THE GLORY OF UNBELIEF
Mental freedom being secured, Unbelief refuses to be again fettered; it has gone on from discovery to discovery; it has tested the value of the cardinal doctrines of orthodox Christianity - tested them and found them worthless. What has now become of the Genesaic thoery of the creation of the world? What of the age of the earth? What of the origin of sin and evil? What of the doctrine of the human depravity? What of the belief in the vicarious sufferings of Christ? What of the old notion of eternal punishment? What of the destruction of the world by the deluge? What of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt? What of the miracles of Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha? What of the age of the Pentateuch? What of the contention for the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures? What of the testimony respecting the Jesus Christ of the four Gospels? It is well known what science says to all these old-world doctrines. It simply discredits them; treats them as figments of the undisciplined imagination, and passes them by as unworthy of serious notice. This has been the noble work of Unbelief.
Being unbelievers in orthodoxy we prefer fact to fiction, reality to imagination, and good conduct to mere profession! In the words of Mazzini: “We propose progressive improvement, the transformation of the corrupted medium in which we are now living, the overthrow of all idolatries, shams, lies and conventionalities. We want man to be not the poor, passive, cowardly, phantasmagoric unreality of the actual time, thinking in one way and acting in another, bending to a power which he hates of despises, carrying empty Popish or Thirty-nine Article formularies on his breast and none within. We would make a man a fragment of the living truth - a real individual, being linked to collective humanity, the bold seeker of things to come, the gentle, mild, loving, yet firm uncompromising apostle of all that is great, heroic and good.”
Herein lies ‘The Glory of Unbelief’.
