Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-10-19
THE CAUSES OF AGNOSTICISM.
An Eloquent Address at First Congregational
Church Last Sunday Evening.

Church Last Sunday Evening,
The first Of a series of Sunday even
ing addresses on "Agnosticism, its
Causes, Developments and Outcome, .
to be given in the Congregational
church Of this city by the Rev. B. J.
| II. Shaw, pastor, was listened to
intentIy by a large audience. October
Is. The address of the pastor was
yirile in thought and impressiyeIy
spoken. 1t is believed that a deep
interest in this all important topic
has been aroused and that his subse-
quent discourses along this line will
be attended by representative gather
ings. Rev. Shaw is most liberal in
| his compliments to the agnOstic, defin-
| ing agnOStiCiSm as intellectual honesty
and intellectual humility, but he
| points out a few of the cardinal errors
Of this belief in seemingly clear and
forcible methods Of reasoning. Rev.
Shaw spoke in part as follows:
1t seems a strange inconsistency
that there should be such a limitation
of knowledge as that which agnOSti-
cism atfirms at the very time Of its
most remarkable growth. When we
think of the wonderful discoveries in
SO many realms it is difficult to under
stand the intellectual attitude of the
agnOStic, or to see why men should be
willing to confess that any knowledge
is impossible.
1t is first of all important to have d
clear idea of what agnOSticiSm means,
or, rather, of that definite meaning
which has been given to it in our day.
1t fixes the limits of knowledge in
this Way-that nothing can be known
beyond phenomena, or what is seen by
visible appearance. What is beyond
is not denied. And believing it i'm
possible to find out what is behind
phenomena. he decides to let those
questions alone and cOnfne himself to
humber and more practical subjects.
George Eliot represents this as the
motive and aim of the agnostic when
she says, ''that it is the opposite OF
that impiety toward the present and
visible which flies for its motives, its
SanctitieS and its religion to the
remote, the vague, and the unknown.
She claims for the agnOStic that gen
erouS love which cheriShes things in
proportion to their nearness.
Modern agnoSticiSm. then means
this attitude to all that is near and
visible. 1T is both reyerent and prac-
tical. There is desire to know every
fact which comes within the scope of
science. Those facts are reverenced,
for the wonder of them is seen. The
humanitarian spirit seeks to utilize
the new knowledge for he welfare of
society.
And here the question arises, how was
it that the men who knew SO much
about this world should confess their
ignorance of truths known by others?
How was it that some men should
claim to have such positive knowledge
of God and immortality when others
like George Eliot, for example, should
assert that God was incOnceiyable and
Immortality unbelievable?
To understand this difference we
have to go back to the birth of modern
science and study it's influence on
mans way of linking.
Before he time Of science man had
known everything--eXcept his own
ignorance.
But with the birth of science there
came d great change
The earth had been fixed as the CEN
ter of the universe. All things else
moved around it and existed for it.
The new astronomy came, unfXed it
from its supposed eternal foundations
and sent it a little wandering planet
spinning round the sun.
There has been similar revision in
every department Of knowledge.
And what has been the effect of
these changes on the thought and
faith of men? The faith of many has
been shaken. They have been led to
doubt the older claims to knowledge,
and to treat them as if there were no
realities behind them.
In this way men began to realize
they did not know as much as they
believed they did They had only just
found the right inStrument-the true
method for the discovery of truth 1t
could only be found by investigation
and experiment. They must come
into direct contact with it. look at it
with their own eyes, and touch it
with their own hands, be sure Of it
by personal experience. The scientific
method taught the necessity OF yeriti
cation by experiment. Men became
aware they had no such proof of the
truths OF religion. They bad accepted
them on authority. Their faith had
been built on the assumption that
God had revealed himself by an in
fallible book, but science had dis
covered fallibility everywhere.
Faith had rested on a false theory,
when hat was gone the supernatural
truths seemed to vanish withit. Men
felt they had no such direct contact
with God as they had with the facts
of Nature, and hence it was natural
for them to say. we have no knowl-
edge of the unSeen-Of that which is
far away.
Now, | wish to point out that this
confession of ignorance did not mean
the loss of truths once possessed.
AgnoSticiSm, as phase of thought,
is not intellectual retrogresSion, it is
intellectual humility and honesty: it
| is the realization of the fact that
man does not know the truth if he
| does nothing more than rely on the
testimony of another-that is the
beginning of an unconscious move
ment toward real knowledge.
AgnOsticiSm is, practically mega
| tion of truths which have had a very
powerful intiuence-the influence of
| the unseen world on present life and
conduct. The spread of doubt about
| = 1,c fooI ~.