The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-05-10
THE FORUM
vinita, Oklahoma. May Ord, 1912
,ho Ed;,or ~ tho Chiaftain.

the columns of your paper has been
carried on exclusively by representa-
tives OF two extremes. 1t seems to
have been assumed that there is no
middle ground between John Calvin
and Thomas Paine. But there are a
great many of us who have outgrown
the Orthodoxy" for which Captain
White contends with such gracious
courtesy, while we are not willing to
be classed as infidels. At the risk of
being accused of another attack of
"the higher critical measles may
speak for these? desire to set forth,
in a short series of suggestive articles,
what religion really means to modern
Christians who are also capable of
thinking.
Religion didn't originate with Jesus
Christ, Nor with Moses. Nor even
with Abraham. There was religion be-
fore there was Bible; there has been
religion where the Bible has never
been read. Socrates, four hundred
years before Christ, had never heard
of Moses and the Prophets; and yet
he taught that the gods created man,
and could be trusted to take care of
him, III life or death Much of the
devotional thought and language of
this old Greek sage could be adopted
with no essential change by an earn
est and conseerated Christian.
The fact is, religion is pretty near
ly universal experience. Some phil
osopher has even defined man as
religious animal. Wherever you find
men, you find religion: some kind of
a religion, at least. A crude religion
among ignorant sayages, refined re-
ligion among civilized peoples, but re-
ligion everywhere, up and down the
line OF course, there have always been
individual exceptions. But so have
there been men and women who could
not see the sun.
If the vast majority of the human
race were blind, we should probably ,
believe that sight was a disease. But I
because thousands can see where the II
eyes of few are dead, we thank 4
whatever gods there be" for the gift I
of vision, and pity those who walk in
darkness. If the rule is more likely {
to be normal than the exception. then I
religion is mental and moral health, {
and atheism is, to use Victor Hugo's (
phrase, to be 'elassed pathologically." b
In plain English, as a disease. II "Ob Il
server" be indeed an atheist-which ! T
very much doubt, why should Captain I
White abuse him? We don't "cuss" h
We build sanitarium. '
and try to cure him. s
On the other hand, the belief in God Il
as Love has been humanity's strong v
est comfort in conflict and pain. Its f
deniers have often borne testimony to S
the power and beauty of this faith. A 1t
great scientific agnostic once said: I t
have seen dead sun rise out of an n
empty heaven to light soulless earth. e
have heard, with utter loneliness, that /,
he Great Companion is dead" | can A
not quite understand the unholy glee T
with which observer" tries to drive e
rs all into the same desolation. If Il
atheism be the truth of things. even cI
he atheist ought to be sorry. He Ii
should really apologize to the universe W
or the necessity of exposing its moral Ii
and intellectual emptiness. e
In their enjoyment of the job of n
'lambasting' each other, the disput- Ii
ants seem to have forgotten religion S,
And in this first letter, want to call d
attention back from personalities to
he subject of the discussion 1t is the q
most important subject in the range of tt
human thought. For multtudes it is ii
The most important The treatment o.
which religion has received at the Ii
hands of its disciples has been enough q
20 kill any fact that was not Divine b.
Religion has been misunderstood W
by foreign elements, used ia
IS an engine Of political oppression, Il
made a cloak for wickedness. and an Il
instrument OF spiritual and intellect t
lal tyranny And yet the soul of it. al
he faith in a Good God. in the infinite fc
meaning of life, and in the harmony II
between man and the world he lives in q
has somehow survived all these things Ii
and operated in spite of them, to gild tC
his mysterious human life of ours h
with a glory like that of the dawn ii
Going no farther than the form OF e
religion which has been the subject +,
,f this controversy: Some OF the best "
thinkers of the world confessed. with p
Browning that r,
The acknowledgment of God in Christ, S
Accepted by the reason, solves for thee Ii
al problems in the world and out of it, n