Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-07-26
Is Faith in Danger

PRESIDENT Porter mas Jlmely anu lnsbIuV-
tive article in the Princeton ReUie,0, on The
Collapse of Faith "a phrase which ex.
presses the conviction willingly entertained
by many that faith is not only failing, but
doomed 10 slow vet certain dissolution
Such conviction, he reminds us, is no new
thing. In Bishop Buffers day the skeptics
assumed the air of taking it for granted
that Christianity was no longer a subject OF
inquiry, but rather an exploded fiction fit
only for mirth and ridicule; while in Me
buhr's time atheistic unbelief amounted al
most to a demoniacsl frenzy. OF course
the reader does not fail also to remember
that these earlier forms of arrogant and
frenzied unbelief fell on account of their in
herent uureason and failure to satisfy the
deepest yearnings of the human soul, while
Christian truth rose to reassert with fresh
vigor her blessed supremacy and redemptive
power. And so, although it is alarming that
the ideas Of Gods personality and mans re-
sponsibility and the providential and su-
pernatural conduct of human history are
fading from the minds of so many men OF
knowledge and culture, yet the case is not
hopeless. ave are prepared" he says, to
concede that in no century since the Protes-
tant Reformation have the opinions OF be-
levers in Christian theism been modified in
so many particulars as during the present.
And yet we would contest that in spite OF
these changes, and in many cases in conse-
quence of these changes, faith in Christian
theism and all that it involves never stood
so strongly on grounds of reason in the
minds of those who accept it as true and
never could urge so many arguments in its
defence And then after showing how
Baron Won Holbach's atheistc System de
la Nature once sadly and extensively pre-
vailed, but is now destitute of influence and
even never read except out Of curiosity, he
proceeds to point out that the new Positive
Atheism, advocated by physicians and the
Agnostic Atheism advocated by Herbert
Spencer on the basis of advance science,
have gained absolutely nothing in logic nor
marched a single step beyond Won Holbach
in convincing argument. "They have nei-
Their added a single link to the old chain nor
made a single old link stronger than it was
before. They have neither introduced a
new method by using the old facts or the
new, nor weakened in any particular any Of
the old methods or any of the old grounds
of belief"
The reason why the brilliant discoveries
and magnificent cancellations of modern
science have not made the old theory of a
self-existent, creating, and loving intelli-
gence more necessary and more acceptable
to the scientific intellect, as they ought to
have done, is due to curious kind OF spec
ulative legerdemain, which DIR. Porter ana
lyzes and exposes with a keen eye and a
hand as subtle as it is masterful. The uni
verse of Physieus, consisting only of indie
structible matter and persistent force, is
proven to be, after all his reasoning, nothing
but finite universe, leaving the necessity
fnr oalf av;otapt ;nE n;t Daipn
touched as ever and as unassailable. And
the position of Herbert Spencer, who &C
knowledges the existence of the Infinite,
but maintains that it is forever unknow-
able, is reduced to the absurdity of infer
ring because finite force or matter is un-
movable in its essence, therefore the
Infinite beyond cannot be known
Moreover, materialistic and biological ev-
olutionism, which is to-day the source Of
greatest danger to faith, and which seems
destined to have a temporary popularity
with men of limited culture and dogmatic
temper-becomes, when fully developed, it.
self suicidal. And DIR. Porter believes that
so soon as the logic of time shall convince
those men who know how to reason that this
form of evolutionism not only destroys faith
but StrdngleS science, they will reject it with
contempt if not with adherence. And al
ready he thinks we have abundant reasons
for believing that many scientists and phi
losophers are by no means so atheistic or ag-
nostic i'll their actual thinking as their
speculative avowals and reasonings would
seem to imply. In the meanwhile, however,
evolutionism followed to its logical results
is eminently dangerous, because destructive
of every theory of ethics. 1t strikes down
the permanence and sacredness of moral OBJ
legation. And the strange thing is that its
advocates, who make great pretensions to
being logical reasoners, should show no
timidity for themselves or their followers,
lest these consequences should be acted out
in some drama of terrific horror by men
whose associations are not yet rightly or
strongly adjusted, or lest new code of sci
entific communism, murder, and lust should
not be thrust up into their own lecture
rooms from the hell which lies beneath, or
be enforced upon the community by the law
of the bludgeon or the shouts of mad
dened public sentiment" They are not SC
sharp after all as Voltaire, who, when the
conversation about God and immortality
grew too skeptical at his table, suddenly
rose and locked his servant out of the room
saying that he did not care to be murdered
or robbed as consequence of the free the
cries which might be expounded in his OWL
house.
Nevertheless in conclusion, there are two
reasons why these atheistic speculations art
not quite SO perilous as their real logic
would indicate. The first is that the au
thors of them are not absolutely in earnest
but are seeking only little mental diver
sion-a harmless exercise of ingenuity
They set up one hypothesis against anothe
in the way of logical pastme, with now anC
then flight Of poetic enthusiasm enliveneC
with sharp hit, not always in the best o
temper, against theologians. second anC
more satisfactory reason is the intuitive con
viction among these very spectators tina
ethical truth and good morals shine 81
clearly by their light that nothing can de
stroy them. Hence the spectators them
selves are often found driven by these mora
intuitions, to be taking refuge from thei
own deductions in some convenient shelte
of faith or feeling. And the lesson of it a.
is, though DR.. Porter does not say it in thes
words-that the unbeliever, in spite of hi
theoretical negations, is forced into som
practical belief-and is better than hi
hobbies.-Christidn at Work.