Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1905-05-18
The Observer.

Havard published little book entitled
THE Will to Believe" He showed
with profound psychological analysis
that our attitude of faith or unfaith to-
wards the underlying realities of ex-
istence rests in the end upon the will
In holding a belief the will is involved
as we'll as the intellect. In this conclu-
siou heis thoroughly right Yet many
! persons of culture seem to regard be-
lief as purely an intellectual matter.
Not only SO, but the part which the in
tellect plays in connection with belief
is regarded as passive and not an act
i've part. The mind is looked upon as
a sort of weighing scales which have
nothing to do except to respond in
passive way to the weights laid upon
them, in other words, merely to re-
gister the difference between opposing
weights of evidence. According to
this view, one is no more responsible
for what he believes or disbelieves than
are the scales responsible for the var
ious weights which they register. To
use another figure, the mind is re-
garded as being no more responsible
for its beliefs than is a Photographic
plate responsible for the images de-
veloped upon it.
Now despite some plausible consid-
erations that might be urged in sup
port of this view of the nature of be.
lief, it is nevertheless an essentially
shallow and false view. 1t ignores the
plainest facts of psychology But the
Observer is interested, not so much in
the psychological unsoundness of this
view, as in its immoral tendency. For
there are practical consequences ofhold
ing such view that are disastrous to
character The view itself is a denial
of the very basis of character. If the
spirit of man is nothing more than
passive, impresionable gelatine plate
which can do nothing but receive
whatever impressions are made upon
it, or if it be nothing but weighing or
counting machine, the very founda-
ton of character and morality is swept
away.
In reality belief is a matter Of inward
choice and discrimination as well as of
outward fact What we believe de.
pends quite as much on what we our
selves bring to the questions before us
as upon the outward facts that are
brought to us. Belief or disbelief or
mere indifference is always a revela-
tlon of character or of the lack of char
acter. We are responsible for what
we believe or disbelieve. The man
who believes that expediency is high
er guide than principle, betrays what
he himself is in holding such belief.
The man who thinks that self-interest
has stronger claim upon him than
has civic duty and patriotism shows
what his own character is. The man
who thinks that religion has no value,
and tn yes no duty to the or
ganized forms of religious life and in
huence, likewise betrays what he is
or is not.
There may here and there be a dis
believer in religion who nevertheless
is highminded and public spirited and
untiring in his efforts in the advance
ment of humanity, according to his
understanding of it. Bnt such persons
are very scarce. The vast majority of
those who disbelieve ir religion, per-
haps showing their disbelief merely by
their neglect, are in character shirkers
and traitors to the highest interests of |
humanity.