The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1874-01-17
The CreduIity of sceptIcs

For the lntelligencer.
There are a great many people who will
not believe the Bible, although 1t Is sus.
tanned by abundant evidence, but who,
without evidence and evenlin the face Of
it, will eagerly believe things which are
opposed TO the Scriptures. :.
This Credulity largely characterized the
school Of infdGlity which flourished cen,
fury or two ago. Voltaire was embar-
raised by the discovery OF sea shells on
the submits Of the Alps. In his ignor.
ance oil geology, he was afraid that their
presence there might be construed 10
favor Of the Noachlan deluge. l quote
ssrbatim o part Of his explanation as given
10 his Philosophical Dictionary:
Besides, is 1t altogether romantic
Idea to reflect on the innumerable number
Of pilgrims who departed on foot from
St. James in Galicia, and all the provinces,
10 go 10 Rome BY Mount Gents with
IssIL' in their bOnnets? They came from
Syria, Egypt and Greece, as from Poland
and Austria. The number Of palmers
has been a thousand times more con.
siderable than that Of the Hagis who have
visited Mecca and Medina, because the
roads OF Rome are more easy, land =tiev
have not been forced TO go in caravans.
In word, an oyster near Mount Gems
proves not that the Indian Ocean envel-
oped all the Islands Of our hemisphere" 2
His explanation, Was that the shells
had been carried In the pilgrims hats.
be in like manner explains the discovery
Of the skeletons.ofa reindeer and o hip
popotamusnea Estampes, by the suppo-
sltion that they had once belonged to the
cabinet Of some collector oil curiosiues.
When the French were il Egypt under
The first Napoleon some oil their Sapdnts
found in the temple oil Denderah an astro.
nomical representation Fof the twelve
signs Of the Zodiac. II was Immediately
accepted as at least 4 500 10 $500 years
old, and, Of course, utterly subyersi7e of
The Mosaic account of the creation and
early history Of man. Suddenly, how
ever, the whole bubble collapsed. The
younger Champollion found on the repre-.
sentAuon the Romantitle ot Emperor in
The phonetic alphabet, and in-the temple.
l!self the names and surnames of Tibe.
nus, Claudius, Nero and Domitian. So
4 dated back only to the beginning Of the
christian era.
This credulity often displayed itself.in
lhe form Of positive superstition. Fred
eticK Oh Prussia was anxious 10 be known
~ t1e great intldel Of his time. His admit.
ta1lon oil Voltaire was unbounded. He
once wrote to him as follows: "Were |
heather, l would worship you under the
name Of Apollo; were a jew. I wonId
assign you 10 place beside the Klngly
Prophet and his son; were'I a Papist i
would make you my guardian saint and
lather coniessor; but asI am no one d
these can do no more than csntent nv
sen with Admlring- You as.ap philosopher;
loving you as q poet, and honoring you as
friend" Yet Frederick the Great was
Iae trembling dupe Of Judicial astrology.
y Is said on good authority that his dread
ola prediction Of . Saxon fortune teller,
10 whom he was led by the craving 81, his
nature for something to believe. often
rendered him miserable.
The same credullty characterises msuy
VINO belong to the school Of intidelity
Which now 80 widely obtains, In New
orleans, certain workmen while digging
apt Tor the gas works came upon The
skeleton Of an Indian, 10 feet beneath the
surface, and overlaid by earth in which
$1,000 Inc stumps oil four successive forests
VI cypress, Immediately Dr.. Bowler an.
nouneed 10 the world that the skeleton
must be at least 10000 years ali Sir
S9Sries Lyell measurably approved The
calculation. He also demanded a tbonsS
and centuries for the formation Of The della
OF The mississippi But the United States
army engineers, by a scientic examjnsS
uon, syeconcluded that the whole Of the
ground on which New Orleans stands
Gown 10 a depth Of 40 feet, has been denos''
'@a within the period Of 4,4O0 years :
II has remained 70 modern iHfideli,v in
me matter Of credullty, to Guido itSeIi nv ~,
me theory Of DrWinism. The dissinc s ~
principle Of that theory as to man i Is tSss
Sythe process Of certain natural laws sI he
hAsbeen developed iron tSs S Ss,,ta W. ne
don, 80 that there 10 no essential 's S Sfss
snce between him, and them. II reS,s sr
aEeIy npoR,eoms 1trfking lresemS MA ~,
Which hare been traced, but Which, csS H.