The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-03-28
The SECULAR LEAGUE.
Prof. Coleman and Major Powell
Deliver Addresses.

At the meeting Of the Secular League yester-
day afternoon Prof ". N. Coleman read paper
on the Rational Grounds OF Religion"
The speaker took the ground that the word
religion was used more and understood less
than any general term in the language.
Religion requires special revelation, verbal
written; il does not need a personal God or
the Immortality of the individual; it does not de-
mand code OF conduct. There two great
truths At which a must arrive who thinks
honestly and earnestly. The first is he knows
nothing as it is in itself but only he himself
is constituted to know it,; the second is that
the limit of possible thought is not the limita-
ton of existence. And this is the ground Of
ligion-that IS 10 connect man with the unity
Of the universe and 10 show the relation to real
being.
In all ages the great question has been What
is the chief end Of man? Why is he here? What
should he dot 1t is religion which prompts the
question 1t is religion alone which answer
IT. Not in scientific language for scientific
language is the language of the senses; and re-
ligion is above sense. But it answers in the
language Of the heart in the language Of feeling,
in the language Of life.
"All that is sublime and beautiful in nature
and art is religious. And the more realistic, the
more religious. In a word, all that is OF love
and affection in life, all that there IS TO relieve
/ il from the grind Of business and OF sense all
/ there is TO make ii worth living, is religion
! without religion any uplifting Of the race is
| impossible. And one Of the most cheering signs
of this barbaric age OF science. sense and self
! is the attention that religion is beginning
10 receive from thinking men"
Major John W. Powell then addressed the
/ league on the subject OF Ghosts lie spoke not
Of fake ghosts, he said, but Of real honest ones
There were five sources. the speaker said from
which ghosts come-from drcamand, from the
land OF ecstacy, the land of suggestion, from in
! toxication, and from insanity He spoke Of how,
! in dreams, the senses were at rest and the feel
! ings were not; how, when we sleep, may still
reason, our ideas being controlled by feelings
instead Of sensations.
in the ccstatic state, which can be produced
! by gazing intently at some shining object sensa-
ton is paralyzed, and the feelings dominate the
ideas. This state may also be produced by listen
ing intently, thus interpreting feeling impress
| sions instead Of sense impressions He spoke OF
holding the ear to certain shells as example.
! lie then spoke OF hypnotisn by suggestion and
the great success with which intoxcation pro-
duced ghosts. He mentioned the different drugs
| used by various people 10 produce intoXication,
| and stated that Indian tribes would set
apart certain days on which they wished to de-
velop ghosts, and would resort to intoxication
for that purpose.
Savages, he said, dream chiefly Of animals, and
to them they attribute mysterious occurrences.
Belief in these animals constitute their theology.
To them it was regarded superhuman that a
snake could without legs, that a bird
could fly
Civilized people, after being able to cnslavc
the lower animals, ceased to worship them,
and began to worship human beings and to see
ghosts in human form Many people still be-
licyc in thern and if they do not believe in them
they are still afraid Of them. From this belief
strange doctrines have arisen to control cur ideas
and which we permit to shape our conduct Of
right and wrong.
The most thorough and complete history ever
written. he said, was on this subject, and the
name OF # is mythology