San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-08-24
A Wreath Of EncOmium on the
Brow of SkeptiCIsm.'
BY GEO. c. KNOLL.


For the LIGHT.
Religious bigotry and intolerance
have ever been impeditive agenciesin
the worlds march of progress from
the age of savagery up 10 the present.
era. In the darker ages of the past 1t
was regarded as q crime TO think that
you had q right to think. Supersti-
ton through its baneful influence on
the human mind, created the serf
and prOpsgated serfdom. The altar
and the throne were the meraciDg
barriers that ever confronted the
champion of intellectual freedom and
advocate of human rights. Priests
and kings, in cunning compact, and
their servile allies were his most for
midsble foes. His skepticism, If pro-
claimed, caused Linn to be branded
the hereto, aud heIesy was, at that
time. considered q crime. The dun.
geon, with its untold horrors,
ever yawned before him, and still
he was not intimldated. The very
air he breaihed seemed impregnated
with the germs of Cstracisn. An
uihilatIon ever stared him in the face,
and still he wavered not. Often was
he subjected to the torture of the
rack; uTten his fate to he burned at
the stake, for scOrnipg TO bow before
the altar of ignorance, or 10 worship
at the shrine of superstition.
Notwithstanding these heincus
atrocities perpetrated in the name Of
consecrated orthodoxy, heterodoxy
has not persisted, but rather gained
the vantage ground, although 1t was
af = hn Sonritinn nt
cred human lite. How gratifying to
see that these religious barbarians,
with all the cunning that they pos
sessed, have been unsuccessful in their
vile attempts 10 stay the ever rising
tide of progress and civilization. In
those times the attitude OF the church
toward skepticism WAS strongly ag-
gressive. Times have changed de-
cldedly. Its attitude now is but
feebly defensive. The skeptic has
merged from the pen into the
pulpit. The intelligence evinced -,
by even the masses, today, has
been the primal cause of this reli-
giOus innovation. We have advanced
and men are becoming more and
more humane. They no longer burn
us at the stake, or torture US in the
rack for being skeptiral about certain
religious superstltiOns. Instead of
the fagots' cruel flame, we now have
the torch of liberty and love as a
symbo of enlightenment In the civ =
ilized world of man. All the relics of
barbarIsm which figured in the perse-
cution of the skeptIc, have been rele-
gated to the cruel past. The childish
and irrational conceptions of religion,
born of ignorance and Durtured in
the lap Of fear, have gradually been
discarded and more practical ones
su bstituted. New vistas, that lead to
lnestimable fields of mental wealth,
are ever opening to the thinker and
investigator of today.
The priest and king no longer mon
opollZe the "thinking business" 1t
has fallen into the hands OF the peo-
pie. Every school boy in the land
now voices his opinion concerning
things which he sees, hears and eX.
periences. The priest no longer holds
alone the keys of heaven and hell IN
his possession, as rybody carries a
private. key of his Own. The people
have long since got tired Of bell g told
that they must "belteve or be
damned" and the prsscner doesn't
seem to blame them one bit for it.
Just glance over the wonderful
changes wrought by scepticism in the
realm OF religious thought.
The skeptic in the pulpit! We
simply marvel at it now. And we are
only in the dawn Of q brighter, better
era yet to come Men are no longer
judged by their creeds but by their
deeds
Every man is the providence of
every other. Intelligence is resping
the harvest of the mind. Every hap
by home is q little heaven on earth
The fires of hell have got down to the
smOuldering point and people begin
to wonder why the devil does not add
more fuel. If there Is anything good
in this world the skeptic has
certainly found it. Skeptcism has
never robbed religion of any redeem
ing quality. Taking truth for the
only authority it accepts no other.
Skepticism does not say that you
must not believe, it merely asks:
"can you believer" Why heap
calumny upon its name? If religion
cannot agree with skepticism, let her
1T least agree to disagree, for ALPS
we'll that ends well.