The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-01-07
ATTITUDE CHANGES
 TOWARD RELIGION Unitarian Minister Presents Views to Congregation RELIGION A PART OF MAN New Conception Gives Different Idea of Origin and Meaning of
 Life and of Gods Rela-
 ton to Man.
RELIGION A PART OF MAN

me Rev D. C. lslmDauSnt the Onlld-
 rian minister from Ft. Worth. who is here to organize the Unitarian congrega-
 ton started In Birmingham some time ago, preached yesterday morning to a | representative congregation upon the sub ject: Why Have Men and Women Changed Their Attitude Toward Re 1 ligion?"
 After tracing some of the present re- l ligious conditions. MT Limbaugh said that
 it was in the nature of things that hu- | manity should progress In their thought ], concerning religion the same as in the | department of government. science. or l mechanics. He went to argue that religion itself, being q necessary and | constituent part of man, is eternal and is in no danger of being destroyed, that it is only intellectual conceptions concern ing religion that change from generation to generation. He urged that religion
 has always had scientific background
 that the Bible itself begins the story of religion with cosmology. He then
 went on to say:
 Many things have conspired to cause people to drift away from the historic Christian churches. We now have a new thought. of the universe. It is no longer | a playhouse affair, but real home for God the Father and man, his child We all now believe in the immanence of God. This new conception gives us different ideas of the origin and meaning of life, of the nature of God of his relation
 to man, of good and evil and of the rela- ton of man to man.
 Secondly, geology has taught us the age of the earth. Archaeology has taught us the antiquity of man--that man ln- stead of having been here on the earth | only 6OOO years, has been here two or three hundred thousand years "In the next place. evolution, proven
 to be true and accepted by the leading scholarship of the world. demonstrates that man has come into existence not by sudden, outright and immediate crea- tion. but that through countless ages he has climbed through the lower animal world into his present higl condition. This utterly refutes the doctrine of the Fall of Man. the chief corner stone of ortho- doxy, and all the schemes of redemption preached to rescue man from cond- tion which has never existed. We have also learned through the study of comparative religion how re- l ligions and Bibles have come into exis- 1 tence and how they have grown. Other peoples have had their Bibles and their 1 religious systems. Wo have been enabled 1 to observe these in processes of growth l and have learned that religions and Bi- | blei grow out of the nature of man, | and are not direct and immediate reve- l lations from heaven.
 But not only has man grown away from | the old churches because he has become i intellectually developed. but because he l has become morally civilized. Love. jus tce and sympathy have grown so strong i ly into mans nature that 1t is no longer
 possible for him to accept the old dogmas.
 As Whittier says:
 l [" I trace your lines of argument, | Your logic linked and strong, | I weigh as one who dreads dissent, 1 And fears a doubt as wrong. | But still my human hands are weak To hold your Iron creeds: Against the words ye bid me speak, My heart within me pleaCs. | Then the minister went on to say: "We | must have church broad enough to | cherish all the longings, faiths and as- 1 pirations of the human soul without do- | ing any violence to man's highest in- 1 telligence, to the demonstrated truths f l science, to mans rational nature and to | the love and sympathy of the human l soul"
 1 MT. Limbaugh announced that he is to , be here for several weeks. that he is ready to call upon people or to be called l upon and to talk over matters. He is 1 rooming at TIP Eleventh avenue, south | and may be reached by Peoples telephone | No. 1722.
 The subject of the sermon next Sunday will be- Jesus Message to the Modern World"