The Anaconda standard., 1897-12-06
AN AGNOST|C RELIGION
Rev. G. F. Brown breaches to the
Unitarians.
THE TRUE MAN OF FAITH
1t Is He Who Is Ready to Stake All on
the Truth of Which His Reason
Is Convinced Soul of Relig-
ion Is Love of Truth.

lHItG SlHddNS III ltttInAbSl ~ III pAiitAN5
snterest in the organization of a Unita-
rian society in Butte was held yester-
day morning. \ large audience of peo-
pie Interested in the Unitarian faith
assembled in the Auditorium and list
ened to an able address delivered by
the Rev Carlton f. Brown, minister of
the Unitarian society of Helena. Next
Sunday and the Sunday following, the
Rev Mr.. Gould. Chicago divine. will
conduct meetings at the same place,
assisted by Rev. Mr.. Brown, and an
effort will be made TO organize a socl-
ety and secure the services of a per-
manent minister.
Mr.. Brown took as his topic, "An
Agnostic Religion" and in treating the
subject said:
1.-The world which was known to the
savage was comparatively small in ex-
7ent, and its limits We're readily de-
6ned. Looking UP to a sky believed TO
be a solid dome above their heads. men
believed that the field of thought could
be easily Spanned. 1t is not strange
that in a world so limited they should
have put forth claims to the knowledge
of ultimate truth. But the conception
of the universe has broadened With the
successive discoveries of science until
to-day we look off into oceans of space
across which star-gleams travel for
And yet the tremendous increase in
knowledge which science has brought
to us only impresSeS us with a more
vivid sense of the extent of our ignor-
ance. 1t seems paradoxieal at first to
find science and agnosticism travelling
hand in hand. But there is no man
who realizes so fully as the scientist
the vast unexplored abyss which
stretches beyond the furthest outpost
of human intelligence. AS Herbert
Spencer puts it, the larger the sphere
bf human knowledge grows the broader
the contact of its surface with the sur
rounding universe, which is still un-
known. For. as he observes in another
place, positive knowledge does not and
never can fill the whole region of posS-
ble thought We sometimes think of
belief and doubt as if they represented
permanently distinct attitudes of mind.
But really no hard and fast line of dis
between them can be drawn.
The doubts of one age are constantly
passing over into the beliefs of the fol-
lowing age. Four hundred years be-
fore Christ. Socrates was condemned as
"A doubter, because instead of the pop
ular divinities of his time he talked of
the guidance of the good spirit within
him. What was condemned as doubt
I'm Socrates became afterward in Chris
tianity a principle of faith. The early
martyrs of the Christian church were
tried upon the charge of atheism be-
cause they refused to recognize the
ddol-worship of paganism. To the
mind of the Roman officials this meant
the denial of religion. Wherever one
finds sincere doubt on looking closer
faith will be found lurking in the back
ground.
(" There lives more faith in honest
doubt
Believe me, than in half their creeds.
Il fx. =
that men build the fairer faiths Of to-
morrow. Even in the mind of the same
Individual faith and doubt are always
blended. No thoughtful man is entire
7y man of doubt, or entirely a man of
faith. The world of human thought is
too broad to be compassed by a single
mind. Religion, philosophy and sci
ence are different realms in the world
of thought. The man of profoundest
faith in the realm of religion may be
the agnostic in the field of science or
i is not fair to apply the
term ''agnostic" merely to the man who
has not reached fixed conclusions ON
religious subjects-and so regard him
as devoid of belief. The scientist may
very properly reply that in the world
of scientific exploration the priest is
quite as truly the 'agnostic.'
But for the time let Us accept the
WORD agnostic' in its conventional
FFIl~ts az 1tiibilIIE tilt man VINO IL not
sure of his theological landmarks |
am not speaking now of those who
a spirit of inane. unthinking
indifference, on religious questions but
of the large class of sincere. thoughtful
men who feel themselves compelled to
say. i don't know To the dogmas upon
which religion has insisted-men who.
for example, when questioned as 10
their belief in Immortality reply, 1t
may be- but ! cannot affirm it, or when
asked TO profess faith in a God, frank
ly admit that they can frame no salts
factory definition Of a supreme Being
Dogmatic religion has been accustonl-
ed to regard such persons as entirely
and has been unable To
come to any sympathetic understand
ing with them. This misunderstanding
letween religion and science, has been
~ue to difference in method.
"Dogmatic religion has always start
cd out with the assumption of what is
personal first cause, and
supernatural revelation.
From the assumption of these II has
proceeded 10 deduce its doctrinal sys-
tenn.
Science on the other hand builds
itself upon experience, feeling its way
step by step from observed. ascertained
fact out toward the larger mystery of
the universe. Science freely admits
that transcendental knowledge is not
Yet within its grasp-it finds itself un-
able 10 define philosophically any ulti-
mate realitg-either time space. cause,
force matter or spirit. Science is un-
able to affirm dogmatically either as to
the origin of the universe or as 10 its
ultimate destiny which, for want of a
better word. it calls evolution
And tracing the working Of this
back through the infaIlible
records of biology and geology. il is
gradually unrolling the history of the
-&es. and revealing its eternal laws.
why should religion be impatient in
that the 'agnostic' subscribe
to its creed as to the ultimate realities
pf the universe, accepting its definition
IF God and its affirmations as to eter-
nity2
Both religion and science are strfv-
ug to interpret life, though working by
different methods. We cannot conceive
Dut that both methods. that Of expert
snce and that Of intuition, win at last
coincide.
Since there is only one universe
here must be, when thoroughly under
i'm.