Precedence is therefore given to
the duties of this life.
Being asked to send to the International Congress of Liberal Thinkers,
(1886), an account of the tenets of the English party known as
Secularists, I gave the following explanation to them.
"The Secular is that, the issues of which can be tested by the
experience of this life.
"The ground common to all self-determined thinkers is that of
independency of opinion, known as free thought, which though but an
impulse of intellectual courage in the search for truth, or an impulse
of aggression against hurtful or irritating error, or the caprice of
a restless mind, is to be encouraged. It is necessary to promote
independent thought--whatever its manner of manifestation--since
there can be no progress without it. A Secularist is intended to be
a reasoner, that is as Coleridge defined him, one who inquires what a
thing is, and not only what it is, but _why_ it is what it is.
"One of two great forces of opinion created in this age, is what is
known as atheism,* which deprives superstition of its standing-ground
and compels theism to reason for its existence. The other force is
materialism which shows the physical consequences of error, supplying,
as it were, beacon lights to morality.
* Huxley's term agnosticism implies a different thing--
unknowingness without denial.
"Though respecting the right of the atheist and theist to their theories
of the origin of nature, the Secularist regards them as belonging to the
debatable ground of speculation. Secularism neither asks nor gives any
opinion upon them, confining itself to the entirely independent field of
study--the order of the universe. Neither asserting nor denying theism
or a future life, having no sufficient reason to give if called upon;
the fact remains that material influences exist, vast and available for
good, as men have the will and wit to employ them. Whatever may be the
value of metaphysical or theological theories of morals, utility in
conduct is a daily test of common sense, and is capable of deciding
intelligently more questions of practical duty than any other rule.
“No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism”
