An Array of Non Believers

            For the purpose of this thesis a non believer is a person who doesn’t believe in a supernatural deity that created Earth and intervenes in the affairs of the inhabitants of Earth.  The best known non believers are the:

Atheists: Atheism is the antithesis of theism.  The former denies the existence of any deity while the theist believes there is at last one.  The atheist is considered the enemy of religion and in religious circles to be called an atheist is the ultimate insult.

Agnostic:  The agnostic holds that the “existence of any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and unknowable.”

            Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) was known as the Great Agnostic.  He was a popular lecturer in what was known in the Nineteenth Century as the Lyceum Movement.

            The lyceum movement was founded in 1826 by Josiah Holbrook, a teacher and lecturer.  It got its name from the place Aristotle lectured in ancient Greece.  The lyceum movement was a popular forum for adult education, debate and lectures on the topics of the day.  The lecturers traveled the country and at its peak numbered as many as 3000.

            Some of the other well known lecturers were Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Daniel Webster, Mark Twain, Fredrick Douglas, Jenny Lind and Horace Greeley who shouldn’t need introducing.  Susan B. Anthony was instrumental in the women suffrage and women’s right movements.  Ann Eliza Young, author of Wife No. 19, was one of Brigham Young’s alleged 55 wives and a popular speaker on the circuit.

            In July 1886, Charles B Reynolds, a former priest turned freethinker, was arrested in Morristown, New Jersey for the crime of “blasphemy.”  A couple of days prior Reynolds had circulated some pamphlets and erected a tent in the nearby town of Boonton where he planned on lecturing, the subject being, “Why I Left the Pulpit.”  The enraged Christians tore down the tent and beat the former preacher unmercifully. 

            Reynolds wrote Robert Green Ingersoll asking him to defend him against the blasphemy charge.  Of course Ingersoll accepted.  The following is an excerpt from his closing arguments.  

              How has the church in every age, when in authority, defended itself? Always by a statute against blasphemy, against argument, against free speech. And there never was such a statute that did not stain the book that it was in and that did not certify to the savagery of the men who passed it. Never. By making a statute and by defining blasphemy, the church sought to prevent discussion -- sought to prevent argument -- sought to prevent a man giving his honest opinion. Certainly a tenet, a dogma, a doctrine, is safe when hedged about by a statute that prevents your speaking against it. In the silence of slavery it exists. It lives because lips are locked. It lives because men are slaves.

            Ingersoll’s enemies attempted to impeach him by showing him as a corrupt atheist for in those days it was thought that without religion a man would become evil.  But Ingersoll’s personal life was unimpeachable.  He was an ideal husband and father with none of the human foibles that pious Christians like to attack.  And to the consternations of his antagonists, he always drew large crowds.  Following is another except from his closing argument:

            There was a time in Europe when the Catholic Church had power. And I want it distinctly understood with this jury, that while I am opposed to Catholicism I am not opposed to Catholics -- while I am opposed to Presbyterianism I am not opposed to Presbyterians. I do not fight people -- I fight ideas, I fight principles, and I never go into personalities. As I said, I do not hate Presbyterians, but Presbyterianism -- that is, I am opposed to their doctrine. I do not hate a man that has the rheumatism -- I hate the rheumatism when it has a man. So I attack certain principles because I think they are wrong, but I always want it understood that I have nothing against persons -- nothing against victims.

            Ingersoll was an iconoclast – meaning he attacked cherished beliefs.  But the beliefs he attacked were those that made no sense and could not be falsified by empirical examination.

Humanist: The following excerpt is from the website of the Humanists of Utah.

            Humanism is a rational philosophy based on belief in the dignity of human beings, informed by science and motivated by human hope and human compassion.

            Humanists revere the natural world, knowing of no other place to set good examples, to work, and to show love. We accept responsibility for what we do and what we become, believing that our immortality is found in the examples we set and in the work we do. We rejoice in the diversity around us.

            It is hard to find fault in the philosophy of humanism which seems to be a concept based on modern enlightenment.  Some humanists are also Unitarian Universalists.  It is a relatively new movement debuting in 1961. Humanism seems to me, an attempt to give atheism some dignity.  Nevertheless, it has grown intellectually into branches calling themselves, Christian humanists, Marxist humanists, Secular humanists, and so on.

            Google has several good websites where one can study humanism, if he is so inclined.  And I noticed that a few webmasters have even made a list of who they think were humanists, past and present.  Although the philosophy is ostensibly positive and benign, I fear humanism is used as a backdoor entrance to socialism and communism – which is another story.

Skeptics:   A skeptic is one who says, “Prove it.”  He is the quintessential doubter, the guy with the questions. Galileo personifies how skepticism has made the world a better place.  Galileo improved the telescope and went against the Catholic concept of geocentricism, that the earth was the center of the universe.  He proved beyond a doubt that heliocentricism was the correct order, that the sun was the center of the universe.  But the tyrannical force of the Catholic Church forced him to recant and he spent the rest of his life under house arrest. 

Freethinkers:  Freethinkers are those who support the premise that opinions should be “formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or any dogma.”

Deist:  “Deists believe in the existence of God, on purely rational grounds, without any reliance on revealed religion or religious authority or holy books.” 

            Many of our Founding Fathers are said to be deists – specifically Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin.  Thomas Paine is probably the best known deist.  He authored The Age of Reason which tended to discount the Bible and Religion as being perfect and truthful, while promoting deism.  His reproach of religion was based on reason and “common sense” which was another of his famous pamphlets.  As a result he was severely persecuted by the Christian Protestants of his day and died a penniless recluse.  Robert Ingersoll wrote the following eulogy:

            Thomas Paine had passed the legendary limit of life. One by one most of his old friends and acquaintances had deserted him. Maligned on every side, execrated, shunned and abhorred – his virtues denounced as vices – his services forgotten – his character blackened, he preserved the poise and balance of his soul. He was a victim of the people, but his convictions remained unshaken. He was still a soldier in the army of freedom, and still tried to enlighten and civilize those who were impatiently waiting for his death. Even those who loved their enemies hated him, their friend – the friend of the whole world – with all their hearts. On the 8th of June, 1809, death came – Death, almost his only friend. At his funeral no pomp, no pageantry, no civic procession, no military display. In a carriage, a woman and her son who had lived on the bounty of the dead – on horseback, a Quaker, the humanity of whose heart dominated the creed of his head – and, following on foot, two negroes filled with gratitude – constituted the funeral cortege of Thomas Paine.

            Thomas Paine was branded an atheist just as agnostics, humanists, skeptics and freethinkers were thought to be just another form of atheism. But the true believing Christians brought a lot of atheistic thinking upon themselves by attempting to do the sole thinking for the masses, and by using intimidation to invoke belief – and in this regard nary a Christian based religion is exempt.

            In 1873, D. M. Bennett published a tabloid newspapers named, The Truth Seeker Journal which in essence was meant to counteract the tyrannical absurdities promoted by religion.  Its popularity grew by leaps and bounds with articles from the leading orators, writers and thinkers of that day.  The Truth Seeker is still around today, published by the Truth Seeker Foundation – which can be accessed on the Internet.

            At one time during the age of enlightenment it was thought the time would soon come when humanity would no longer have a need for religion.  But it is quite clear, at least to me, that absolute secularism is still a long way off.  The human brain still can’t cope with reality without the illusion of the supernatural for a feeling of comfort, purpose and stability.