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*The*E-Zine*of*Atheistic*Secular*Humanism*and*Freethought**
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###### Volume II, Number 6 ***A Collector's Item!***#####
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################### ISSN 1201-0111 #######################
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####################### JUN 1995 ###########################
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nullifidian, n. & a. (Person) having no religious faith or
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belief. [f. med. L _nullifidius_ f. L _nullus_ none +
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_fides_ faith; see -IAN] Concise Oxford Dictionary
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The purpose of this magazine is to provide a source of
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articles dealing with many aspects of humanism.
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We are ATHEISTIC as we do not believe in the actual
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existence of any supernatural beings or any transcendental
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reality.
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We are SECULAR because the evidence of history and the daily
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horrors in the news show the pernicious and destructive
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consequences of allowing religions to be involved with
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politics or government.
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We are HUMANISTS and we focus on what is good for humanity,
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in the real world. We will not be put off with offers of
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pie in the sky, bye and bye.
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Re: navigation.
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Search for BEG to find the beginning of the next article.
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Search for the first few words of the title as given in the
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table of contents to find a specific article. I try to
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remember to copy the title from the text and then paste it
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into the ToC, so it should be exact. Search for "crass
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commercialism:" to see what's for sale. Subscription
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information, etc is at the end of the magazine, search for
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END OF TEXTS.
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/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1. The Necessity of Atheism, by Percy Bysshe Shelley
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Part I
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2. ATHEIST HUMOR, from Ed Babinski
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3. Let us worship the Divine Child! A Poem.
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4. Chance
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5. Euthanasia, personal encounter & cautionary tale
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===========================================================
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|| BEGINNING OF ARTICLE ||
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===========================================================
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15 page printout
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Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
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The value of this 360K disk is $7.00. This disk, its
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printout, or copies of either are to be copied and given
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away, but NOT sold.
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If you have digitized freethought texts, contact:
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Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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**** ****
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LITTLE BLUEBOOK NO. 935
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Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius
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The Necessity of Atheism
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by
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Percy Bysshe Shelley
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[Part I this month, Part II in July]
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HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY
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GIRARD, KANSAS
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FOREWORD
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BY HENRY S. SALT
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As a brief summary of Shelley's attitude toward the
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Christian religion, I may be allowed to quote from what I
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have written elsewhere. [Percy Bysshe shelley, Poet and
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Pioneer (Watts & Co., 1913]
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"I regard Shelley's early 'atheism' and later
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Pantheism, as simply the negative and the affirmative side
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of the same progressive but harmonious life-creed. In his
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earlier years his disposition was towards a vehement denial
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of a theology which he never ceased to detest; in his
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maturer years he made more frequent reference to the great
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World Spirit in whom he had from the first believed. He grew
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wiser in the exercise of his religious faith, but the faith
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was the same throughout; there, was progression, but no
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essential change."
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The sequence of his thought on the Subject may be
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clearly traced in several of his essays. In "The Necessity
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of Atheism," the tract which led to his expulsion from
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Oxford University, we see Shelley in his youthful mood of
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open denial and defiance. It has been suggested that the
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pamphlet was originally intended by its author to be a hoax;
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but such an explanation entirely misapprehends not only the
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facts of the case, but the character of Shelley himself.
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This was long ago pointed out by De guincey: "He affronted
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the armies of Christendom. Had it been possible for him to
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be jesting, it would not have been noble; but here, even in
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the most monstrous of his undertakings -- here, as always,
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he was perfectly sincere and single-minded." That this is
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true may be seen not only from the internal evidence of "The
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Necessity" itself, but from the fact that the conclusion
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which, Shelley meant to be drawn, from the dialogue "A
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Refutation of Deism," published in 1814, was that there is
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no middle course between accepting revealed religion and
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disbelieving in the existence of a deity -- another way of
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stating the necessity of atheism.
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Shelley resembled Blake in the contrast of feeling with
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which he regarded the Christian religion and its founder.
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For the human character of Christ he could feel the deepest
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veneration, as may be seen not only from the "Essay on
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Christianity," but from the "Letter to Lord Ellenborough"
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(1812), and also from the notes to "Hellas" and passages in
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that poem and in "Prometheus Unbound"; but he held that the
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spirit of established Christianity was wholly out
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of harmony with that of Christ, and that a similarity to
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Christ was one of the qualities most detested by the modern
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Christian. The dogmas of the Christian faith were always
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repudiated by him, and there is no warrant whatever in his
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writings for the strange pretension that, had he lived
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longer, his objections to Christianity might in some way
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have been overcome.
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In conclusion, it may be said that Shelley's prose, if,
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not great in itself, is the prose of a great poet, for which
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reason it possesses an interest that is not likely to fail.
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It is the key to the right understanding of his. intellect,
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as his poetry is the highest expression of his genius.
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THE NECESSITY OF ATHEISM
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[NOTE -- The Necessity of Atheism was published by
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Shelley in 1811. In 1813 he printed a revised and expanded
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version of it as one of the notes to his poem Queen Mab. The
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revised and expanded version is the one here reprinted.]
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THERE IS NO GOD
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This negation must be understood solely to affect a
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creative Deity. The hypothesis of a pervading Spirit
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co-eternal with the universe remains unshaken.
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A close examination of the validity of the proofs
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|
adduced to support any proposition is the only secure way of
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attaining truth, on the advantages of which it is
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|
unnecessary to descant: our knowledge of the existence, of a
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Deity is a subject of such importance that it cannot be too
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|
minutely investigated; in consequence of this conviction we
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proceed briefly and impartially to examine the proofs which
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have been adduced. It is necessary first to consider the
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nature of belief.
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When a proposition is offered to the mind, It perceives
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the agreement or disagreement of the ideas of which it is
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composed. A perception of their agreement is termed belief.
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Many obstacles frequently prevent this perception from being
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immediate; these the mind attempts to remove in order that
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the perception may be distinct. The mind is active in the
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investigation in order to perfect the state of perception of
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the relation which the component ideas of the proposition
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bear to each, which is passive; the investigation being
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confused with the perception has induced many falsely to
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imagine that the mind is active in belief. -- that belief is
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an act of volition, -- in consequence of which it may be
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regulated by the mind. Pursuing, continuing this mistake,
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they have attached a degree of criminality to disbelief; of
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which, in its nature, it is incapable: it is equally
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incapable of merit.
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Belief, then, is a passion, the strength of which, like
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every other passion, is in precise proportion to the degrees
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of excitement.
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The degrees of excitement are three.
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The senses are the sources of all knowledge to the
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mind; consequently their evidence claims the strongest
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assent.
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The decision of the mind, founded upon our own
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experience, derived from these sources, claims the next
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degree.
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The experience of others, which addresses itself to the
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former one, occupies the lowest degree.
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(A graduated scale, on which should be marked the
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capabilities of propositions to approach to the test of the
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senses, would be a just barometer of the belief which ought
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to be attached to them.)
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Consequently no testimony can be admitted which is
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contrary to reason; reason is founded on the evidence of our
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senses.
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Every proof may be referred to one of these three
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divisions: it is to be considered what arguments we receive
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from each of them, which should convince us of the existence
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of a Deity.
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1st, The evidence of the senses. If the Deity should
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appear to us, if he should convince our senses of his
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existence, this revelation would necessarily command belief.
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Those to whom the Deity has thus appeared have the strongest
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possible conviction of his existence. But the God of
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Theologians is incapable of local visibility.
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2d, Reason. It is urged that man knows that whatever is
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must either have had a beginning, or have existed from all
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eternity, he also knows that whatever is not eternal must
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have had a cause. When this reasoning is applied to the
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universe, it is necessary to prove that it was created:
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until that is clearly demonstrated we may reasonably suppose
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|
that it has endured from all eternity. We must prove design
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|
before we can infer a designer. The only idea which we can
|
|
form of causation is derivable from the constant conjunction
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|
of objects, and the consequent inference of one from the
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|
other. In a base where two propositions are diametrically
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|
opposite, the mind believes that which is least
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|
incomprehensible; -- it is easier to suppose that the
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universe has existed from all eternity than to conceive a
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|
being beyond its limits capable of creating it: if the mind
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|
sinks beneath the weight of one, is it an alleviation to
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increase the intolerability of the burthen?
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The other argument, which is founded on a Man's
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|
knowledge of his own existence, stands thus. A man knows not
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only that he now is, but that once he was not; consequently
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there must have been a cause. But our idea of causation is
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alone derivable from the constant conjunction of objects and
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the consequent Inference of one from the other; and,
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reasoning experimentally, we can only infer from effects
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caused adequate to those effects. But there certainly is a
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generative power which is effected by certain instruments:
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|
we cannot prove that it is inherent in these instruments"
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|
nor is the contrary hypothesis capable of demonstration: we
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|
admit that the generative power is incomprehensible; but to
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suppose that the same effect is produced by an eternal,
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omniscient, omnipotent being leaves the cause in the same
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obscurity, but renders it more incomprehensible.
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3d, Testimony. It is required that testimony should not
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be contrary to reason. The testimony that the Deity
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convinces the senses of men of his existence can only be
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admitted by us, if our mind considers it less probable, that
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these men should have been deceived than that the Deity
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should have appeared to them. Our reason can never admit the
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testimony of men, who not only declare that they were
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eye-witnesses of miracles, but that the Deity was
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irrational; for he commanded that he should be believed, he
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proposed the highest rewards for, faith, eternal punishments
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|
for disbelief. We can only command voluntary actions; belief
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|
is not an act of volition; the mind is ever passive, or
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involuntarily active; from this it is evident that we have
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no sufficient testimony, or rather that testimony is
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|
insufficient to prove the being of a God. It has been before
|
|
shown that it cannot be deduced from reason. They alone,
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then, who have been convinced by the evidence of the senses
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can believe it.
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Hence it is evident that, having no proofs from either
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of the three sources of conviction, the mind cannot believe
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the existence of a creative God: it is also evident that, as
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belief is a passion of the mind, no degree of criminality is
|
|
attachable to disbelief; and that they only are
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reprehensible who neglect to remove the false medium through
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which their mind views any subject of discussion. Every
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reflecting mind must acknowledge that there is no proof of
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the existence of a Deity.
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God is an hypothesis, and, as such, stands in need of
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|
proof: the onus probandi rests on the theist. Sir Isaac
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|
Newton says: Hypotheses non fingo, quicquid enim ex
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phaenomenis non deducitur hypothesis, vocanda est, et
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hypothesis vel metaphysicae, vel physicae, vel qualitatum
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occultarum, seu mechanicae, in philosophia locum non habent.
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To all proofs of the existence of a creative God apply this
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valuable rule. We see a variety of bodies possessing a
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variety of powers: we merely know their effects; we are in a
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estate of ignorance with respect to their essences and
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causes. These Newton calls the phenomena of things; but the
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pride of philosophy is unwilling to admit its ignorance of
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their causes. From the phenomena, which are the objects of
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our attempt to infer a cause, which we call God, and
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gratuitously endow it with all negative and contradictory
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qualities. From this hypothesis we invent this general name,
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to conceal our ignorance of causes and essences. The being
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called God by no means answers with the conditions
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prescribed by Newton; it bears every mark of a veil woven by
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philosophical conceit, to hide the ignorance of philosophers
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even from themselves. They borrow the threads of its texture
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|
from the anthropomorphism of the vulgar. Words have been
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used by sophists for the same purposes, from the occult
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qualities of the peripatetics to the effuvium of Boyle and
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the crinities or nebulae of Herschel. God is represented as
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infinite, eternal, incomprehensible; he is contained under
|
|
every predicate in non that the logic of ignorance could
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fabricate. Even his worshippers allow that it is impossible
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to form any idea of him: they exclaim with the French poet,
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Pour dire ce qu'il est, il faut etre lui-meme.
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Lord Bacon says that atheism leaves to man reason,
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|
philosophy, natural piety, laws, reputation, and everything
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|
that can serve to conduct him to virtue; but superstition
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destroys all these, and erects itself into a tyranny over
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the understandings of men: hence atheism never disturbs the
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government, but renders man more clear- sighted, since he
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sees nothing beyond the boundaries of the present life. --
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Bacon's Moral Essays.
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The [Beginning here, and to the paragraph ending with
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"Systeme de la Nature," Shelley wrote in French. A free
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translation has been substituted.] first theology of man
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made him first fear and adore the elements themselves, the
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gross and material objects of nature; he next paid homage to
|
|
the agents controlling the elements, lower genies, heroes or
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|
men gifted with great qualities. By force of reflection he
|
|
sought to simplify things by submitting all nature to a
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single agent, spirit, or universal soul, which, gave
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movement to nature and all its branches. Mounting from cause
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to cause, mortal man has ended by seeing nothing; and it is
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in this obscurity that he has placed his God; it is in this
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darksome abyss that his uneasy imagination has always
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|
labored to fabricate chimeras, which will continue to
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afflict him until his knowledge of nature chases these
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phantoms which he has always so adored.
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If we wish to explain our ideas of the Divinity we
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|
shall be obliged to admit that, by the word God, man has
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|
never been able to designate but the most hidden, the most
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|
distant and the most unknown cause of the effects which he
|
|
saw; he has made use of his word only when the play of
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|
natural and known causes ceased to be visible to him; as
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soon as he lost the thread of these causes, or when his mind
|
|
could no longer follow the chain, he cut the difficulty and
|
|
ended his researches by calling God the last of the causes,
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|
that is to say, that which is beyond all causes that he
|
|
knew; thus he but assigned a vague denomination to an
|
|
unknown cause, at which his laziness or the limits of his
|
|
knowledge forced him to stop. Every time we say that God is
|
|
the author of some phenomenon, that signifies that we are
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|
ignorant of how such a phenomenon was able to operate by the
|
|
aid of forces or causes that we know in nature. It is thus
|
|
that the generality of mankind, whose lot is ignorance,
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|
attributes to the Divinity, not only the unusual effects
|
|
which strike them, but moreover the most simple events, of
|
|
which the causes are the most simple to understand by
|
|
whomever is able to study them. In a word, man has always
|
|
respected unknown causes, surprising effects that his
|
|
ignorance kept him from unraveling. It was on this debris of
|
|
nature that man raised the imaginary colossus of the
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Divinity.
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If ignorance of nature gave birth to gods, knowledge of
|
|
nature is made for their destruction. In proportion as man
|
|
taught himself, his strength and his resources augmented
|
|
with his knowledge; science, the arts, industry, furnished
|
|
him assistance; experience reassured him or procured for him
|
|
means of resistance to the efforts of many causes which
|
|
ceased to alarm as soon as they became understood. In a
|
|
word, his terrors dissipated in the same proportion as his
|
|
mind became enlightened. The educated man ceases to be
|
|
superstitious.
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It is only by hearsay (by word of mouth passed down
|
|
from generation to generation) that whole peoples adore the
|
|
God of their fathers and of their priests: authority,
|
|
confidence, submission and custom with them take the place
|
|
of conviction or of proofs: they prostrate themselves and
|
|
pray, because their fathers taught them to prostrate
|
|
themselves and pray: but why did their fathers fall on their
|
|
knees? That is because, in primitive times, their
|
|
legislators and their guides made it their duty. "Adore and
|
|
believe," they said, "the gods whom you cannot understand;
|
|
have confidence in our profound wisdom; we know more than
|
|
you about Divinity." But why should I come to you? It is
|
|
because God willed it thus; it is because God will punish
|
|
you if you dare resist. But this God, is not he, then, the
|
|
thing in question? However, man has always traveled in this
|
|
vicious circle; his slothful mind has always made him find
|
|
it easier to accept the judgment of others. All religious
|
|
nations are founded solely on authority; all the religions
|
|
of the world forbid examination and do not want one to
|
|
reason; authority wants one to believe in God; this God is
|
|
himself founded only on the authority of a few men who
|
|
pretend to know him, and to come in his name and announce
|
|
him on earth. A God made by man undoubtedly has need of man
|
|
to make himself known to man.
|
|
|
|
Should it not, then, be for the priests, the inspired,
|
|
the metaphysicians that should be reserved the conviction of
|
|
the existence of a God, which they, nevertheless, say is so
|
|
necessary for all mankind? But Can you find any harmony in
|
|
the theological opinions of the different inspired ones or
|
|
thinkers scattered over the earth? They themselves, who make
|
|
a profession of adoring the same God, are they in Agreement?
|
|
Are they content with the proofs that their colleagues bring
|
|
of his existence? Do they subscribe unanimously to the ideas
|
|
they present on nature, on his conduct, on the manner of
|
|
understanding his pretended oracles? Is there a country on
|
|
earth where the science of God is really perfect? Has this
|
|
science anywhere taken the consistency and uniformity that
|
|
we the see the science of man assume, even in the most
|
|
futile crafts, the most despised trades. These words mind
|
|
immateriality, creation, predestination and grace; this mass
|
|
of subtle distinctions with which theology to everywhere
|
|
filled; these so ingenious inventions, imagined by thinkers
|
|
who have succeeded one another for so many centuries, have
|
|
only, alas! confused things all the more, and never has
|
|
man's most necessary science, up to this time acquired the
|
|
slightest fixity. For thousands of years the lazy dreamers
|
|
have perpetually relieved one another to meditate on the
|
|
Divinity, to divine his secret will, to invent the proper
|
|
hypothesis to develop this important enigma. Their slight
|
|
success has not discouraged the theological vanity: one
|
|
always speaks of God: one has his throat cut for God: and
|
|
this sublime being still remains the most unknown and the
|
|
most discussed.
|
|
|
|
Man would have been too happy, if, limiting himself to
|
|
the visible objects which interested him, he had employed,
|
|
to perfect his real sciences, his laws, his morals, his
|
|
education, one-half the efforts he has put into his
|
|
researches on the Divinity. He would have been still wiser
|
|
and still more fortunate if he had been satisfied to let his
|
|
jobless guides quarrel among themselves, sounding depths
|
|
capable of rendering them dizzy, without himself mixing in
|
|
their senseless disputes. But it is the essence of ignorance
|
|
to attach importance to that which it does not understand.
|
|
Human vanity is so constituted that it stiffens before
|
|
difficulties. The more an object conceals itself from our
|
|
eyes, the greater the effort we make to seize it, because it
|
|
pricks our pride, it excites our curiosity and it appears
|
|
interesting. In fighting for his God everyone, in fact,
|
|
fights only for the interests of his own vanity, which, of
|
|
all the passions produced by the mal-organization of
|
|
society, is the quickest to take offense, and the most
|
|
capable of committing the greatest follies.
|
|
|
|
If, leaving for a moment the annoying idea that
|
|
theology gives of a capricious God, whose partial and
|
|
despotic decrees decide the fate of mankind, we wish to fix
|
|
our eyes only on the pretended goodness, which all men, even
|
|
trembling before this God, agree is ascribing to him, if we
|
|
allow him the purpose that is lent him of having worked only
|
|
for his own glory, of exacting the homage of intelligent
|
|
beings; of seeking only in his works the well-being of
|
|
mankind; how reconcile these views and these dispositions
|
|
with the ignorance truly invincible in which this God, so
|
|
glorious and so good, leaves the majority of mankind in
|
|
regard to God himself? If God wishes to be known, cherished,
|
|
thanked, why does he not show himself under his favorable
|
|
features to all these intelligent beings by whom he wishes
|
|
to be loved and adored? Why not manifest himself to the
|
|
whole earth in an unequivocal manner, much more capable of
|
|
convincing us than these private revelations which seem to
|
|
accuse the Divinity of an annoying partiality for some of
|
|
his creatures? The all-powerful, should he not heave more
|
|
convincing means by which to show man than these ridiculous
|
|
metamorphoses, these pretended incarnations, which are
|
|
attested by writers so little in agreement among themselves?
|
|
In place of so many miracles, invented to prove the divine
|
|
mission of so many legislators revered by the different
|
|
people of the world, the Sovereign of these spirits, could
|
|
he not convince the human mind in an instant of the things
|
|
he wished to make known to it? Instead of hanging the sun in
|
|
the vault of the firmament, instead of scattering stars
|
|
without order, and the constellations which fill space,
|
|
would it not have been more in conformity with the views of
|
|
a God so jealous of his glory and so well-intentioned for
|
|
mankind, to write, in a manner not subject to dispute, his
|
|
name, his attributes, his permanent wishes in ineffaceable
|
|
characters, equally understandable to all the inhabitants of
|
|
the earth? No one would then be able to doubt the existence
|
|
of God, of his clear will, of his visible intentions. Under
|
|
the eyes of this so terrible God no one would have the
|
|
audacity to violate his commands, no mortal would dare risk
|
|
attracting his anger: finally, no man would have the
|
|
effrontery to impose on his name or to interpret his will
|
|
according to his own fancy.
|
|
|
|
In fact, even while admitting the existence of the
|
|
theological God, and the reality of his so discordant
|
|
attributes which they impute to him, one can conclude
|
|
nothing to authorize the conduct or the cult which one is
|
|
prescribed to render him. Theology is truly the sieve of the
|
|
Danaides. By dint of contradictory qualities and hazarded
|
|
assertions it has, that is to say, so handicapped its God
|
|
that it has made it impossible for him to act. If he is
|
|
infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If
|
|
he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning
|
|
our future? If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and
|
|
fatigue him with our prayers? If he is everywhere, why erect
|
|
temples to him? If he is just, why fear that he will punish
|
|
the creatures that he has, filled with weaknesses? If grace
|
|
does everything for them, what reason would he have for
|
|
recompensing them? If he is all-powerful, how offend him,
|
|
how resist him? If he is reasonable, how can he be angry at
|
|
the blind, to whom he has given the liberty of being
|
|
unreasonable? If he is immovable, by what right do we
|
|
pretend to make him change his decrees? If he is
|
|
inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him? IF HE HAS
|
|
SPOKEN, WHY IS THE UNIVERSE NOT CONVINCED? If the knowledge
|
|
of a God is the most necessary, why is it not the most
|
|
evident and the clearest. -- Systeme de la Nature. London,
|
|
1781.
|
|
|
|
The enlightened and benevolent Pliny thus Publicly
|
|
professes himself an atheist, -- Quapropter effigiem Del
|
|
formamque quaerere imbecillitatis humanae reor. Quisquis est
|
|
Deus (si modo est alius) et quacunque in parte, totus est
|
|
gensus, totus est visus, totus auditus, totus animae, totus
|
|
animi, totus sul. ... Imperfectae vero in homine naturae
|
|
praecipua solatia, ne deum quidem omnia. Namque nec sibi
|
|
protest mortem consciscere, si velit, quod homini dedit
|
|
optimum in tantis vitae poenis; nee mortales aeternitate
|
|
donare, aut revocare defunctos; nec facere ut qui vixit non
|
|
vixerit, qui honores gessit non gesserit, nullumque habere
|
|
In praeteritum ius praeterquam oblivionts, atque (ut.
|
|
facetis quoque argumentis societas haec cum, deo compuletur)
|
|
ut bis dena viginti non sint, et multa similiter efficere
|
|
non posse. -- Per quaedeclaratur haud dubie naturae
|
|
potentiam id quoque ease quod Deum vocamus. -- Plin. Nat.
|
|
Hist. cap. de Deo.
|
|
|
|
The consistent Newtonian is necessarily an atheist. See
|
|
Sir W. Drummond's Academical Questions, chap. iii. -- Sir W.
|
|
seems to consider the atheism to which it leads as a
|
|
sufficient presumption of the falsehood of the system of
|
|
gravitation; but surely it is more consistent with the good
|
|
faith of philosophy to admit a deduction from facts than an
|
|
hypothesis incapable of proof, although it might militate,
|
|
with the obstinate preconceptions of the mob. Had this
|
|
author, instead of inveighing against the guilt and
|
|
absurdity of atheism, demonstrated its falsehood, his
|
|
conduct would have, been more suited to the modesty of the
|
|
skeptic and the toleration of the philosopher.
|
|
|
|
Omnia enim per Dei potentiam facta aunt: imo quia
|
|
naturae potentia nulla est nisi ipsa Dei potentia. Certum
|
|
est nos eatenus Dei potentiam non intelligere, quatenus
|
|
causas naturales ignoramus; adeoque stulte ad eandem Dei
|
|
potentism recurritur, quando rei alicuius causam naturalem,
|
|
sive est, ipsam Dei potentiam ignoramusd -- Spinoza, Tract.
|
|
Theologico-Pol. chap 1. P. 14.
|
|
|
|
ON LIFE
|
|
|
|
Life and the world, or whatever we call that which we
|
|
are and feel, is an astonishing thing. The mist of
|
|
familiarity obscures from us the wonder of our being. We are
|
|
struck with admiration at some of its transient
|
|
modifications, but it is itself the great miracle. What are
|
|
changes of empires, the wreck of dynasties, with the
|
|
opinions which support them; what is the birth and the
|
|
extinction of religious and of political systems, to life?
|
|
What are the revolutions of the globe which we inhabit, and
|
|
the operations of the elements of which it is composed,
|
|
compared with life? What is the universe of stars, and suns,
|
|
of which this inhabited earth is one, and their motions, and
|
|
their destiny, compared with life? Life, the great miracle,
|
|
we admire not because it is so miraculous. It is well that
|
|
we are thus shielded by the familiarity of what is at once
|
|
so certain and so unfathomable, from an astonishment which
|
|
would otherwise absorb and overawe the functions of that
|
|
which is its object.
|
|
|
|
If any artist, I do not say had executed, but had
|
|
merely conceived in his mind the system of the sun, and the
|
|
stars, and planets, they not existing, and had painted to us
|
|
in words, or upon canvas, the spectacle now afforded by the
|
|
nightly cope of heaven, and illustrated it by the wisdom of
|
|
astronomy, great would be our admiration. Or had he imagined
|
|
the scenery of this earth, the mountains, the seas, and the
|
|
rivers; the grass, and the flowers, and the variety of the
|
|
forms and masses of the leaves of the woods, and the colors
|
|
which attend the setting and the rising sun, and the hues of
|
|
the atmosphere, turbid or serene, these things not before
|
|
existing, truly we should have been astonished, and it would
|
|
not have been a vain boast to have said of such a man, "Non
|
|
merita nome di creatore, se non Iddio ed il Poeta." But how
|
|
these things are looked on with little wonder, and to be
|
|
conscious of them with intense delight is esteemed to be the
|
|
distinguishing mark of a refined and extraordinary person.
|
|
The multitude of men care not for them. It is thus with Life
|
|
-- that which includes all.
|
|
|
|
What is life? Thoughts and feelings arise, with or
|
|
without, our will, and we employ words to express them. We
|
|
are born, and our birth is unremembered, and our infancy
|
|
remembered but in fragments; we live on, and in living we
|
|
lose the apprehension of life. How vain is it to think that
|
|
words can penetrate the mystery of our being! Rightly used
|
|
they may make evident our ignorance to ourselves; and this
|
|
is much. For what are we? Whence do we come? and whither do
|
|
we go? Is birth the commencement, is death the conclusion of
|
|
our being? What is birth and death?
|
|
|
|
The most refined abstractions of logic conduct to a
|
|
view of life, which, though startling to the apprehension,
|
|
is, in fact, that which the habitual sense of its repeated
|
|
combinations has extinguished in us. It strips, as it were,
|
|
the painted curtain from this scene of things. I confess
|
|
that I am one of those who am unable to refuse my assent to
|
|
the conclusion of those philosophers who assert that nothing
|
|
exists but as it is perceived.
|
|
|
|
It is a decision against which all our persuasions
|
|
struggle, and we must be long convicted before we can be
|
|
convinced that the solid universe of external things is
|
|
"such stuff as dreams are made of." The shocking absurdities
|
|
of the popular philosophy of mind and matter, its fatal
|
|
consequences in morals, and their violent dogmatism
|
|
concerning the source of all things, had early conducted me
|
|
to materialism. This materialism is a seducing system to
|
|
young and superficial minds. It allows its disciples to
|
|
talk, and dispenses them from thinking. But I was
|
|
discontented with such a view of things as it afforded; man
|
|
is a being of high aspirations, "looking both before and
|
|
after," whose "thoughts wander through eternity,"
|
|
disclaiming alliance with transience and decay: incapable of
|
|
imagining to himself annihilation; existing but in the
|
|
future and the past; being, not what he is, but what he has
|
|
been and all be. Whatever may be his true and final
|
|
destination, there is a spirit within him at enmity with
|
|
nothingness and dissolution. This is the character of all
|
|
life and being. Each is at once the center and the
|
|
circumference; the point to which all things are referred,
|
|
and the line in which all things are contained. Such
|
|
contemplations as these, materialism and the popular
|
|
philosophy of mind and matter alike they are only consistent
|
|
with the intellectual system.
|
|
|
|
It is absurd to enter into a long recapitulation of
|
|
arguments sufficiently familiar to those inquiring minds,
|
|
whom alone a writer on abstruse subjects can be conceived to
|
|
address. Perhaps the most clear and vigorous statement of
|
|
the intellectual system is to be found in Sir William
|
|
Drummond's Academical Questions. After such an exposition,
|
|
it would be idle to translate into other words what could
|
|
only lose its energy and fitness by the change. Examined
|
|
point by point, and word by word, the most discriminating
|
|
intellects have been able to discern no train of thoughts in
|
|
the process of reasoning, which does not conduct inevitably
|
|
to the conclusion which has been stated.
|
|
|
|
What follows from the admission? It establishes no new
|
|
truth, it gives us no additional insight into our hidden
|
|
nature, neither its action nor itself: Philosophy, impatient
|
|
as it may be to build, has much work yet remaining as
|
|
pioneer for the overgrowth of ages. it makes one step
|
|
towards this object; it destroys error, and the roots of
|
|
error. It leaves, what it is too often the duty of the
|
|
reformer in political and ethical questions to leave, a
|
|
vacancy. it reduces the mind to that freedom in which it
|
|
would have acted, but for the misuse of words and signs, the
|
|
instruments of its own creation. By signs, I would be
|
|
understood in a wide sense, including what is properly meant
|
|
by that term, and what I peculiarly mean. In this latter
|
|
sense, almost all familiar objects are signs, standing, not
|
|
for themselves, but for others, in their capacity of
|
|
suggesting one thought which shall lead to a train of
|
|
thoughts. Our whole life is thus an education of error.
|
|
|
|
Let us recollect our sensations as children. What a
|
|
distinct and intense apprehension had we of the world and of
|
|
ourselves! Many of the Circumstances of social life were
|
|
then important to us which are now no longer so. But that is
|
|
not the point of comparison on which I mean to insist. We
|
|
less habitually distinguished all that we saw and felt, from
|
|
ourselves. They seemed, as it were, to constitute one mass.
|
|
There are some persons who, in this respect, are always
|
|
children. Those who are subject to the state called reverie,
|
|
feel as if their nature were dissolved into the surrounding
|
|
universe, or as if the surrounding universe were absorbed
|
|
into their being. They are conscious of no distinction. And
|
|
these are states which precede, or accompany, or follow an
|
|
unusually intense and vivid apprehension of life. As men
|
|
grow up this power commonly decays, and they become
|
|
mechanical and habitual agents. Thus feelings and then
|
|
reasoning are the combined result of a multitude of
|
|
entangled thoughts, and of a series of what are called
|
|
impressions, planted by reiteration.
|
|
|
|
The view of life presented by the most refined
|
|
deductions of the intellectual philosophy, to that of unity.
|
|
Nothing exists but as it is perceived. The difference is
|
|
merely nominal between those two classes of thought which
|
|
are distinguished by the names of ideas and of external
|
|
objects. Pursuing the same thread of reasoning, the
|
|
existence of distinct individual minds, similar to that
|
|
which is employed in now questioning its own nature, is
|
|
likewise found to be a delusion. The words, I, you, they,
|
|
are not signs of any actual difference subsisting between
|
|
the assemblage of thoughts thus indicated, but are merely
|
|
marks employed to denote the different modifications of the
|
|
one mind.
|
|
|
|
Let it not be supposed that this doctrine conducts the
|
|
monstrous presumption that I, the person who now write and
|
|
think, am that one mind. I am but a portion of it. The words
|
|
I, and you, and they are grammatical devices invented simply
|
|
for arrangement, and totally devoid of the intense and
|
|
exclusive sense usually attached to them. It is difficult to
|
|
find terms adequate to express so subtle a conception as
|
|
that to which the Intellectual Philosophy has conducted us.
|
|
We are on that verge where words abandon us, and what wonder
|
|
if we grow dizzy to look down the dark abyss of how little
|
|
we know!
|
|
|
|
The relations of things remain unchanged, by whatever
|
|
system. By the word things is to be understood any object of
|
|
thought, that is, any thought upon which any other thought
|
|
is employed, with an apprehension of distinction. The
|
|
relations of these remain unchanged; and such is the
|
|
material of our knowledge.
|
|
|
|
What is the cause of life? That is, how was it
|
|
produced, or what agencies distinct from life have acted or
|
|
act upon life? All recorded generations of mankind have
|
|
wearily busied themselves in inventing answers to this
|
|
question; and the result has been -- Religion. Yet that the
|
|
basis of all things cannot be, as the popular philosophy
|
|
alleges, mind, is sufficiently evident. Mind, as far as we
|
|
have any experience of its properties -- and beyond that
|
|
experience how vain is argument! -- cannot create, it can
|
|
only perceive. It is said also to be the cause. But cause is
|
|
only a word expressing a certain state of the human mind
|
|
with regard to the manner in which two thoughts are
|
|
apprehended to be related to each other. If anyone desires
|
|
to know how unsatisfactorily the popular philosophy employs
|
|
itself upon this great question, they need only impartially
|
|
reflect upon the manner in which thoughts develop themselves
|
|
in their minds. It is infinitely improbable that the cause
|
|
of mind, that is, of existence, is similar to mind.
|
|
|
|
|
|
[Part II Next Month]
|
|
=========================================================
|
|
|| END OF ARTICLE ||
|
|
=========================================================
|
|
"Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the
|
|
occurrence of the improbable." [H. L. Mencken]
|
|
===========================================================
|
|
|| BEGINNING OF ARTICLE ||
|
|
===========================================================
|
|
From Babinski_Ed/furman@furman.edu
|
|
<World famous author and raconteur>
|
|
Subject: I'M GOD?
|
|
|
|
ATHEIST HUMOR
|
|
|
|
J. Michael Straczynski is the producer of Babylon 5. When a
|
|
fan of Babylon 5 told Straczynski that he was God,
|
|
Straczynski replied, "Thank you, but I'm afraid I can't
|
|
accept your compliment. You see, I'm an atheist, so if I'm
|
|
also God, that would mean that I don't believe in myself,
|
|
and at this point in my life, I don't need the added
|
|
insecurity." :-)
|
|
|
|
=========================================================
|
|
|| END OF ARTICLE ||
|
|
=========================================================
|
|
The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are
|
|
free to do than in what we are free not to do. --Eric Hoffer
|
|
===========================================================
|
|
|| BEGINNING OF ARTICLE ||
|
|
===========================================================
|
|
Let us worship the Divine Child!
|
|
|
|
That way, we can beat,
|
|
starve,
|
|
neglect,
|
|
and rape
|
|
real live children
|
|
with the enthusiastic approval
|
|
and participation
|
|
of the priests and worshippers
|
|
of the Divine Child.
|
|
|
|
Let us worship the Virgin Mother!
|
|
|
|
That way, we can blame virgins
|
|
for not being mothers,
|
|
and mothers
|
|
for not being virgins.
|
|
And,
|
|
(by the way)
|
|
beat,
|
|
starve,
|
|
neglect,
|
|
and rape
|
|
real live women
|
|
with the enthusiastic approval
|
|
and participation
|
|
of the priests and worshippers
|
|
of the Virgin Mother.
|
|
|
|
Alleleuia!
|
|
|
|
Love God
|
|
and hate those that don't.
|
|
Aim at heaven
|
|
and destroy the unworthy earth.
|
|
Save our souls
|
|
and torture our imperfect bodies.
|
|
Venerating the invisible and non-existent
|
|
is so much easier
|
|
than succouring the messy real world:
|
|
And ghosts are less frightening than bodies.
|
|
|
|
It's all so neat inside my head.
|
|
|
|
"Praise the Living God
|
|
and pass the ammunition,
|
|
There's millions of real people
|
|
that God thinks deserve to die."
|
|
|
|
HE told ME so.
|
|
|
|
Alleleuia!
|
|
Amen!
|
|
=========================================================
|
|
|| END OF ARTICLE ||
|
|
=========================================================
|
|
"In every country and in every age the priest has been
|
|
hostile to liberty; he is always in allegiance to the
|
|
despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection of his
|
|
own." [Thomas Jefferson]
|
|
===========================================================
|
|
|| BEGINNING OF ARTICLE ||
|
|
===========================================================
|
|
Chance
|
|
|
|
This story starts 12 years ago. Well, actually, 13. A
|
|
golden retriever puppy was born. I don't know where, or in
|
|
what circumstances. Eventually, he was given to an elderly
|
|
man by some well-meaning grandchildren. However, he wasn't
|
|
able to take the dog out, or play with him, and he decided
|
|
he couldn't really afford to feed him. So he brought him
|
|
into the SPCA.
|
|
|
|
My wife was working there as a volunteer. She saw this
|
|
beautiful dog in the "boys' cage" and asked, "What's she
|
|
doing in there?" Goldens are so pretty, she assumed that he
|
|
was a she. We didn't want a golden, we were looking for a
|
|
German Shepherd. We also wanted a female. We ended up with
|
|
Chance.
|
|
|
|
When he first arrived, we decided to give him a chance, or
|
|
we would take a chance on him. That's how he got his name.
|
|
He didn't know anything. He spent the first few days tied
|
|
to the kitchen stove. He stayed right in place until we
|
|
determined that he knew enough to pee outside. (He did.)
|
|
One day while he was tied, he got excited about something
|
|
and went over to see it. He pulled the stove with him,
|
|
which he could have done at any point while he had been
|
|
tied. We decided he had been held in place more by love and
|
|
loyalty than by the leash, and he wasn't tied any more.
|
|
|
|
He grew up with our children, and played with them and slept
|
|
on their beds when he could, or in his place, which wasn't
|
|
fixed, but which he always found. Soon, the children had
|
|
matured, two out of three had left home, but Chance was
|
|
still there. But, unlike dragons, dogs do not live forever.
|
|
And unlike little boys, they do not transform into men, but
|
|
get cancers, arthritis and lose their sight. We would say,
|
|
'He can't hear, doesn't see too good, and he smells pretty
|
|
bad, too.' He always grinned at our jokes, even those at
|
|
his expense.
|
|
|
|
In October of 1994, the arthritis in his back left leg got
|
|
so bad, he couldn't walk. This came on quite suddenly. He
|
|
had been getting old. Like, we knew he would sometimes
|
|
refuse to climb stairs; and he no longer was the one
|
|
initiating long walks; and when we took him outside, he
|
|
asked to go in and sleep before we wanted to, not the other
|
|
way around.
|
|
|
|
But then, he could barely move, and he obviously hurt. A
|
|
lot. Fortunately, we have a good vet, who has known Chance
|
|
as long as we have. He suggested aspirin up to four times a
|
|
day. That simple prescription extended his life for six
|
|
months.
|
|
|
|
He had always loved the winter. Every time he went out, he
|
|
would eat snow. He was even willing to walk a bit longer.
|
|
But really, not that much, and only occasionally, not even
|
|
that often. It was -30, I didn't have a fur coat, and
|
|
sometimes the wind chill was -50. I wasn't willing to stay
|
|
out all that long. Really, he was still old.
|
|
|
|
He spent most of the last six months sleeping. In the house
|
|
we moved into in July, he never went up the stairs to the
|
|
bedrooms or downstairs to the basement. He wasn't
|
|
imprisoned by walls, but by his own body. Sometimes,
|
|
outside, he would lose track of me. He would then walk
|
|
randomly until I came over and he could tell where to
|
|
follow. He pieced together a map of the walk from bits of
|
|
sight, sound and smell, not one of which was coming through
|
|
to his brain very well any more. Retrievers are not exactly
|
|
bloodhounds. When he was young we would play hide 'n' seek
|
|
with him, and he never would sniff us out, even if we were
|
|
holding chocolates. He didn't want to go upstairs or
|
|
downstairs, he wanted to sleep.
|
|
|
|
One day in April, we came home from work. His leg was
|
|
swollen up to twice its normal size. We took him to
|
|
veterinary emergency just in case it was caused by something
|
|
like an injury or a piece of glass. The vet said it was a
|
|
tumor which had grown to the point that it was cutting off
|
|
circulation, causing the leg to swell with edema: the blood
|
|
could go in, but it couldn't get out. Chance was 13. The
|
|
time had come.
|
|
|
|
We made an appointment for Friday at 10:30. We both took
|
|
the day off. I thought I could go to a meeting that night,
|
|
which turned out to be incorrect. That morning we gave him
|
|
his favorite foods: chocolates, hot dogs, cookies, all
|
|
kinds of treats and pats and hugs. My wife brushed him and
|
|
cleaned his rheumy eyes and made him look his best. He
|
|
always enjoyed car rides, and his last one was no exception.
|
|
When he was getting out of the back seat, he slipped and
|
|
fell into the floor space between the back and the front
|
|
seats. If we weren't there, he would have starved in that
|
|
position. He couldn't move. I had to pick him up and carry
|
|
him out. (While this was going on, we were all three
|
|
laughing.) Over the last year he fell often. His legs
|
|
would just give out, he would miss a step, slip on the ice,
|
|
fall going up a hill. When it happened, he would just lie
|
|
there, waiting for help.
|
|
|
|
Our vet explained what was happening. He had established an
|
|
IV and was going to inject ten times the lethal dose of
|
|
phenobarbital. The first action of the barbiturate is
|
|
anesthetic, so there is virtually no pain; the next action
|
|
is unconsciousness, then the heart stops, the lungs cease to
|
|
function. There is no question of a mistake, and no maybes.
|
|
In this situation, though, this is something you need to
|
|
know, to be absolutely certain about. It was all over very
|
|
quickly, and we drove home.
|
|
|
|
Since then, I have become aware of how much a part of our
|
|
lives he was: every time we open the door, he is not there;
|
|
when I wake up in the morning, I check the weather to see
|
|
how to dress for the walk I don't have to take; when I come
|
|
down the stairs, he is not there to look up; when the
|
|
doorbell rings, he doesn't bark; when there's food leftover,
|
|
he's not there to eat it. I anticipate all of these and am
|
|
disappointed and surprised when they do not happen.
|
|
|
|
Coincidentally, the week he died was the week of the
|
|
Oklahoma City bombing, the week Farley, of the comic "For
|
|
Better or For Worse" died, and on Friday morning, in
|
|
"Peanuts," Snoopy wrote this story:
|
|
|
|
She had always been kind.
|
|
|
|
Sometimes, however, she wondered if she was appreciated.
|
|
|
|
"Even so," she thought," "I shall always smile and be kind."
|
|
|
|
Once a Golden Retriever, always a Golden Retriever.
|
|
|
|
that is how a Golden Retriever is. And I notice that
|
|
Charles Schulz made the same mistake about gender that we
|
|
made so long ago.
|
|
|
|
During The Last Week, we were both hoping that he would die
|
|
on his own, and that coincidence would lift the burden of
|
|
decision from us. We did not want to make this decision, we
|
|
did not make it lightly. I would change my mind every
|
|
minute, and constantly hoped for relief. I have learned
|
|
that no decision is 100% right, and none 100% wrong. That
|
|
is, every good thing we do, has some bad consequences,
|
|
however minor, and unintended, and maybe outweighed by the
|
|
good; and vice versa. We were going on a trip later in May.
|
|
How much did this contribute to our decision? How much from
|
|
wanting the trip? How much genuine concern for Chance's
|
|
distress at being left behind? How much concern over
|
|
Chance's pain, and how much inability to bear our own? If
|
|
it hadn't ended on the 21st of April , what would the next
|
|
weeks and days have been like? More of the same? Sleep,
|
|
eat and walk in pain? Worse and intolerable agony? We will
|
|
never know.
|
|
|
|
I hope that I never know what's coming, that I live till I'm
|
|
120, can still taste and enjoy food, and that other
|
|
important pieces of equipment are likewise still functioning
|
|
well. But this is unlikely. There is no good in brute
|
|
suffering, not for a dog, and not for a person. It is
|
|
useless and cruel to insist upon it. And those who attempt
|
|
to live with religions that demand this end up cruel and
|
|
meanspirited. For myself, I will make sure that the
|
|
equivalent of the shot of phenobarbital is available, and I
|
|
hope that it will be used if necessary. I hope that I am
|
|
surrounded by compassionate family and friends, and that
|
|
they have the courage to exercise their compassion and carry
|
|
out my wishes, when I so indicate.
|
|
|
|
They say you eventually get over this. Tears were only
|
|
falling while I wrote about half of this. Then, again,
|
|
during most of the editing. So, I guess they're right. It
|
|
is almost comical that our deepest emotions must be
|
|
expressed in such gross, physical ways: by the emission of
|
|
mucous from the nose and having the eye tissue swell and
|
|
redden with edema while the tear ducts overflow. Strong
|
|
evidence against an intelligent creation, in my opinion.
|
|
|
|
I no longer expect to be 100% correct about anything, nor
|
|
can I claim that someone else is 100% wrong, or 100% evil in
|
|
their effects. The best we can hope for is to hold our best
|
|
values in our sights and head in that direction. We will be
|
|
inevitably side-tracked by ephemera, and sometimes forced to
|
|
go around insurmountable obstacles; at times, we may have to
|
|
backtrack, and start over after pursuing a wrong path for a
|
|
long time. So, it is important to choose carefully the
|
|
goals and the values that guide us. It is important to
|
|
check often that the path we are pursuing is bringing us
|
|
closer to where we think we are going. It is important to
|
|
know that where you are going really exists, and is possible
|
|
to get to.
|
|
=========================================================
|
|
|| END OF ARTICLE ||
|
|
=========================================================
|
|
"While we are under the tyranny of Priests [...] it will
|
|
ever be in their interest, to invalidate the law of nature
|
|
and reason, in order to establish systems incompatible
|
|
therewith." [Ethan Allen, _Reason the Only Oracle of Man_]
|
|
===========================================================
|
|
|| BEGINNING OF ARTICLE ||
|
|
===========================================================
|
|
Euthanasia, personal encounter & cautionary tale
|
|
|
|
My mother-in-law, who is 71, apparently had a severe stroke,
|
|
"massive" was the word used by the admitting hospital on
|
|
Friday 26 May. All indications, we were told, showed that
|
|
her brain was severely damaged. Her chances of survival
|
|
were given as 1000 to 1, and, we were told, that if she
|
|
survived, the woman we knew was gone and the body would have
|
|
only a vegetative existence.
|
|
|
|
There is no official euthanasia in Canada, but a mild form
|
|
of unofficial euthanasia was offered: morphine "if she
|
|
looked uncomfortable"; and there seemed to be a lack of
|
|
enthusiasm in keeping up the antibiotic drips, after all,
|
|
why bother fighting infection; pneunomia, the "old man's
|
|
friend" a quick and painless death.
|
|
|
|
If there had been euthanasia available, I, and some of her
|
|
five children, would probably have opted for it.
|
|
|
|
It just goes to show. On Sunday afternoon, her eyes opened,
|
|
and over the next five hours, she gradually came into focus.
|
|
After talking the whole evening with her, and watching her
|
|
talk with everybody, as near as I can tell (no official
|
|
assessment of brain damage has yet been done, [I would
|
|
advise anybody planning on a major illness or accident, not
|
|
to do so on a weekend, as physicians and equipment are
|
|
unavailable]) she is functioning as well as before.
|
|
|
|
Any legal framework for 'other person' euthanasia, i.e.,
|
|
when it concerns an unconscious or uncommunciative family
|
|
member, must include some mechanism for genuine assessment.
|
|
If she had actually been brain dead, if the stroke had
|
|
indeed damaged the brain stem and destroyed her personality,
|
|
there would have been no suffering involved (for her) in
|
|
waiting a few days. The only way to get a fair decision is
|
|
to have it based on consultation with the patient (where
|
|
possible), the family, expert advice (they are advisors, not
|
|
decision-makers). Just don't trust what the doctors say
|
|
more than what you see and know with your own senses. When
|
|
we saw her trying to communicate, the doctors and nurses all
|
|
said that these were merely reflexes and twitches. Only a
|
|
family member, or spouse, or someone with similar long
|
|
acquaintance, can assess this kind of thing accurately.
|
|
when my wife said, she is responding to our questions, the
|
|
doctor said, (and I quote) "Ain't gonna happen."
|
|
|
|
This is the second time I have had personal acquaintance
|
|
with medical bumbling due to dealing with unlikely or rare
|
|
circumstances. Doctors and nurses are human beings and are
|
|
just as likely to succumb to preconceived ideas as anybody
|
|
else. Part of the humanist seeking for balance is the
|
|
ability to toss away preconceived ideas and accept the
|
|
evidence of our senses when it conflicts with our previous
|
|
worldviews, whatever they may have been. It also consists
|
|
in knowing what constitutes evidence. Whoever said this
|
|
would be easy?
|
|
|
|
We don't know whether this is a respite of a few days, or
|
|
whether the physical problems this has caused (pneumonia,
|
|
pulmonary edema, and congestive heart failure) or perhaps
|
|
another stroke, will come along and end it any minute.
|
|
However, it is better that she came back, even if it turns
|
|
out to be brief, than if she had been "eased over."
|
|
|
|
I believe euthanasia should be a choice, but I will inspect
|
|
the safeguards built in to any proposed legislation quite
|
|
carefully. In regard to the unofficial euthanasia existing
|
|
in our society right now, your best, and maybe only,
|
|
protection against it, is to have your family, or others who
|
|
care deeply about you there as much as possible. Make your
|
|
wishes known to them, now. And keep in mind that this
|
|
probably is actually an extremely rare occurrence, but also
|
|
that extremely rare doesn't mean never; and that in matters
|
|
of life and death, "extremely rare" is worth waiting for.
|
|
=========================================================
|
|
|| END OF ARTICLE ||
|
|
=========================================================
|
|
'...the Bible as we have it contains elements that are
|
|
scientifically incorrect or even morally repugnant. No
|
|
amount of "explaining away" can convince us that such
|
|
passages are the product of Divine Wisdom.'
|
|
-- Bernard J. Bamberger, _The Story of Judaism_
|
|
===========================================================
|
|
|| BEGINNING OF ARTICLE ||
|
|
===========================================================
|
|
==========================================================
|
|
|| END OF TEXTS ||
|
|
==========================================================
|
|
Nine out of ten priests who have tried Camels, prefer young
|
|
boys.
|
|
=><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><==
|
|
|| Begging portion of the Zine ||
|
|
==><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><==
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There is no charge for receiving this, and there is no
|
|
charge for distributing copies to any electronic medium.
|
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Nor is there a restriction on printing a copy for use in
|
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discussion. You may not charge to do so, and you may not do
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so without attributing it to the proper author and source.
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If you would like to support our efforts, and help us
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acquire better equipment to bring you more and better
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articles, you may send money to Greg Erwin at: 100,
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Terrasse Eardley / Aylmer, Qc / J9H 6B5 / CANADA. Or buy
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our atheist quote address labels, and other fine products,
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see "Shameless advertising and crass commercialism" below.
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Articles will be welcomed and very likely used IF:
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(
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they are emailed to:
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((ai815@FreeNet.Carleton.CA; or,
|
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godfree@magi.com), or
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sent on diskette to me at the above Aylmer address in
|
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any format that an IBM copy of WordPerfect can read;
|
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) and
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they don't require huge amounts of editing; and
|
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I like them.
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|
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I will gladly reprint articles from your magazine, local
|
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group's newsletter, or original material. There are
|
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currently about 140 subscribers, plus each issue is posted
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in some newsgroups and is archived as noted elsewhere.
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If you wish to receive a subscription, email a simple
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We will automate this process as soon as we know how.
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Yes, please DO make copies! (*)
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Please DO send copies of The Nullifidian to anyone who might
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be interested.
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The only limitations are:
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At least clearly indicate the source, and how to subscribe.
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You do NOT have permission to copy this document for
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commercial purposes.
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The contents of this document are copyright (c) 1995, Greg
|
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Erwin (insofar as possible) and are on deposit at the
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National Library of Canada
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You may find back issues in any place that archives
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alt.atheism. Currently, all back issues are posted at
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the Humanist Association of Ottawa's area on the National
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Capital Freenet. telnet to 134.117.1.22, and enter <go
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humanism> at the "Your choice==>" prompt.
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ARCHIVES
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Arrangements have been made with etext at umich. ftp to
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For America On-Line subscribers:
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To access the Freethought Forum on America Online enter
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keyword "Capital", scroll down until you find Freethought
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Forum, double click and you're there. Double click "Files &
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Truth Seeker Articles" and scroll until you find Nullifidian
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giving you the opportunity to display a description of the
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file or download the file.
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And thanks to the people at the _Truth Seeker_, who edited,
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formatted and uploaded the articles to the aol area.
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/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\
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Shameless advertising and crass commercialism:
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\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/
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Atheistic self-stick Avery(tm) address labels. Consisting
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of 210 different quotes, 30 per page, each label 2 5/8" x
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Laser printed, 8 pt Arial, with occasional flourishes.
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_________________________________________________
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|"Reality is that which, when you stop believing |/\
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|in it, doesn't go away." [Philip K. Dick] | |
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|Greg Erwin 100 Terrasse Eardley | 1"
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|Aylmer, Qc J9H 6B5 Canada | |
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| email: ai815@FreeNet.Carleton.CA | |
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|________________________________________________|\/
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_________________________________________________
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|"...and when you tell me that your deity made |
|
|
|you in his own image, I reply that he must be |
|
|
|very ugly." [Victor Hugo, writing to clergy] |
|
|
|Greg Erwin 100 Terrasse Eardley |
|
|
|Aylmer, Qc J9H 6B5 Canada Ph: (613) 954-6128 |
|
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| email: ai815@FreeNet.Carleton.CA |
|
|
|________________________________________________|
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Other quote in between the articles are usually part of the
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label quote file. Occasionally I throw in one that is too
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long for a label, but which should be shared.
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|
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Other stuff for sale:
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Certificate of Baptism Removal and Renunciation of Religion.
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All religious vows, codes, and commitments are null & void
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proselytizing, prophesying, faith, speaking in tongues or
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Order from the same address as above.
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and many, many more. Ever changing inventory. Friendly
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add $2 postage/handling for first book & 0.50 for each
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Send 2 first class stamps for H.H. Waldo's current catalog.
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P.O. Box 350
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Rockton, IL 61072
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or phone 1-800-66WALDO !!!
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tell 'im: "that nullifidian guy sent me!"
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Once again: ISSN: 1201-0111 The Nullifidian Volume Two,
|
|
Number 6: JUNE 1995.
|
|
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
|
|
The problem with religions that have all the answers is that
|
|
they don't let you ask the questions.
|
|
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
|
|
(*) There is no footnote, and certainly not an endnote.
|
|
|
|
|
|
--
|
|
-- Greg Erwin, vice president, Humanist Association of Canada.
|
|
'I saw a person wearing a T-shirt that said "Question Authority", so I said
|
|
to him, "Who are *you* to tell *me* what to do?"' --Marshall Deutsch
|
|
|