The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-10-27
ATHEISM.

Doubtless there are some persons who
call themselves atheists; and some who
are called atheists by Others and perhaps
some who really think that they think
that there is no God. But atheism as
philosophy is extinct. and since the death
lof Ernest Haeckel 1t would probably be
impossible to name any person of any en-
ifnence either in philosophy or science.
either in this country. or in Europe, who
avows himself an atheist. The general
result of scientific thinking on this sub
ject is well summed up by Herbert Spen-
Ger in the formula. Amid all the mystic
rieS by which we are surrounded, nothing
is more certain than that we are ever in
the presence of an Infinite and Eternal
Energy from which all things proceed"
1t is certain that this Energy is one, not
many; the same in the most distant star
as in the globe we inhabit. 1t is equally
certain that Ibis Energy is an intellectual
Energy; that there are thought relations
in the Universe; that man does not create
those thought-relations but discovers
them. In brief, the Universe has been
thought cut. and science is &. discovery of
the previous thought in it which makes it
a Universe-that is, One in many. Nor
is it less certain that this Infinite and
Eternal Energy from which all things
proceed is in the world of men as well as
history and to life; makes possible sci
ence of human life in its various phenom-
iena; in brief, to quote Matthew Arnold's
phrase, There is a Power not ourselves
that makes for righteousness Right
eousness is a reality and men in strugg-
ling toward it are struggling. not to Gre
ate what does not exist, but to discover
and realize what does exist.
AgnosticiSm has in the thinking world
supplanted atheism: and though the two
are often COMPOUNDED, they are not only
diverse they are mutually destructive.
Atheism is the doctrine that there is no
God, no One revealed in and through the
many: no universe, onlv lot OF hetero-
geneous phenomena. Morally it is the
philosophy of self7concet; it says: /. man,
am the greatest being in the universe:
there is none greater. AgnosttciEm is. on
the contrary, the affirmation that God is
so great and man so little that man can
rot define God. cannot understand Him,
cannot even Know enou@h about Him to
predicate of His personality. 1t is defect
I'VE philosophy. because it does not take
cognizance of mans spiritual nature as
source and means of knowledge; but it is
not atheism. It is, on the contrary,
ceit of atheism which b@nishes God from
the universe and the self-conceit of dog
matism which iragines that he can be
mnas ured and defined nv the finite.
We shall ask no better witness to the ex-
istence in the universe of IAN Infinite and
Eternal Energy from which all thlnSs
proceed than FaTm9ri2ns Amos f6n ef
the unity of phenomena, has forever put
an end to polytheism; and by its demon
stration of the magnitude Of the universe
has made Intellectually impossible all
forms of idolatry and anthropomorohism
or man-worship; but it has also r.rade I'M
thinkable the notion that the universe is
a concourse of atoms fortuitousIv happen
ing together There are doubtless sonne
atheists in the world, inst as there are
some polytheists and SOME idolators, bur
none of either in scientifically educated
circles. Religion has no longer an occa-
sion to argue the existence of an Infinite
ard Eternal Energy from which all THINGS
istence Religion has only to INQUIRE, by
q consideration of the moral history, and
the spiritual sousciousness of manbird,
what are His relations to humanity-The
Outlook Q3vangelicaD.