Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-16
HIGHER CRITICS
ARE FLAYED BY
REV. DIXON
DR.. FOSTERS BOOK ATTACKED
AT AUDITORIUM
BIG AUDIENCE HEARS EVOLUTION
CONDEMNED
Chicago Preacher Declares That
Teacher Was Guilty of Bias
phemy in His Published
Work


pastor of the Moody church of Chi
cago, came in for another exposition
by DIR. Dixon yesterday afternoon,
whose theme, Destructive Criticism
VS.. Christianity: An Expose of Fos-
terism," attracted large audience to
the Temple auditorium for the meet
ing which was held under the auspices
of the Young Mems Christian asso-
citation.
The audience, which taxed the seat
ing capacity of the auditorium, was
manifestly in sympathy with the
speaker who was frequently inter
rupted with applause. His address, In
part, was as follows:
christianity has three fundamentals
Il God. In the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth The Lord
God omnipotent reigneth.' In other
words, Christianity is theistic, believ-
irg in God who is creator Of all things
and sovereign ruler of the universe
This is the creed of both evangelical
and Roman Catholic Christianity, and
ii is no uncharity, but mere matter
of fact, to say that when a man ceases
to believe in a personal God who is
spirit, Independent of matter, creator
of all things, he ceases to be a Chris
ton at all. He is an atheist.
Calls Foster an Atheist
NOW, DR. Foster and his friends
deny that he is an atheist, but his book
The Functions of Religion In Mans
Struggle for Existence teaches athe-
ISM as is plain from the following
quotations.:
1.-The word God" is a symbol ia
designate the universe in its ideal
achieving capacity page 109) In
other words God is a thing which des-
ignates the universe In its idealzing
canacity.' A big thing, but only a
thing.
"'Your religion is not that you have
a God 1t is your God-making capacity.
(Page 57.) That is God did not create
ligious nature created God. God is
not the Great First Cause, but a re-
suit of mans Righteousness.
The great discovery Of this gener-
alton was not that God made man in
his own image, but that man made
God in his (man's) image Psyche
'~gically speaking that is quite true
Page G6) Dr. Foster does not claim
this as original. but gives due credit
to Lucretus, Roman pagan, who was
horn about n hundred years before
Chist, and to Zepopleones. a Greek
pagan. born $40 b. C. There Is nc
doubling DR. Fosters meaning. He
DeleNeS IN no NrOu except Sucn as is
made by mans God making capacity
and when he declares he believes in
the deity of Christ, he o. course, means
that Christ is God only in so far as
he is a product of this God-making
capacity. He can mean nothing else
And when he speaks of the love. grace
and fatherhood and grace of God, he
can only mean something which en-
anates from this creature of mans
cod-making capacity.
No SeIf-Dependent Soul
There is no such thing as a self
dependent soul freely active or inter
active within an organism which we
call the body. Just as similarly there is
no self-dependent deity freely active
or interactive within that larger body
which we call the cosmos. All this
Is survival of primitive animism
which populated the whole world with
spirits. demons, hobgoblins: in short
with soul-lille beings which were re-
lated to things much as we think the
soul is connected with the body or God
With the universe. / mean that soul
and body are not two beings confront
ting each other as Independent and in
teroperative, but that they are, one
pelng giving account OF itself in two
fold manner page 21,) All of which
is materialistic atheism and in perfect
harmony with the foregoing definition
or God as a mere creature of mans
idealzing faculty. DR. Foster believes
In no God at all, but in as MANY i'm
aginary gods as mans idealizing fac
ulty can create
To say that we are so made that
we must make gods is tantamount IA
saying that we are so made that we
must make Ideals. page 11OO Man
Is not free. He is under the law of
necessity. He is Godmaking ma
chine that must turn out gods as n
product He is so made that he cannot
heIp II. 1t Follows therefore. that the
pest gods we have were made bv
slaves who worked at their god-maI-
ing business under the lash of neces-
s,ty' Ihey could not choose whether
tney would make gods or not Thev
SIMPLY must. What the Christian ca1is
500 is one of the products of this slave
Not frue of Christians
Religion, in word, is self effectua-
tion,' (page 110). 'Effectuation' is an IN
usual word for achievement or bringing
lungs 70 pass. Religion, according to
Dr. roster, is self-achievement self
bringing things to pass. Man worsbins
ms own achievements, or the object of
his worship is self in it's achieving "a
pacity. In other words self-made man
worships his own maker. recognizing
nothlng higher than SELF This is sadly
true of many in this age so proud of IT,
material achievements, but It is NOT
true of a Christian who worsbins a
God whose ways and thoughts are high
er than mans ways and thoughts a G
the heavens are higher than the earth.
Qsaiah 55:9).
The theistic argument has ever
been dangerous to religion, not simply
because 1t was unconvincing, but be-
cause it ever converted religion into a
system OF beliefs which were required
to be held true page S6). This is the
opposite of theism and is therefore
atheism.
1T is clear that DIR. Foster is not q
Unitarian, because Unitarianism,
though it denies the deity of Christ, is
theistic, believing in God as creator and
ruler. 1t is only freak Unitarianism
that denies the existence of God as
spirit independent of matter.
"Second-The second characteristic of
Christianity has ever been that it wor-
ships Jesus Christ as God over all,
blessed forever more believing his
own words when he said: i came down
from heaven (John $3.50. The Phari-
sees of his day rejected his deity and
the Jews condemned him to death be-
cause he claimed to be divine, though
they were Unitarian in their theology.
saul of Tarsus on the way to Da-