Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-09-15
FORMS OF AGHOSTICISM.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DIFFERENT
PHASES OF UNBELIEF.
Sometimes the Result of Feeling, Some
Sometimes Want of Thought.

There are schools of agnostics as there
are sects of Christians, says j. Frederick
Dalton in the Unitariaa Reriew. These
often have little in common and little sym
pathy with each other. We err greatly Il
we class them all together. Il don't
know" is sometimes accepted lightly
sometimes deeply, sometimes it takes the
form of feeling: and sometimes of intel
lectual conviction and, if it often is made
an excuse for impiety or Indifference, it is
also often accepted as a supplement to
piety and an aid to faith. There is, first
the common irreligious agnosticism; not
non-religious, but irreligious, opposed to
religion, coarse, crude, cruel, boastful, al
most brutal. This is not the result OF
thought or of anything like conviction,
but more truly of want Of thought, and as
opposite to the higher agosticism as it is TO
faith. The common irreligious agnostic
say, with an effort to tell why, for he could
not "The infant knows as much about
God and the future life as the wisest
philosopher, the idiot as much as the min
lister for no one knows anything about it,
anyway. Ny guess is as good as any"
He often makes this assumption of uni
versal ignorance a rough excuse for ridi-
culing all religion. He delights in the
dissensions of the sects. He is glad to be-
lieve that no one knows more of God than
himself. He is as bigoted as an ignorant
peasant at high mass and as unreasonable
G,,ab
we have all met 1t is one of the asylums
of worldly or wicked and lazy souls. 1t is
very common, and is increasing every day.
1t is especially to be found in new ciyiliza-
tion, where freedom has run wild and lib
erty been degraded into license.
Very different from this is the second
type, the common religious agnoticism.
This is sweeter, tenderer, and certainly
productive of nobler spirits. 1t is not
boastful, but humble, and always wears the
garb of piety. There are many fine souls
with whom religion takes, almost ex-
clusively, the form of feeling They do
not like to think. They fear thinking.
To reason about God is to them almost
sin, an overexaltation of our finite minds,
degradation of the idea of the Almighty.
Tacitly assuming that they have in
thought what they dare not think, an idea
they do not define, they dismiss all argu-
ment with the wise saw that the finite
cannot know the infinite, that to pretend
to know him is blasphemy, and that in
true humility we should be content with
simple alteration. Such people generally
accept as unquestionable some current
conceptions, make faith virtue and rea-
IL ofta,. n Tho rrOaJ onA
read into their dogmas better things than
they could ever find there. Their in
stincts are generally right. Their charac-
ters we often admire. But their attempts
at reasoning and their prejudices are of
little account. A wise man will seldom
allow himself to be drawn into debate
with them. This is form of agnosticism
with which the philosophical agnostics
know not how to deal. Yet it is very old
and very common. Every cultivated ma
ton has had its altar ''To the unknown
God" Some of our most popular re-
ligious books are but hymRs of praise to
this great unknown, panegyrics upon the
light which no man can approach unto,
upon the inscrutable essence. Here, too,
are to be found not only pious spirits, but
many fine minds. Religious agnosticisn is
the genius of modern poetry, of Shakes
peare and Tennyson, Schiller and Goethe.
These great writers were religious, but
they left the idea of God to the heart, the
affections and imaginations, as something
to be felt but not too closely examined.
This form of thinking, or rather feelin g,
leads, however, to questions difficult to
answer. II God in his essence must be to
me forever unknown, what have l to do
with him? If | cannot know him as he
is, then to have him in thought, even in
feeling, is to misknow bim. How can
worship what | cannot think? | cannot
ascribe to him moral qualities. How then
can he command my conscience? How
can I seek to be transformed into his spir-
itual image? / cannot say that he is con-
scious; then, surely, | cannot say that he
is love. How then, can he touch my
heart? ! do not know that he is good.
May he not then be evil, or morally indif-
ferent? Surely then, though all powerful,
he is not my father. To vigorously
consistent mind absolute agnosticism is the
death of religion. l see no escape from
this conclusion. A vigorous logic and a
desire for self. consistency lead to the third
special form, which, for want of better
word, | shall call painful agnosticism
Many there are trained to worship, and by
nature religious, who have tried to make
their religion rational and have failed
They have succumbed to every argument
they have set out to answer. With open
minds they have found themselves bewil
dered by conflicting testimony, and have
come to feel that where there is such di
versity of opinion, there can be no safe
standing ground. These men admit, al
last, the supposed limitation Of our facul
ties and carry this to its legitimate con
clusion-a kind of forced religious indif
ference, a suspension of the religious life
But to the question, Is that presence
there, is this "sense sublime" anything
more than a disturbing fancy? they re
ceive no answer. And so they come a
last to say of religion as Jean Paul said o
music, "Away away for thou remindes
me OF something | shall never meet IN al
my life"
l have known people who could hardl,
look at the stars or the ocean without
sigh of pain. There is here a silent sug
gestion of something too deep to be com
pretended, too good TO be true, But wha
II il were only fire and water, after all
Few thoughtful people are to-day who'll.
happy in their faith. A perpetual oscil
lation between belief and doubt destroy
inward peace. The fires of the soul still
smolder at the bottom of their beings
They suppress them as best they can ant
seek to lose themselves in the life of tn
world. They say nothing about religion
for the simple reason that they know no
what 10 saw. We come now to the agnos
ticism of science. This form is perhap
most potent among thinking men. Scien
tiic agnosticism is generally not demon
strated, but accepted; it is not so much
conviction as a convenience. Scientist
have almost universally agreed to kee
clear of metaphysics as Newton long ag
charged them to do. They look upon thi
as n resnltless science. e., no science q