Granted, but are we not all slipshod thinkers?
The Irreligion of Orthodoxy
We do not fall foul of Christians for their religion, but for what we
hold to be their want of religion--for the low views they take of God
and of his glory, and for the unworthiness with which they try to
serve him.
Society and Christianity
The burden of society is really a very light one. She does not
require us to believe the Christian religion, she has very vague
ideas as to what the Christian religion is, much less does she
require us to practise it. She is quite satisfied if we do not
obtrude our disbelief in it in an offensive manner. Surely this is
no very grievous burden.
Sanctified by Faith
No matter how great a fraud a thing may have been or be, if it has
passed through many minds an aroma of life attaches to it and it must
be handled with a certain reverence. A thing or a thought becomes
hallowed if it has been long and strongly believed in, for
veneration, after a time, seems to get into the thing venerated.
Look at Delphi--fraud of frauds, yet sanctified by centuries of hope
and fear and faith. If greater knowledge shows Christianity to have
been founded upon error, still greater knowledge shows that it was
aiming at a truth.
Ourselves and the Clergy
As regards the best of the clergy, whether English or foreign, I feel
that they and we mean in substance the same thing, and that the
difference is only about the way this thing should be put and the
evidence on which it should be considered to rest.
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