to children ; and why is not an immaculate Savior, a veritable God-man, a benefit, if not a necessity, for men and women ?

He has, however, come to the conclusion that the time has arrived when truth may safely show her face; that, with the enlightenment of the age as to the nature of things, there no longer exists a necessity for a "Thus saith the Lord" system of morals.

" New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good uncouth.

They must upward still and onward,

Who would keep abreast of truth.

We, ourselves, must pilgrims be, Launch our Mayflower, and sail boldly

Through the winter's icy sea; Nor attempt the future's portal

There is but little doubt that if Moses were now alive he would not seriously claim that his ten commandments were engraved by the " finger of God,'' but would admit that they were the result of experience, and written as all other laws were at that time.

It is easy to see the wisdom if not the necessity, in the absence of well organized governments, and in the then ignorant condition of the body of the people, of an appeal to the superstition of the semi-barbarous masses that the ancient lawgiver had to govern.

Then, such a thing as rational ethics was not known unless it was among the ruling classes. No appeal could be made to the people through their knowledge of the nature of things, because they did not possess such knowledge. 1 Instead, therefore,

1 "Moses" is supposed tohave lived something over three thousand years ago and the child-like ignorance of mankind at that time as to the causes of natural phenomena may be inferred from such facts as the following :

The earth was then supposed to be a flat body of unknown extent. It was then, and until a few hundred years ago, believed to be the center of the universe; in fact was thought of as being substantially the universe. The millions of sun-stars that are each the center of a system of worlds were thought to have been created and placed in space for no other purpose than what little light they gave to the nightly wanderer on this earth.

Any unusual natural occurrence was believed to be a special manifestation of the anger of the Gods. A rainbow was a promise of good, and an eclipse was fin omen of some great tribulation. Animals were slaughtered and burned that the smell might reach to heaven and mollify Jehovah's wrath. The art of printing and the manufacture of paper, the use of steam and electricity as powers, the discovery of the circulation of the blood, the use of machinery of almost all kinds, the use of medicines for diseases, a knowledge of the atmosphere in which we live, the discovery of the shape, size and motion of the earth, and of the great American continent comprising nearly all the land within the Western Hemisphere — and, in short, the discovery of nearly every fact on which the learning of the world is to-day based, were all events occurring thousands of years after the time when " Moses " is supposed to of attempting the impossible task of showing the people the why and the wherefore of right doing, Nature's powers were personified, and "God," who it was believed lived on the top of Mount Sinai, was said to have arbitrarily issued His mandates through Moses to the people.

have issued his "Thus saith the Lord " rules to the Hebrew people, That he did very well as a lawgiver, considering the times in which he lived, is not disputed ; but that he was inspired, in any manner different from what honest lawmakers of all times are inspired, is an assumption without the semblance of proof, and one that has been a great hindrance to progress ; for it is unquestionably true that just in proportion as the world is made to believe at any time that a certain code of morals, or of civil conduct, has been directly given by God to man (it being in such case considered perfect) just in that proportion will man cease all effort to make better laws or to establish forms of government more conducive to his happiness and advancement.

It is clear from a moment's thought on the subject, that the " ten commandments " contain only such fundamental rules of conduct as would suggest themselves to man at a very early age of the race.

As to the display of any superhuman wisdom in the so-called Mosaic account of creation in the order in which things were said to have been produced, so often spoken of by theologians, all there is to this, is. that the writer was not stupid enough to "create" the herbivorous animal before the plants on which it feeds, or the fishes before the sea in which they swim.

There may be those to-day, and doubtless are, who believe literally this simple story, and who would be less tractable as subjects and less worthy as citizens were it not for some such belief ; yet, it is happily true that man is so constituted and environed that, as a rule, such restraining influences cannot be separated from him except in proportion as he ceases to be superstitious ; and this condition can only come from a quite general knowledge among the people of the fact that Nature has laws of her own and that those laws are invariable. Superstition has been, at the same time, a great benefit and a great curse to the world ; a necessity in the past ; to some extent, possibly, beneficial at the present time ; but its loss need not be feared; for the reason that it will only disappear, like milk-teeth in children, when crowded out by its better successor.

It will hardly be denied that it is the growth of the knowledge of natural causes for natural phenomena, that is the source of the increasing lack of faith in old church dogmas. Ever since man developed sufficiently as a rational being to inquire after causes of things, some cause had to be assigned for what occurred ; and in exact proportion as he failed to account philosophically for events in nature, he was inclined to attribute such events to the work of some unseen personality. And, conversely, in proportion as he has found that matter possesses certain properties, and that natural forces are ever acting in accordance with their own innate laws, he has found constantly less need of the supernatural. 2 Two thousand years ago men, generally, believed in miracles. Some time ago it became a kind of proverb that " the age of miracles has passed." What were called special providences were, however, almost universally believed in until within, comparatively, a few years. Now, many clergymen even hesitate to assert such a belief ; while scientists, almost universally, consider such

2 Joseph Le Con re in one of his recent and very able works in defense of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion, says: " The religions world seems, just now, to be in one of those states of chaotic opinion, in a transition state, a stage of disintegration, a state of solution, caused principally by the mass of new elements introduced by science.''''

things as existing only in the imaginations of men. But this great change, it must be seen, is on account of the growing belief of the world in the reign of natural law. 3

The belief, in laws specially promulgated by Deity to man is giving way because

3 Herbert W. Morris, an able defender of certain church doctrines, writes eloquently on the uniformity of Nature's operations as follows : " The grand elements of nature move and operate according to the same uniform laws, the world over. Whether we traverse the plains, climb the mountains, sail upon the seas, dive into caverns, or ascend into the clouds, we find these laws in undeviating operation. Not an element moves capriciously, not an atom floats at random. Gravitation exerts its power according to the same rule, gases combine in the same proportions, metals fuse and liquids boil at the same points of heat, light is reflected and refracted at the same angles, heat is radiated, and the air is condensed or rarefied after the same laws, and dew and rain and snow are produced under the same circumstances and according to the same processes — whether we stand on this, or that side of the globe. The electric, magnetic and vital forces are likewise invariable in their action. The Needle elects its position, the fiery fluid of the clouds recovers its equilibrium, and life puts forth its powers, in the same way, wherever we go. Atoms cohere to atoms, and unite to form the crystal, or coalesce to produce the green blade, or aggregate to build the lordly tree, or blend to put forth the painted and perfumed flower, or combine to yield the luscious fruit — under the impulses of the same mysterious laws, from the rising to the setting sun."

of, and solely because of, the increasing knowledge of the essential nature of things. So, as has been said, we need not fear to part with the old doctrines of direct and supernatural revelations as to duty and of unseen personalities ; for these will only disappear as they are crowded aside by the onmarching G-enius of science, bearing in her hand the mandate, which includes all that is good in the teachings of Moses and Christ : Conform yourselves ever to the laws of nature ; for there is no peace nor forgiveness for transgressors of her eternal edicts.

The writer has no personal ends to gain by disagreeing with the majority of his fellow-men on these subjects. On the contrary, he has thought in spite of himself, and come to conclusions that he well knows are unpopular at the present time. Whatever opinion, therefore, may be formed of the con*- tents of this little volume, he trusts that he will be credited with sincerity in all that may be written.

The writer is one of the people ; he loves freedom for himself and for mankind as he loves his, own being. He once, voluntarily, risked his life in war for union, freedom and equality among men. He is a law-abidingcitizen, believing that laws made and retained by the majority of the people should be obeyed, right or wrong.

In his youth he was a " skeptic " ; in his early manhood an "unbeliever;" and for years past, one of the wonders of the world to him has been the fact that so many educated and good people were believers in the "Apostles' Creed." 4

For over thirty years he has been conscious that if the doctrines assented to by the millions of ' ' orthodox '' people were really true, he was liable at any moment to pass into a place or state of endless misery ;

4 For the information of any reader who is not familiar with it, this creed is here given:

" I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; which was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell, the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen. 1 '

and he has pursued his investigations seriously and solemnly in view of the great risk involved.

He has often been asked, why not be on the "safe side" by accepting the church doctrines? But he could not do so. He could not assent to certain doctrines, and was an unbeliever in them, for the reason — paradoxical as the statement may appear to some persons — that he had too much faith — in something else. In other words, his faith made him an unbeliever.

He was an unbeliever in the doctrine of endless punishment, because he had faith that if there was a personal God he would provide a better destiny for his own children, and that in any case a less terrible fate awaited man.' 1 5

5 That people of sound minds, who have any love in their hearts, can be believers in this monstrous doctrine of an endless hell must always be a matter of great astonishment to humane and thoughtful persons. And the fact that such a doctrine has been retained so long as a part of the creeds of the dominant churches is, in itself, proof that religious beliefs are, as a rule, the result of authority and not of thought. The doctrine is wholly irreconcilable with other church teachings. It is so far out of harmony with the conception of God as a good and compassionate being,

He could not believe that an all-wise being made man and pronounced the work good, and then "repented" of the act and drowned the world, because he had faith that supreme wisdom could make no mistakes.

He could not believe that Gfod created millions of men and women, knowing beforehand that any of them would be the objects that, if it were true, it won Id make of the personal creator that the church believes in an infinite and unrelenting: tyrant. To the extent that it is really accepted, its tendency is to lessen sympathy, promote selfishness, nourish bigotry, increase intolerance, stifle thought, check progress, generate discord, estrange friends, create misery and to antagonize at once the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. It is a doctrine so superlatively repulsive, absurd and awful as to make of all arguments against it the merest verbiage and any attempted defense the veriest blasphemy. Language can not depict half of its horrors nor comprehension grasp the smallest fraction of its infamy. It is infinite hate, infinite cruelty, infinite nonsense. Let every reader of these lines reflect on the meaning of the words "endless punishment" — not a year, not a thousand years, not a million years, not a million million years, but ages added to ages, eons multiplied by eons, and the sum and the product of all these, and yet the tortures of hell have but well begun! It is a disgrace to the present generation that any objection is made to striking such an antiquated, needless and immoral dogma from the creeds of every church. It disparages man, libels God and is too great a compliment for even an imaginary devil.

2b NO BEGINNING

of his endless wrath ; because, on the same authority, he preferred to have faith that God was compassionate and good.

He early doubted the existence of a personal devil ; because he had faith that, if there ever was such a creature, God would have killed him at the first opportunity ; and would not have been long in making an opportunity.

And he doubted that an angel in heaven ever got up a rebellion there and became a devil ; because there seemed to be just as good authority, and more reason, for believing that God's will was supreme, at least in that one particular place.

He did not believe that the world was created out of nothing ; that an adult man was ever made in a few minutes, or less time ; that Eve was manufactured out of a bit of bone and iiesh, cut from the side of a man; that Adam "hid" from an omnipresent personality behind a bush ; that God had a "chosen people" and at the same time was not a "respecter of persons."

That God commanded Abraham to kill and burn up his son ; that Christ was immaculately conceived, or that he went, bodily, to some other world after his execution ; that Christ worked miracles at all ; and especially, that the first proof given that he was Deity, in the form of a man, was the changing. of a quantity of water into an intoxicating liquor to be drunk at a feast.

In short, he did not believe any of a thousand miraculous, mysterious, improbable and cruel things mentioned in the "Bible"; because he believed them to be unreasonable, and preferred to have faith in things consistent with human experience and the well-known laws of nature.

He thus, literally, became skeptical through faith; and he remained so from the fact that he had faith — that there is safety in being true to one's own honest convictions ; faith that a good God would not punish a person in some other world for trying to be right in this ; faith that no remorse can come to any rational being for earnestly seeking to know the truth.

And this, dear reader, is the faith of the skeptic. Not a faith that is born of a vain and selfish desire to " wear a crown,"

or of the fear of punishment ; not a faith that is the result of the stuffing of the mind when young with mysterious and unreasonable things, but the faith that comes from deliberation, that fears nothing but beingwrong, and asks no special reward for being right.

Skepticism, therefore, let it be remembered, odious as the clergy have tried to make the word, simply means lack of faith in some propositions, some doctrines ; and must, of necessity, be based on faith in something else.

It is impossible to seriously doubt without a reason.

The writer is not a believer in the doctrine that man was once perfect and is now totally depraved ; but, on the contrary, he believes that naturally there is much good in man — that in general men mean well. He knows that there is much evil in the world, and that the lives of certain individuals show great depravity. But he also knows that there is much good manifested in the lives of men, and that among the many some are pre-eminently good. Among men there are to be found the good, better, best ; and the bad, worse, worst — all grades ; and this will doubtless always be the case, however high mankind may rise or however low it may fall, and regardless of what may, at any time, or in any world, be its standard of excellence.

He believes that good and evil, like heat and cold, are relative terms. He knows that many well-meaning men have, in a practical sense of the word, been very bad men ; and that many times the wicked do good things ; and further, that many things admittedly evil in the doer prove to be for the ultimate good of society.

He has, therefore, learned to be very tolerant of the views and acts of his fellowman ; not pretending to know with any such degree of certitude what on the whole is best in any given case, as to justify any extreme condemnation of the acts or teachings of others.

As evil exists, and good still abounds, as the intentions of men are generally good, however bad in fact their doings or beliefs may be, the writer is inclined to account for the false views that have always been plentiful, on the ground of incorrect reasoning on the subjects considered, rather than on the theory of the perverseness of the reasoners. He has, therefore, always felt that the greatest need of the world was more honest reasoning together on the various questions dividing and estranging men.

The writer is sensible of his own littleness, and amazed at the greatness of things without himself. He admits that he knows but little ; that any one man knows but little ; and does not deem it possible, even for the millions of his race in the aggregate, to ever solve all the problems of the universe. He believes, however, that nature's operations are all knowable to the collective intelligence of man, or to beings of the nature of man intellectually considered. 6 So many

6 If the birth of ideas in the brain is thought of as an operation in which the energy of the brain is converted into thought, then in such view of the case it must be admitted that here is one performance of nature that is unknowable; for the reason that there must be a point, so to say, between knowable nature on the one side and knowledge of nature on the other where there is neither distinctively the one nor the other of these things. Speaking of "mind in the terms of matter," mind is the cognizing laws of Nature are now known, so much more in regard to her hitherto secret ways subject, and matter and its movements are the cognized or cognizable objects, and it is clear that in such view (which makes of mind, so-called, a kind of machine for converting natural phenomena into knowledge) the " mind " can not be at the same time both the cognizing subject and the cognized object — the machine and the material used by the machine.