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HERESIES EXPOSED
A Brief Critical Examination in the Light of the Holy
Scriptures of some of the Prevailing Heresies and False Teachings of Today
Compiled by
WM. C IRVINE
Loizeaux Brothers, Bible Truth Depot
New York
First Edition, 1917 - Fifteenth Edition 1944
Atheism, The Enemy of Civilization
By Dr. W.B. Riley
T HE subject, "Atheism, the Enemy of
Civilization," is an affront, but it states a fact. Infidelity is uniformly
egotistical and readily imagines it is the friend of all that is good. It shall be our
purpose to show that historically the exact opposite is true. It is as perfectly the enemy
of man and the foe of civilization as it is the opponent of God. The sacred Scriptures are
in this matter, as in all others, the last word (Ps. 14: 1), "The fool hath said in
his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is
none that doeth good." History has provided thousands of illustrations of this
divinely inspired assertion.
Atheism is the Enemy of Science
This statement runs counter
to the boasted claim of infidelity. Unbelievers have ever been enamored of the notion that
they are scholarly and even scientific. Their boasts in this matter are to be found upon
every page emanating from their pens, and heard in every hall where one of their
representatives secures an audience; but in spite of all that, we propose to state clearly
and prove abundantly the exact opposite.
The discoveries of science
clearly indicate the existence of God. If it be true as Professor Leuba, of Bryn Mawr,
contends, that the majority of teachers of science in America are infidels, that is only
proof of their superficiality and incompetence. It is not science that has made them so,
but rather "a pseudo-science" - evolution; and a false science always makes for
unbelief, while a true one eventuates in faith. The outstanding experts in the established
sciences of mathematics and astronomy have been outstanding believers, while the
representatives of the Darwin speculation have just as unanimously been atheists,
agnostics and skeptics of all, sorts.
In the very nature of the
case, a study of the works of God impresses one with His personality, power, wisdom,
infinity, and from the least speck of material existence to the infinity of the universe,
all unite in declaring both His greatness and His glory.
Man used to talk of monads
and imagined that they were the smallest particle of matter; such language is now out of
date. The monad, so it is claimed, is a world of molecules. The ancient philosopher
Giordano Bruno conversed of these as eternal, and declared each. of them a microcosm or
mirror of the Deity. Leibnitz regarded the monads as non-spatial units, each one
representing the same universe, but presenting that universe from a different point of
view, and each attaining its activities through the will of God. There was a time when
biology thought of a monad as a simple single-celled organism; that time is past. A
molecule was discovered; it was so small that men declared it the smallest part of a
substance that could exist separately and still retain its composition and proportion; the
smallest combination of atoms that would form a given chemical compound. But alas for the
recent deliverances and the instability of so-called science! We are now told that each
molecule contains 740 electrons, and no man knows what will be the next deliverance upon
this subject. It is evident, however, that the complexity of the simplest things is past
the imagination of man. When you rise in the scale of existences and consequently advance
in the study of science, you come across the most mysterious secrets in the natural
world-secrets so illusive that as yet the mind of the modern man has utterly failed to
uncover them. But a few days since the Associated Press carried "For Science
Service" an article proving the discovery of heatless light. This suggestion is based
on the fact that low forms of life have been found to generate heatless light. The
bacteria and fungi that cause rotten wood to glow in the dark, and the mysterious firefly
that can, with a wilful or automatic motion in his body, emit a heatless light out of all
proportion to the best that man's devices have ever approached; these bugs and bacteria
becoming, as the article stated, at once the admiration and despair of scientists, but
clearly indicating the acceptance of a mind infinitely above that of man. Man's invention
of light involves a slow combustion and always generates heat; not so with the light of
the bacteria and the bug; and to date that secret is with God.
God's work, in its simplest
form, exceeds the understanding of man, and our amazement grows as we acquire additional
knowledge.
The Psalmist said of his
body, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works. My substance
was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest
parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy Book
all my members were written, which in continuance were- fashioned, when as yet there was
none of them" (Ps. 139: 14-16).
In order to impress this
truth one needs only to study physiology a little.
I don't know that I shall
even attempt to talk to you about the intricacies and efficiencies of the human eye. I
will leave to others the detailed description of its lenses, the intricacies of its
muscles, the delicacy and efficiency of its nerves. The eye constantly baffles the
imagination and justifies Darwin's statement, "To suppose that the eye with all its
illusive contrivances for adjusting the focuses to different distances and admitting
different amounts of light, could be formed by natural means, fails in the highest degree.
But when it is all analyzed and the mind comes as near comprehending it as the human mind
can, one simply stands amazed at the minutest evidences of the Divine, in the eye, and the
proposition of an infinity fixed greater credit to the same."
But the eye is not alone.
Let some physicist tell you of the 600 muscles in the human body, the one thousand miles
of blood-vessels in the human body, the 550 main arteries of the human body, or let him
place before you the fact that 1,500,000 sweat-glands spread out on the surface of the
same, or that the lungs are composed of 7,700,000 -cells, or that in the 70 years of human
life the heart has struck 2,500,000,000 beats and has lifted by its throbs a load of
500,000 tons of blood; and if this does not bewilder you, then let him add that the
"nervous system, controlled by the brain, has three trillion nerve cells, while the
blood itself is made up of thirty million white corpuscles and one hundred trillion native
red ones," and you will be ready to throw up your hands in despair in comprehension
of your physical self. And yet, with such an intricate machine, completed perfectly, set
in operation, apart from accidents and incidents of danger, known to function from 70
years, the natural limit of a person's life, to 969 years, the longest on record, and who
will say that there was no intelligent designer for this competent machine?
But if the study of
physiology does not suffice to impress one with all the wisdom and power of an infinite
God, then let him lift his face to the heavens above and the stars will speak; and when he
has been told that the moon is 240,000 miles removed from the earth and that the sun is
more than 90,000,000 miles distant, he will begin to think in terms of space, and then he
learns that the sun is, in science, more than a million times as large as our earth.
It is only unused light that
leads to spiritual darkness. The naturalist who does not find God in the universe has
utterly failed to correctly interpret anything in it, from its greatest central sun to its
most insignificant bacteria. To go back to the text, Paul tells us exactly how the process
is accomplished. "The invisible things of Him (namely, His wisdom, power, beauty, and
grace), from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." And then he tells us how it came
about that they failed to so connect the two as to create in their own hearts faith; and
he indicts them with moral deficiency, saying:
"When they knew God,
they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they
became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things" (Rom. 1:
21-23).
It would be difficult,
indeed, to see in all literature any more accurate description of the degenerating effects
of Darwinism than the apostle here pens. For inanity, could anything surpass the
combination of infidelity and the acquisition of learning?
Only men whose imaginations
are wild and whose foolish hearts are darkened and whose egotism has puffed them up, could
ever come to the conclusion of atheism. The portrait shown is impressed in the following
words:
"There is no God, the fool in secret said;
There is no God that rules o'er earth or sky.
Tear off the band that binds the wretch's head,
That God may burst upon his faithless eye!
"Is there no God?-The stars in myriads spread,
If he looks up, the blasphemy deny.-
While his own features, in the mirror read,
Reflect the image of Divinity.
"Is there no God?-The stream that silver flows,
The air he breathes, the ground he treads, the trees,
The flowers, the grass, the sands, each wind that blows,
All speak of God; throughout, one voice agrees,
And, eloquent, His dread existence shows;
Blind to thyself, ah! see Him, fool, in these!"
It is only false science
that leads to the bestial philosophy of infidelity, Darwinism has never done anything
else. Its history of 3,000 years since the days of the Greek philosophers and down to its
most modem revival, first by Erasmus Darwin, and later by his grandson, Charles, has
accomplished no better ends. Never, in the history of man, has it made one colossal
character or eventuated in a single outstanding discoverer of nature's secrets. The
established sciences were found out and proved to the satisfaction of the public by
believing men. The histories of these individuals are an open page. They were not only men
of God, but many of them ministers; men in touch with God, and congruently capable of
interpreting the work of God. In the universities the professed scientists of this present
day are not scientists. What have they discovered? What contribution have they given to
men by their knowledge? Certainly you do not count "The Hall of the Age of Man,"
by Henry Fairfield Osborne, a contribution, since it is evidently a hypocritical pretense.
Certainly you do not call
Charles Darwin a contributor to modem science. His speculation has only succeeded in
exciting an endless controversy. Why should you name Conklin or Davenport scientists? All
that they have ever done was to mouth over what other men have said; neither has made any
discovery! Neither can you add Millikan, since his published discoveries are not yet
proved, nor have they received anything like assured acceptance. These men are either open
unbelievers or largely advocates of the mechanical theory.
Galileo was an ardent
Christian believer; Copernicus, while a Papist, had an unshaken confidence in God and His
Word, and was brought up in -the house of a priest. Kepler was a ministerial student of
such scientific tendencies as to triumph over the priest, and the works of Sir Isaac
Newton show that he combined in one man a search for nature’s secrets and the
discovery of the secrets of revelation; and lastly, Mendel, the devoted monk, who, while
about his pastoral duties, checked up many facts and discovered more of the laws of nature
than all Ms boasted scientific brethren combined. Now let it be forever understood that
Atheism is the enemy of science, and Faith its father and friend.
Atheism is the Enemy of Society
God-deniers are not delightful
souls! Go where you will throughout the world, when you find them you will not want to
abide with them, and it would be difficult for God Himself to brook them.
The first murder that
stained the earth with human blood was wrought by a man who refused to recognize the
sacrificial atonement as a type of the saving Christ. And when the flood came and wiped
the earth with the besom of destruction, it was that it might rid it also of skeptics and
atheists - men who had forgotten and denied God.
There has been a stir
recently in the circles of education and religion over the wave of suicide sweeping our
colleges, and outstanding men have been discussing methods of abating this blot upon
civilization. The solution of the problem is not far to seek. When the schools stop
teaching an atheistic philosophy, the fruits thereof will not be so openly found, and
those fruits are despair, degradation and death.
God-deniers are usually men
of reprobate morals. You will seldom find a man who combines in one and the same person
the philosophy of atheism and a course of upright moral conduct. "The American
Association for the Advancement of Atheism" declares that they "will undertake
to abrogate all laws for enforcing Christian morals." Later they add they wish to
better civilization by "operating as a wrecking company."
That is what atheism has
ever been-an enemy of Christian morals, "a wrecking company," indeed! Had others
charged them with this, they would, undoubtedly, have repudiated the charge; but now that
they have asserted their purpose, they can hardly complain. Intelligent and thoughtful men
will remind them that they are running true to form. The history they make will of
necessity be of a sort which atheism has known through all the centuries.
The love of sin is the
individual's lowest estate. There are many unfortunate men and weak women who fall into
sin, but who positively loathe the same. The adversary's trap takes them; his pitfalls
catch them, but they uniformly grieve over their weakness, regret their folly, and plead
with God for recovering favor. But Paul says in this text that they come to the point
where they not only give themselves up to uncleanness through lust, where they not only
change the truth of God into a lie, worshipping the creature rather than the Creator,
where they not only offend against God, but even against nature itself, being filled with
all unrighteousness, but where they actually have pleasure in them that do evil.
That is the character of
infidels! "The American Association for the Advancement of Atheism" deliberately
publish their pleasure in them that do evil, and express the hope that "one
representative from their camp may undo the work of a score of missionaries," and
that "a few thousand dollars spent in the circulation" of their infamous
literature may offset millions spent by the churches."
The drunkard is not the
lowest man; the man who takes pleasure in making other drunkards, is lower still. The
harlot is not the lowest of women, but the woman who takes pleasure in teaching her sister
harlotry is taking the last plunge toward the pit. The grieved doubter is not necessarily
damned, but the man who destroys the faith of his friends and the professor whose teaching
wrecks the confidence of students-such are allies of Satan himself!
Atheism Is the Enemy of the State
Civilization has not
been the product of atheism. We challenge "The American Association for the
Advancement of Atheism," or any other advocate of this God-denying, soul-destroying
doctrine, to show one instance in which their philosophy has built a State, or a single
instance in which they have made anything but an evil contribution to the same. In view of
this fact is it not amazing to find many school-men-men set in positions of opportunity
and responsibility-stealthily poisoning the minds of the young? "The American
Association for the Advancement of Atheism" is quoted in the following:
"Dr. Irwin Erdman, of
Columbia University, teaches his students that 'man is a mere accident,' that 'immortality
is a sheer illusion,' and that 'there is practically no evidence for the existence of God'
"
"Everett Dean Martin,
Director of Cooper Union in New York City, has the largest class in philosophy in the
world. He teaches his students that 'religion is primarily a defense mechanism,'
subjective in its organism.
"Professor John B.
Watson, of Johns Hopkins, teaches that 'freedom of the will has been knocked into a cocked
hat,' and that 'soul-consciousness, God, and immortality, are merely mistakes of the older
psychology'."
All across this continent
text-books are filled with their vicious work, going under the name of Science, which is
being compelled to carry the straining burden of such statements, and society already
feeling the consequences of the same, is but reaping the first-fruits of a bitterer
harvest that is sure to come.
Witness France and her
plunge into atheism and the reign of terror that followed; or, take Russia and her present
debauch of infidelity, and the natural disgrace coming in consequence.
Civilization has ever
been the product of religion, and false religion will produce poor civilization. Heathen
countries have' illustrated this; yet even their religion is helpful, and the wildest
superstition has proven more beneficial than the most balanced atheism that ever voiced
itself. If you want to know what the condition of any state or nation is, find out what
its religion is, and you can readily determine; it is as unerring as the electric needle!
The world has suffered much
from religion; Paul charged the people of Athens with being "too religious." Yet
perhaps it can be said with absolute candor that none of these are so detrimental to
society, so harmful to the state and so destructive to national life, as atheism or
"no religion." Christianity has produced the highest known civilization.
There is not an ennobling
influence known to humanity that is not the emphasized product of Christianity. There is
not a desirable institution existing with any peoples that has not been fostered and
favored by the Christian faith. There is not a philosophy that tends to the social,
political and spiritual uplift of mankind that may not be found better phrased in the
Bible than unbelieving men have ever expressed the same. The Christian faith, with its one
and true God and its wondrous and true Book, has brought to the world more light and has
given to living men more happiness than all the philosophies of unbelieving men combined;
and the crime of the ages is not the murder of individuals, now characterizing and cursing
modern society, but it is the sinister, devilish, damnable doctrine, now lurking in the
halls of every university in the land and of all civilized lands, and seeking by smooth
speech and in the name of "Science," falsely so-called, to destroy the faith of
men in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in His revealed Will, the Scriptures!
, "Atheism, the Enemy of
Civilization," is an affront, but it states a fact. Infidelity is uniformly
egotistical and readily imagines it is the friend of all that is good. It shall be our
purpose to show that historically the exact opposite is true. It is as perfectly the enemy
of man and the foe of civilization as it is the opponent of God. The sacred Scriptures are
in this matter, as in all others, the last word (Ps. 14: 1), "The fool hath said in
his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is
none that doeth good." History has provided thousands of illustrations of this
divinely inspired assertion.
Atheism is the Enemy of Science
This statement runs counter
to the boasted claim of infidelity. Unbelievers have ever been enamored of the notion that
they are scholarly and even scientific. Their boasts in this matter are to be found upon
every page emanating from their pens, and heard in every hall where one of their
representatives secures an audience; but in spite of all that, we propose to state clearly
and prove abundantly the exact opposite.
The discoveries of science
clearly indicate the existence of God. If it be true as Professor Leuba, of Bryn Mawr,
contends, that the majority of teachers of science in America are infidels, that is only
proof of their superficiality and incompetence. It is not science that has made them so,
but rather "a pseudo-science" - evolution; and a false science always makes for
unbelief, while a true one eventuates in faith. The outstanding experts in the established
sciences of mathematics and astronomy have been outstanding believers, while the
representatives of the Darwin speculation have just as unanimously been atheists,
agnostics and skeptics of all, sorts.
In the very nature of the
case, a study of the works of God impresses one with His personality, power, wisdom,
infinity, and from the least speck of material existence to the infinity of the universe,
all unite in declaring both His greatness and His glory.
Man used to talk of monads
and imagined that they were the smallest particle of matter; such language is now out of
date. The monad, so it is claimed, is a world of molecules. The ancient philosopher
Giordano Bruno conversed of these as eternal, and declared each. of them a microcosm or
mirror of the Deity. Leibnitz regarded the monads as non-spatial units, each one
representing the same universe, but presenting that universe from a different point of
view, and each attaining its activities through the will of God. There was a time when
biology thought of a monad as a simple single-celled organism; that time is past. A
molecule was discovered; it was so small that men declared it the smallest part of a
substance that could exist separately and still retain its composition and proportion; the
smallest combination of atoms that would form a given chemical compound. But alas for the
recent deliverances and the instability of so-called science! We are now told that each
molecule contains 740 electrons, and no man knows what will be the next deliverance upon
this subject. It is evident, however, that the complexity of the simplest things is past
the imagination of man. When you rise in the scale of existences and consequently advance
in the study of science, you come across the most mysterious secrets in the natural
world-secrets so illusive that as yet the mind of the modern man has utterly failed to
uncover them. But a few days since the Associated Press carried "For Science
Service" an article proving the discovery of heatless light. This suggestion is based
on the fact that low forms of life have been found to generate heatless light. The
bacteria and fungi that cause rotten wood to glow in the dark, and the mysterious firefly
that can, with a wilful or automatic motion in his body, emit a heatless light out of all
proportion to the best that man's devices have ever approached; these bugs and bacteria
becoming, as the article stated, at once the admiration and despair of scientists, but
clearly indicating the acceptance of a mind infinitely above that of man. Man's invention
of light involves a slow combustion and always generates heat; not so with the light of
the bacteria and the bug; and to date that secret is with God.
God's work, in its simplest
form, exceeds the understanding of man, and our amazement grows as we acquire additional
knowledge.
The Psalmist said of his
body, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works. My substance
was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest
parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy Book
all my members were written, which in continuance were- fashioned, when as yet there was
none of them" (Ps. 139: 14-16).
In order to impress this
truth one needs only to study physiology a little.
I don't know that I shall
even attempt to talk to you about the intricacies and efficiencies of the human eye. I
will leave to others the detailed description of its lenses, the intricacies of its
muscles, the delicacy and efficiency of its nerves. The eye constantly baffles the
imagination and justifies Darwin's statement, "To suppose that the eye with all its
illusive contrivances for adjusting the focuses to different distances and admitting
different amounts of light, could be formed by natural means, fails in the highest degree.
But when it is all analyzed and the mind comes as near comprehending it as the human mind
can, one simply stands amazed at the minutest evidences of the Divine, in the eye, and the
proposition of an infinity fixed greater credit to the same."
But the eye is not alone.
Let some physicist tell you of the 600 muscles in the human body, the one thousand miles
of blood-vessels in the human body, the 550 main arteries of the human body, or let him
place before you the fact that 1,500,000 sweat-glands spread out on the surface of the
same, or that the lungs are composed of 7,700,000 -cells, or that in the 70 years of human
life the heart has struck 2,500,000,000 beats and has lifted by its throbs a load of
500,000 tons of blood; and if this does not bewilder you, then let him add that the
"nervous system, controlled by the brain, has three trillion nerve cells, while the
blood itself is made up of thirty million white corpuscles and one hundred trillion native
red ones," and you will be ready to throw up your hands in despair in comprehension
of your physical self. And yet, with such an intricate machine, completed perfectly, set
in operation, apart from accidents and incidents of danger, known to function from 70
years, the natural limit of a person's life, to 969 years, the longest on record, and who
will say that there was no intelligent designer for this competent machine?
But if the study of
physiology does not suffice to impress one with all the wisdom and power of an infinite
God, then let him lift his face to the heavens above and the stars will speak; and when he
has been told that the moon is 240,000 miles removed from the earth and that the sun is
more than 90,000,000 miles distant, he will begin to think in terms of space, and then he
learns that the sun is, in science, more than a million times as large as our earth.
It is only unused light that
leads to spiritual darkness. The naturalist who does not find God in the universe has
utterly failed to correctly interpret anything in it, from its greatest central sun to its
most insignificant bacteria. To go back to the text, Paul tells us exactly how the process
is accomplished. "The invisible things of Him (namely, His wisdom, power, beauty, and
grace), from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." And then he tells us how it came
about that they failed to so connect the two as to create in their own hearts faith; and
he indicts them with moral deficiency, saying:
"When they knew God,
they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they
became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things" (Rom. 1:
21-23).
It would be difficult,
indeed, to see in all literature any more accurate description of the degenerating effects
of Darwinism than the apostle here pens. For inanity, could anything surpass the
combination of infidelity and the acquisition of learning?
Only men whose imaginations
are wild and whose foolish hearts are darkened and whose egotism has puffed them up, could
ever come to the conclusion of atheism. The portrait shown is impressed in the following
words:
"There is no God, the fool in secret said;
There is no God that rules o'er earth or sky.
Tear off the band that binds the wretch's head,
That God may burst upon his faithless eye!
"Is there no God?-The stars in myriads spread,
If he looks up, the blasphemy deny.-
While his own features, in the mirror read,
Reflect the image of Divinity.
"Is there no God?-The stream that silver flows,
The air he breathes, the ground he treads, the trees,
The flowers, the grass, the sands, each wind that blows,
All speak of God; throughout, one voice agrees,
And, eloquent, His dread existence shows;
Blind to thyself, ah! see Him, fool, in these!"
It is only false science
that leads to the bestial philosophy of infidelity, Darwinism has never done anything
else. Its history of 3,000 years since the days of the Greek philosophers and down to its
most modem revival, first by Erasmus Darwin, and later by his grandson, Charles, has
accomplished no better ends. Never, in the history of man, has it made one colossal
character or eventuated in a single outstanding discoverer of nature's secrets. The
established sciences were found out and proved to the satisfaction of the public by
believing men. The histories of these individuals are an open page. They were not only men
of God, but many of them ministers; men in touch with God, and congruently capable of
interpreting the work of God. In the universities the professed scientists of this present
day are not scientists. What have they discovered? What contribution have they given to
men by their knowledge? Certainly you do not count "The Hall of the Age of Man,"
by Henry Fairfield Osborne, a contribution, since it is evidently a hypocritical pretense.
Certainly you do not call
Charles Darwin a contributor to modem science. His speculation has only succeeded in
exciting an endless controversy. Why should you name Conklin or Davenport scientists? All
that they have ever done was to mouth over what other men have said; neither has made any
discovery! Neither can you add Millikan, since his published discoveries are not yet
proved, nor have they received anything like assured acceptance. These men are either open
unbelievers or largely advocates of the mechanical theory.
Galileo was an ardent
Christian believer; Copernicus, while a Papist, had an unshaken confidence in God and His
Word, and was brought up in -the house of a priest. Kepler was a ministerial student of
such scientific tendencies as to triumph over the priest, and the works of Sir Isaac
Newton show that he combined in one man a search for nature’s secrets and the
discovery of the secrets of revelation; and lastly, Mendel, the devoted monk, who, while
about his pastoral duties, checked up many facts and discovered more of the laws of nature
than all Ms boasted scientific brethren combined. Now let it be forever understood that
Atheism is the enemy of science, and Faith its father and friend.
Atheism is the Enemy of Society
God-deniers are not delightful
souls! Go where you will throughout the world, when you find them you will not want to
abide with them, and it would be difficult for God Himself to brook them.
The first murder that
stained the earth with human blood was wrought by a man who refused to recognize the
sacrificial atonement as a type of the saving Christ. And when the flood came and wiped
the earth with the besom of destruction, it was that it might rid it also of skeptics and
atheists - men who had forgotten and denied God.
There has been a stir
recently in the circles of education and religion over the wave of suicide sweeping our
colleges, and outstanding men have been discussing methods of abating this blot upon
civilization. The solution of the problem is not far to seek. When the schools stop
teaching an atheistic philosophy, the fruits thereof will not be so openly found, and
those fruits are despair, degradation and death.
God-deniers are usually men
of reprobate morals. You will seldom find a man who combines in one and the same person
the philosophy of atheism and a course of upright moral conduct. "The American
Association for the Advancement of Atheism" declares that they "will undertake
to abrogate all laws for enforcing Christian morals." Later they add they wish to
better civilization by "operating as a wrecking company."
That is what atheism has
ever been-an enemy of Christian morals, "a wrecking company," indeed! Had others
charged them with this, they would, undoubtedly, have repudiated the charge; but now that
they have asserted their purpose, they can hardly complain. Intelligent and thoughtful men
will remind them that they are running true to form. The history they make will of
necessity be of a sort which atheism has known through all the centuries.
The love of sin is the
individual's lowest estate. There are many unfortunate men and weak women who fall into
sin, but who positively loathe the same. The adversary's trap takes them; his pitfalls
catch them, but they uniformly grieve over their weakness, regret their folly, and plead
with God for recovering favor. But Paul says in this text that they come to the point
where they not only give themselves up to uncleanness through lust, where they not only
change the truth of God into a lie, worshipping the creature rather than the Creator,
where they not only offend against God, but even against nature itself, being filled with
all unrighteousness, but where they actually have pleasure in them that do evil.
That is the character of
infidels! "The American Association for the Advancement of Atheism" deliberately
publish their pleasure in them that do evil, and express the hope that "one
representative from their camp may undo the work of a score of missionaries," and
that "a few thousand dollars spent in the circulation" of their infamous
literature may offset millions spent by the churches."
The drunkard is not the
lowest man; the man who takes pleasure in making other drunkards, is lower still. The
harlot is not the lowest of women, but the woman who takes pleasure in teaching her sister
harlotry is taking the last plunge toward the pit. The grieved doubter is not necessarily
damned, but the man who destroys the faith of his friends and the professor whose teaching
wrecks the confidence of students-such are allies of Satan himself!
Atheism Is the Enemy of the State
Civilization has not
been the product of atheism. We challenge "The American Association for the
Advancement of Atheism," or any other advocate of this God-denying, soul-destroying
doctrine, to show one instance in which their philosophy has built a State, or a single
instance in which they have made anything but an evil contribution to the same. In view of
this fact is it not amazing to find many school-men-men set in positions of opportunity
and responsibility-stealthily poisoning the minds of the young? "The American
Association for the Advancement of Atheism" is quoted in the following:
"Dr. Irwin Erdman, of
Columbia University, teaches his students that 'man is a mere accident,' that 'immortality
is a sheer illusion,' and that 'there is practically no evidence for the existence of God'
"
"Everett Dean Martin,
Director of Cooper Union in New York City, has the largest class in philosophy in the
world. He teaches his students that 'religion is primarily a defense mechanism,'
subjective in its organism.
"Professor John B.
Watson, of Johns Hopkins, teaches that 'freedom of the will has been knocked into a cocked
hat,' and that 'soul-consciousness, God, and immortality, are merely mistakes of the older
psychology'."
All across this continent
text-books are filled with their vicious work, going under the name of Science, which is
being compelled to carry the straining burden of such statements, and society already
feeling the consequences of the same, is but reaping the first-fruits of a bitterer
harvest that is sure to come.
Witness France and her
plunge into atheism and the reign of terror that followed; or, take Russia and her present
debauch of infidelity, and the natural disgrace coming in consequence.
Civilization has ever
been the product of religion, and false religion will produce poor civilization. Heathen
countries have' illustrated this; yet even their religion is helpful, and the wildest
superstition has proven more beneficial than the most balanced atheism that ever voiced
itself. If you want to know what the condition of any state or nation is, find out what
its religion is, and you can readily determine; it is as unerring as the electric needle!
The world has suffered much
from religion; Paul charged the people of Athens with being "too religious." Yet
perhaps it can be said with absolute candor that none of these are so detrimental to
society, so harmful to the state and so destructive to national life, as atheism or
"no religion." Christianity has produced the highest known civilization.
There is not an ennobling
influence known to humanity that is not the emphasized product of Christianity. There is
not a desirable institution existing with any peoples that has not been fostered and
favored by the Christian faith. There is not a philosophy that tends to the social,
political and spiritual uplift of mankind that may not be found better phrased in the
Bible than unbelieving men have ever expressed the same. The Christian faith, with its one
and true God and its wondrous and true Book, has brought to the world more light and has
given to living men more happiness than all the philosophies of unbelieving men combined;
and the crime of the ages is not the murder of individuals, now characterizing and cursing
modern society, but it is the sinister, devilish, damnable doctrine, now lurking in the
halls of every university in the land and of all civilized lands, and seeking by smooth
speech and in the name of "Science," falsely so-called, to destroy the faith of
men in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in His revealed Will, the Scriptures!
, "Atheism, the Enemy of
Civilization," is an affront, but it states a fact. Infidelity is uniformly
egotistical and readily imagines it is the friend of all that is good. It shall be our
purpose to show that historically the exact opposite is true. It is as perfectly the enemy
of man and the foe of civilization as it is the opponent of God. The sacred Scriptures are
in this matter, as in all others, the last word (Ps. 14: 1), "The fool hath said in
his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is
none that doeth good." History has provided thousands of illustrations of this
divinely inspired assertion.
Atheism is the Enemy of Science
This statement runs counter
to the boasted claim of infidelity. Unbelievers have ever been enamored of the notion that
they are scholarly and even scientific. Their boasts in this matter are to be found upon
every page emanating from their pens, and heard in every hall where one of their
representatives secures an audience; but in spite of all that, we propose to state clearly
and prove abundantly the exact opposite.
The discoveries of science
clearly indicate the existence of God. If it be true as Professor Leuba, of Bryn
Mawr,
contends, that the majority of teachers of science in America are infidels, that is only
proof of their superficiality and incompetence. It is not science that has made them so,
but rather "a pseudo-science" - evolution; and a false science always makes for
unbelief, while a true one eventuates in faith. The outstanding experts in the established
sciences of mathematics and astronomy have been outstanding believers, while the
representatives of the Darwin speculation have just as unanimously been atheists,
agnostics and skeptics of all, sorts.
In the very nature of the
case, a study of the works of God impresses one with His personality, power, wisdom,
infinity, and from the least speck of material existence to the infinity of the universe,
all unite in declaring both His greatness and His glory.
Man used to talk of monads
and imagined that they were the smallest particle of matter; such language is now out of
date. The monad, so it is claimed, is a world of molecules. The ancient philosopher
Giordano Bruno conversed of these as eternal, and declared each. of them a microcosm or
mirror of the Deity. Leibnitz regarded the monads as non-spatial units, each one
representing the same universe, but presenting that universe from a different point of
view, and each attaining its activities through the will of God. There was a time when
biology thought of a monad as a simple single-celled organism; that time is past. A
molecule was discovered; it was so small that men declared it the smallest part of a
substance that could exist separately and still retain its composition and proportion; the
smallest combination of atoms that would form a given chemical compound. But alas for the
recent deliverances and the instability of so-called science! We are now told that each
molecule contains 740 electrons, and no man knows what will be the next deliverance upon
this subject. It is evident, however, that the complexity of the simplest things is past
the imagination of man. When you rise in the scale of existences and consequently advance
in the study of science, you come across the most mysterious secrets in the natural
world-secrets so illusive that as yet the mind of the modern man has utterly failed to
uncover them. But a few days since the Associated Press carried "For Science
Service" an article proving the discovery of heatless light. This suggestion is based
on the fact that low forms of life have been found to generate heatless light. The
bacteria and fungi that cause rotten wood to glow in the dark, and the mysterious firefly
that can, with a wilful or automatic motion in his body, emit a heatless light out of all
proportion to the best that man's devices have ever approached; these bugs and bacteria
becoming, as the article stated, at once the admiration and despair of scientists, but
clearly indicating the acceptance of a mind infinitely above that of man. Man's invention
of light involves a slow combustion and always generates heat; not so with the light of
the bacteria and the bug; and to date that secret is with God.
God's work, in its simplest
form, exceeds the understanding of man, and our amazement grows as we acquire additional
knowledge.
The Psalmist said of his
body, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works. My substance
was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest
parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy Book
all my members were written, which in continuance were- fashioned, when as yet there was
none of them" (Ps. 139: 14-16).
In order to impress this
truth one needs only to study physiology a little.
I don't know that I shall
even attempt to talk to you about the intricacies and efficiencies of the human eye. I
will leave to others the detailed description of its lenses, the intricacies of its
muscles, the delicacy and efficiency of its nerves. The eye constantly baffles the
imagination and justifies Darwin's statement, "To suppose that the eye with all its
illusive contrivances for adjusting the focuses to different distances and admitting
different amounts of light, could be formed by natural means, fails in the highest degree.
But when it is all analyzed and the mind comes as near comprehending it as the human mind
can, one simply stands amazed at the minutest evidences of the Divine, in the eye, and the
proposition of an infinity fixed greater credit to the same."
But the eye is not alone.
Let some physicist tell you of the 600 muscles in the human body, the one thousand miles
of blood-vessels in the human body, the 550 main arteries of the human body, or let him
place before you the fact that 1,500,000 sweat-glands spread out on the surface of the
same, or that the lungs are composed of 7,700,000 -cells, or that in the 70 years of human
life the heart has struck 2,500,000,000 beats and has lifted by its throbs a load of
500,000 tons of blood; and if this does not bewilder you, then let him add that the
"nervous system, controlled by the brain, has three trillion nerve cells, while the
blood itself is made up of thirty million white corpuscles and one hundred trillion native
red ones," and you will be ready to throw up your hands in despair in comprehension
of your physical self. And yet, with such an intricate machine, completed perfectly, set
in operation, apart from accidents and incidents of danger, known to function from 70
years, the natural limit of a person's life, to 969 years, the longest on record, and who
will say that there was no intelligent designer for this competent machine?
But if the study of
physiology does not suffice to impress one with all the wisdom and power of an infinite
God, then let him lift his face to the heavens above and the stars will speak; and when he
has been told that the moon is 240,000 miles removed from the earth and that the sun is
more than 90,000,000 miles distant, he will begin to think in terms of space, and then he
learns that the sun is, in science, more than a million times as large as our earth.
It is only unused light that
leads to spiritual darkness. The naturalist who does not find God in the universe has
utterly failed to correctly interpret anything in it, from its greatest central sun to its
most insignificant bacteria. To go back to the text, Paul tells us exactly how the process
is accomplished. "The invisible things of Him (namely, His wisdom, power, beauty, and
grace), from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." And then he tells us how it came
about that they failed to so connect the two as to create in their own hearts faith; and
he indicts them with moral deficiency, saying:
"When they knew God,
they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they
became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things" (Rom. 1:
21-23).
It would be difficult,
indeed, to see in all literature any more accurate description of the degenerating effects
of Darwinism than the apostle here pens. For inanity, could anything surpass the
combination of infidelity and the acquisition of learning?
Only men whose imaginations
are wild and whose foolish hearts are darkened and whose egotism has puffed them up, could
ever come to the conclusion of atheism. The portrait shown is impressed in the following
words:
"There is no God, the fool in secret said;
There is no God that rules o'er earth or sky.
Tear off the band that binds the wretch's head,
That God may burst upon his faithless eye!
"Is there no God?-The stars in myriads spread,
If he looks up, the blasphemy deny.-
While his own features, in the mirror read,
Reflect the image of Divinity.
"Is there no God?-The stream that silver flows,
The air he breathes, the ground he treads, the trees,
The flowers, the grass, the sands, each wind that blows,
All speak of God; throughout, one voice agrees,
And, eloquent, His dread existence shows;
Blind to thyself, ah! see Him, fool, in these!"
It is only false science
that leads to the bestial philosophy of infidelity, Darwinism has never done anything
else. Its history of 3,000 years since the days of the Greek philosophers and down to its
most modem revival, first by Erasmus Darwin, and later by his grandson, Charles, has
accomplished no better ends. Never, in the history of man, has it made one colossal
character or eventuated in a single outstanding discoverer of nature's secrets. The
established sciences were found out and proved to the satisfaction of the public by
believing men. The histories of these individuals are an open page. They were not only men
of God, but many of them ministers; men in touch with God, and congruently capable of
interpreting the work of God. In the universities the professed scientists of this present
day are not scientists. What have they discovered? What contribution have they given to
men by their knowledge? Certainly you do not count "The Hall of the Age of Man,"
by Henry Fairfield Osborne, a contribution, since it is evidently a hypocritical pretense.
Certainly you do not call
Charles Darwin a contributor to modem science. His speculation has only succeeded in
exciting an endless controversy. Why should you name Conklin or Davenport scientists? All
that they have ever done was to mouth over what other men have said; neither has made any
discovery! Neither can you add Millikan, since his published discoveries are not yet
proved, nor have they received anything like assured acceptance. These men are either open
unbelievers or largely advocates of the mechanical theory.
Galileo was an ardent
Christian believer; Copernicus, while a Papist, had an unshaken confidence in God and His
Word, and was brought up in -the house of a priest. Kepler was a ministerial student of
such scientific tendencies as to triumph over the priest, and the works of Sir Isaac
Newton show that he combined in one man a search for nature’s secrets and the
discovery of the secrets of revelation; and lastly, Mendel, the devoted monk, who, while
about his pastoral duties, checked up many facts and discovered more of the laws of nature
than all Ms boasted scientific brethren combined. Now let it be forever understood that
Atheism is the enemy of science, and Faith its father and friend.
Atheism is the Enemy of Society
God-deniers are not delightful
souls! Go where you will throughout the world, when you find them you will not want to
abide with them, and it would be difficult for God Himself to brook them.
The first murder that
stained the earth with human blood was wrought by a man who refused to recognize the
sacrificial atonement as a type of the saving Christ. And when the flood came and wiped
the earth with the besom of destruction, it was that it might rid it also of skeptics and
atheists - men who had forgotten and denied God.
There has been a stir
recently in the circles of education and religion over the wave of suicide sweeping our
colleges, and outstanding men have been discussing methods of abating this blot upon
civilization. The solution of the problem is not far to seek. When the schools stop
teaching an atheistic philosophy, the fruits thereof will not be so openly found, and
those fruits are despair, degradation and death.
God-deniers are usually men
of reprobate morals. You will seldom find a man who combines in one and the same person
the philosophy of atheism and a course of upright moral conduct. "The American
Association for the Advancement of Atheism" declares that they "will undertake
to abrogate all laws for enforcing Christian morals." Later they add they wish to
better civilization by "operating as a wrecking company."
That is what atheism has
ever been-an enemy of Christian morals, "a wrecking company," indeed! Had others
charged them with this, they would, undoubtedly, have repudiated the charge; but now that
they have asserted their purpose, they can hardly complain. Intelligent and thoughtful men
will remind them that they are running true to form. The history they make will of
necessity be of a sort which atheism has known through all the centuries.
The love of sin is the
individual's lowest estate. There are many unfortunate men and weak women who fall into
sin, but who positively loathe the same. The adversary's trap takes them; his pitfalls
catch them, but they uniformly grieve over their weakness, regret their folly, and plead
with God for recovering favor. But Paul says in this text that they come to the point
where they not only give themselves up to uncleanness through lust, where they not only
change the truth of God into a lie, worshipping the creature rather than the Creator,
where they not only offend against God, but even against nature itself, being filled with
all unrighteousness, but where they actually have pleasure in them that do evil.
That is the character of
infidels! "The American Association for the Advancement of Atheism" deliberately
publish their pleasure in them that do evil, and express the hope that "one
representative from their camp may undo the work of a score of missionaries," and
that "a few thousand dollars spent in the circulation" of their infamous
literature may offset millions spent by the churches."
The drunkard is not the
lowest man; the man who takes pleasure in making other drunkards, is lower still. The
harlot is not the lowest of women, but the woman who takes pleasure in teaching her sister
harlotry is taking the last plunge toward the pit. The grieved doubter is not necessarily
damned, but the man who destroys the faith of his friends and the professor whose teaching
wrecks the confidence of students-such are allies of Satan himself!
Atheism Is the Enemy of the State
Civilization has not
been the product of atheism. We challenge "The American Association for the
Advancement of Atheism," or any other advocate of this God-denying, soul-destroying
doctrine, to show one instance in which their philosophy has built a State, or a single
instance in which they have made anything but an evil contribution to the same. In view of
this fact is it not amazing to find many school-men-men set in positions of opportunity
and responsibility-stealthily poisoning the minds of the young? "The American
Association for the Advancement of Atheism" is quoted in the following:
"Dr. Irwin Erdman, of
Columbia University, teaches his students that 'man is a mere accident,' that 'immortality
is a sheer illusion,' and that 'there is practically no evidence for the existence of God'
"
"Everett Dean Martin,
Director of Cooper Union in New York City, has the largest class in philosophy in the
world. He teaches his students that 'religion is primarily a defense mechanism,'
subjective in its organism.
"Professor John B.
Watson, of Johns Hopkins, teaches that 'freedom of the will has been knocked into a cocked
hat,' and that 'soul-consciousness, God, and immortality, are merely mistakes of the older
psychology'."
All across this continent
text-books are filled with their vicious work, going under the name of Science, which is
being compelled to carry the straining burden of such statements, and society already
feeling the consequences of the same, is but reaping the first-fruits of a bitterer
harvest that is sure to come.
Witness France and her
plunge into atheism and the reign of terror that followed; or, take Russia and her present
debauch of infidelity, and the natural disgrace coming in consequence.
Civilization has ever
been the product of religion, and false religion will produce poor civilization. Heathen
countries have' illustrated this; yet even their religion is helpful, and the wildest
superstition has proven more beneficial than the most balanced atheism that ever voiced
itself. If you want to know what the condition of any state or nation is, find out what
its religion is, and you can readily determine; it is as unerring as the electric needle!
The world has suffered much
from religion; Paul charged the people of Athens with being "too religious." Yet
perhaps it can be said with absolute candor that none of these are so detrimental to
society, so harmful to the state and so destructive to national life, as atheism or
"no religion." Christianity has produced the highest known civilization.
There is not an ennobling
influence known to humanity that is not the emphasized product of Christianity. There is
not a desirable institution existing with any peoples that has not been fostered and
favored by the Christian faith. There is not a philosophy that tends to the social,
political and spiritual uplift of mankind that may not be found better phrased in the
Bible than unbelieving men have ever expressed the same. The Christian faith, with its one
and true God and its wondrous and true Book, has brought to the world more light and has
given to living men more happiness than all the philosophies of unbelieving men combined;
and the crime of the ages is not the murder of individuals, now characterizing and cursing
modern society, but it is the sinister, devilish, damnable doctrine, now lurking in the
halls of every university in the land and of all civilized lands, and seeking by smooth
speech and in the name of "Science," falsely so-called, to destroy the faith of
men in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in His revealed Will, the Scriptures!
, "Atheism, the Enemy of
Civilization," is an affront, but it states a fact. Infidelity is uniformly
egotistical and readily imagines it is the friend of all that is good. It shall be our
purpose to show that historically the exact opposite is true. It is as perfectly the enemy
of man and the foe of civilization as it is the opponent of God. The sacred Scriptures are
in this matter, as in all others, the last word (Ps. 14: 1), "The fool hath said in
his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is
none that doeth good." History has provided thousands of illustrations of this
divinely inspired assertion.
Atheism is the Enemy of Science
This statement runs counter
to the boasted claim of infidelity. Unbelievers have ever been enamored of the notion that
they are scholarly and even scientific. Their boasts in this matter are to be found upon
every page emanating from their pens, and heard in every hall where one of their
representatives secures an audience; but in spite of all that, we propose to state clearly
and prove abundantly the exact opposite.
The discoveries of science
clearly indicate the existence of God. If it be true as Professor Leuba, of Bryn
Mawr,
contends, that the majority of teachers of science in America are infidels, that is only
proof of their superficiality and incompetence. It is not science that has made them so,
but rather "a pseudo-science" - evolution; and a false science always makes for
unbelief, while a true one eventuates in faith. The outstanding experts in the established
sciences of mathematics and astronomy have been outstanding believers, while the
representatives of the Darwin speculation have just as unanimously been atheists,
agnostics and skeptics of all, sorts.
In the very nature of the
case, a study of the works of God impresses one with His personality, power, wisdom,
infinity, and from the least speck of material existence to the infinity of the universe,
all unite in declaring both His greatness and His glory.
Man used to talk of monads
and imagined that they were the smallest particle of matter; such language is now out of
date. The monad, so it is claimed, is a world of molecules. The ancient philosopher
Giordano Bruno conversed of these as eternal, and declared each. of them a microcosm or
mirror of the Deity. Leibnitz regarded the monads as non-spatial units, each one
representing the same universe, but presenting that universe from a different point of
view, and each attaining its activities through the will of God. There was a time when
biology thought of a monad as a simple single-celled organism; that time is past. A
molecule was discovered; it was so small that men declared it the smallest part of a
substance that could exist separately and still retain its composition and proportion; the
smallest combination of atoms that would form a given chemical compound. But alas for the
recent deliverances and the instability of so-called science! We are now told that each
molecule contains 740 electrons, and no man knows what will be the next deliverance upon
this subject. It is evident, however, that the complexity of the simplest things is past
the imagination of man. When you rise in the scale of existences and consequently advance
in the study of science, you come across the most mysterious secrets in the natural
world-secrets so illusive that as yet the mind of the modern man has utterly failed to
uncover them. But a few days since the Associated Press carried "For Science
Service" an article proving the discovery of heatless light. This suggestion is based
on the fact that low forms of life have been found to generate heatless light. The
bacteria and fungi that cause rotten wood to glow in the dark, and the mysterious firefly
that can, with a wilful or automatic motion in his body, emit a heatless light out of all
proportion to the best that man's devices have ever approached; these bugs and bacteria
becoming, as the article stated, at once the admiration and despair of scientists, but
clearly indicating the acceptance of a mind infinitely above that of man. Man's invention
of light involves a slow combustion and always generates heat; not so with the light of
the bacteria and the bug; and to date that secret is with God.
God's work, in its simplest
form, exceeds the understanding of man, and our amazement grows as we acquire additional
knowledge.
The Psalmist said of his
body, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works. My substance
was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest
parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy Book
all my members were written, which in continuance were- fashioned, when as yet there was
none of them" (Ps. 139: 14-16).
In order to impress this
truth one needs only to study physiology a little.
I don't know that I shall
even attempt to talk to you about the intricacies and efficiencies of the human eye. I
will leave to others the detailed description of its lenses, the intricacies of its
muscles, the delicacy and efficiency of its nerves. The eye constantly baffles the
imagination and justifies Darwin's statement, "To suppose that the eye with all its
illusive contrivances for adjusting the focuses to different distances and admitting
different amounts of light, could be formed by natural means, fails in the highest degree.
But when it is all analyzed and the mind comes as near comprehending it as the human mind
can, one simply stands amazed at the minutest evidences of the Divine, in the eye, and the
proposition of an infinity fixed greater credit to the same."
But the eye is not alone.
Let some physicist tell you of the 600 muscles in the human body, the one thousand miles
of blood-vessels in the human body, the 550 main arteries of the human body, or let him
place before you the fact that 1,500,000 sweat-glands spread out on the surface of the
same, or that the lungs are composed of 7,700,000 -cells, or that in the 70 years of human
life the heart has struck 2,500,000,000 beats and has lifted by its throbs a load of
500,000 tons of blood; and if this does not bewilder you, then let him add that the
"nervous system, controlled by the brain, has three trillion nerve cells, while the
blood itself is made up of thirty million white corpuscles and one hundred trillion native
red ones," and you will be ready to throw up your hands in despair in comprehension
of your physical self. And yet, with such an intricate machine, completed perfectly, set
in operation, apart from accidents and incidents of danger, known to function from 70
years, the natural limit of a person's life, to 969 years, the longest on record, and who
will say that there was no intelligent designer for this competent machine?
But if the study of
physiology does not suffice to impress one with all the wisdom and power of an infinite
God, then let him lift his face to the heavens above and the stars will speak; and when he
has been told that the moon is 240,000 miles removed from the earth and that the sun is
more than 90,000,000 miles distant, he will begin to think in terms of space, and then he
learns that the sun is, in science, more than a million times as large as our earth.
It is only unused light that
leads to spiritual darkness. The naturalist who does not find God in the universe has
utterly failed to correctly interpret anything in it, from its greatest central sun to its
most insignificant bacteria. To go back to the text, Paul tells us exactly how the process
is accomplished. "The invisible things of Him (namely, His wisdom, power, beauty, and
grace), from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." And then he tells us how it came
about that they failed to so connect the two as to create in their own hearts faith; and
he indicts them with moral deficiency, saying:
"When they knew God,
they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they
became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things" (Rom. 1:
21-23).
It would be difficult,
indeed, to see in all literature any more accurate description of the degenerating effects
of Darwinism than the apostle here pens. For inanity, could anything surpass the
combination of infidelity and the acquisition of learning?
Only men whose imaginations
are wild and whose foolish hearts are darkened and whose egotism has puffed them up, could
ever come to the conclusion of atheism. The portrait shown is impressed in the following
words:
"There is no God, the fool in secret said;
There is no God that rules o'er earth or sky.
Tear off the band that binds the wretch's head,
That God may burst upon his faithless eye!
"Is there no God?-The stars in myriads spread,
If he looks up, the blasphemy deny.-
While his own features, in the mirror read,
Reflect the image of Divinity.
"Is there no God?-The stream that silver flows,
The air he breathes, the ground he treads, the trees,
The flowers, the grass, the sands, each wind that blows,
All speak of God; throughout, one voice agrees,
And, eloquent, His dread existence shows;
Blind to thyself, ah! see Him, fool, in these!"
It is only false science
that leads to the bestial philosophy of infidelity, Darwinism has never done anything
else. Its history of 3,000 years since the days of the Greek philosophers and down to its
most modem revival, first by Erasmus Darwin, and later by his grandson, Charles, has
accomplished no better ends. Never, in the history of man, has it made one colossal
character or eventuated in a single outstanding discoverer of nature's secrets. The
established sciences were found out and proved to the satisfaction of the public by
believing men. The histories of these individuals are an open page. They were not only men
of God, but many of them ministers; men in touch with God, and congruently capable of
interpreting the work of God. In the universities the professed scientists of this present
day are not scientists. What have they discovered? What contribution have they given to
men by their knowledge? Certainly you do not count "The Hall of the Age of Man,"
by Henry Fairfield Osborne, a contribution, since it is evidently a hypocritical pretense.
Certainly you do not call
Charles Darwin a contributor to modem science. His speculation has only succeeded in
exciting an endless controversy. Why should you name Conklin or Davenport scientists? All
that they have ever done was to mouth over what other men have said; neither has made any
discovery! Neither can you add Millikan, since his published discoveries are not yet
proved, nor have they received anything like assured acceptance. These men are either open
unbelievers or largely advocates of the mechanical theory.
Galileo was an ardent
Christian believer; Copernicus, while a Papist, had an unshaken confidence in God and His
Word, and was brought up in -the house of a priest. Kepler was a ministerial student of
such scientific tendencies as to triumph over the priest, and the works of Sir Isaac
Newton show that he combined in one man a search for nature’s secrets and the
discovery of the secrets of revelation; and lastly, Mendel, the devoted monk, who, while
about his pastoral duties, checked up many facts and discovered more of the laws of nature
than all Ms boasted scientific brethren combined. Now let it be forever understood that
Atheism is the enemy of science, and Faith its father and friend.
Atheism is the Enemy of Society
God-deniers are not delightful
souls! Go where you will throughout the world, when you find them you will not want to
abide with them, and it would be difficult for God Himself to brook them.
The first murder that
stained the earth with human blood was wrought by a man who refused to recognize the
sacrificial atonement as a type of the saving Christ. And when the flood came and wiped
the earth with the besom of destruction, it was that it might rid it also of skeptics and
atheists - men who had forgotten and denied God.
There has been a stir
recently in the circles of education and religion over the wave of suicide sweeping our
colleges, and outstanding men have been discussing methods of abating this blot upon
civilization. The solution of the problem is not far to seek. When the schools stop
teaching an atheistic philosophy, the fruits thereof will not be so openly found, and
those fruits are despair, degradation and death.
God-deniers are usually men
of reprobate morals. You will seldom find a man who combines in one and the same person
the philosophy of atheism and a course of upright moral conduct. "The American
Association for the Advancement of Atheism" declares that they "will undertake
to abrogate all laws for enforcing Christian morals." Later they add they wish to
better civilization by "operating as a wrecking company."
That is what atheism has
ever been-an enemy of Christian morals, "a wrecking company," indeed! Had others
charged them with this, they would, undoubtedly, have repudiated the charge; but now that
they have asserted their purpose, they can hardly complain. Intelligent and thoughtful men
will remind them that they are running true to form. The history they make will of
necessity be of a sort which atheism has known through all the centuries.
The love of sin is the
individual's lowest estate. There are many unfortunate men and weak women who fall into
sin, but who positively loathe the same. The adversary's trap takes them; his pitfalls
catch them, but they uniformly grieve over their weakness, regret their folly, and plead
with God for recovering favor. But Paul says in this text that they come to the point
where they not only give themselves up to uncleanness through lust, where they not only
change the truth of God into a lie, worshipping the creature rather than the Creator,
where they not only offend against God, but even against nature itself, being filled with
all unrighteousness, but where they actually have pleasure in them that do evil.
That is the character of
infidels! "The American Association for the Advancement of Atheism" deliberately
publish their pleasure in them that do evil, and express the hope that "one
representative from their camp may undo the work of a score of missionaries," and
that "a few thousand dollars spent in the circulation" of their infamous
literature may offset millions spent by the churches."
The drunkard is not the
lowest man; the man who takes pleasure in making other drunkards, is lower still. The
harlot is not the lowest of women, but the woman who takes pleasure in teaching her sister
harlotry is taking the last plunge toward the pit. The grieved doubter is not necessarily
damned, but the man who destroys the faith of his friends and the professor whose teaching
wrecks the confidence of students-such are allies of Satan himself!
Atheism Is the Enemy of the State
Civilization has not
been the product of atheism. We challenge "The American Association for the
Advancement of Atheism," or any other advocate of this God-denying, soul-destroying
doctrine, to show one instance in which their philosophy has built a State, or a single
instance in which they have made anything but an evil contribution to the same. In view of
this fact is it not amazing to find many school-men-men set in positions of opportunity
and responsibility-stealthily poisoning the minds of the young? "The American
Association for the Advancement of Atheism" is quoted in the following:
"Dr. Irwin Erdman, of
Columbia University, teaches his students that 'man is a mere accident,' that 'immortality
is a sheer illusion,' and that 'there is practically no evidence for the existence of God'
"
"Everett Dean Martin,
Director of Cooper Union in New York City, has the largest class in philosophy in the
world. He teaches his students that 'religion is primarily a defense mechanism,'
subjective in its organism.
"Professor John B.
Watson, of Johns Hopkins, teaches that 'freedom of the will has been knocked into a cocked
hat,' and that 'soul-consciousness, God, and immortality, are merely mistakes of the older
psychology'."
All across this continent
text-books are filled with their vicious work, going under the name of Science, which is
being compelled to carry the straining burden of such statements, and society already
feeling the consequences of the same, is but reaping the first-fruits of a bitterer
harvest that is sure to come.
Witness France and her
plunge into atheism and the reign of terror that followed; or, take Russia and her present
debauch of infidelity, and the natural disgrace coming in consequence.
Civilization has ever
been the product of religion, and false religion will produce poor civilization. Heathen
countries have' illustrated this; yet even their religion is helpful, and the wildest
superstition has proven more beneficial than the most balanced atheism that ever voiced
itself. If you want to know what the condition of any state or nation is, find out what
its religion is, and you can readily determine; it is as unerring as the electric needle!
The world has suffered much
from religion; Paul charged the people of Athens with being "too religious." Yet
perhaps it can be said with absolute candor that none of these are so detrimental to
society, so harmful to the state and so destructive to national life, as atheism or
"no religion." Christianity has produced the highest known civilization.
There is not an ennobling
influence known to humanity that is not the emphasized product of Christianity. There is
not a desirable institution existing with any peoples that has not been fostered and
favored by the Christian faith. There is not a philosophy that tends to the social,
political and spiritual uplift of mankind that may not be found better phrased in the
Bible than unbelieving men have ever expressed the same. The Christian faith, with its one
and true God and its wondrous and true Book, has brought to the world more light and has
given to living men more happiness than all the philosophies of unbelieving men combined;
and the crime of the ages is not the murder of individuals, now characterizing and cursing
modern society, but it is the sinister, devilish, damnable doctrine, now lurking in the
halls of every university in the land and of all civilized lands, and seeking by smooth
speech and in the name of "Science," falsely so-called, to destroy the faith of
men in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in His revealed Will, the Scriptures!
, "Atheism, the Enemy of
Civilization," is an affront, but it states a fact. Infidelity is uniformly
egotistical and readily imagines it is the friend of all that is good. It shall be our
purpose to show that historically the exact opposite is true. It is as perfectly the enemy
of man and the foe of civilization as it is the opponent of God. The sacred Scriptures are
in this matter, as in all others, the last word (Ps. 14: 1), "The fool hath said in
his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is
none that doeth good." History has provided thousands of illustrations of this
divinely inspired assertion.
Atheism is the Enemy of Science
This statement runs counter
to the boasted claim of infidelity. Unbelievers have ever been enamored of the notion that
they are scholarly and even scientific. Their boasts in this matter are to be found upon
every page emanating from their pens, and heard in every hall where one of their
representatives secures an audience; but in spite of all that, we propose to state clearly
and prove abundantly the exact opposite.
The discoveries of science
clearly indicate the existence of God. If it be true as Professor Leuba, of Bryn
Mawr,
contends, that the majority of teachers of science in America are infidels, that is only
proof of their superficiality and incompetence. It is not science that has made them so,
but rather "a pseudo-science" - evolution; and a false science always makes for
unbelief, while a true one eventuates in faith. The outstanding experts in the established
sciences of mathematics and astronomy have been outstanding believers, while the
representatives of the Darwin speculation have just as unanimously been atheists,
agnostics and skeptics of all, sorts.
In the very nature of the
case, a study of the works of God impresses one with His personality, power, wisdom,
infinity, and from the least speck of material existence to the infinity of the universe,
all unite in declaring both His greatness and His glory.
Man used to talk of monads
and imagined that they were the smallest particle of matter; such language is now out of
date. The monad, so it is claimed, is a world of molecules. The ancient philosopher
Giordano Bruno conversed of these as eternal, and declared each. of them a microcosm or
mirror of the Deity. Leibnitz regarded the monads as non-spatial units, each one
representing the same universe, but presenting that universe from a different point of
view, and each attaining its activities through the will of God. There was a time when
biology thought of a monad as a simple single-celled organism; that time is past. A
molecule was discovered; it was so small that men declared it the smallest part of a
substance that could exist separately and still retain its composition and proportion; the
smallest combination of atoms that would form a given chemical compound. But alas for the
recent deliverances and the instability of so-called science! We are now told that each
molecule contains 740 electrons, and no man knows what will be the next deliverance upon
this subject. It is evident, however, that the complexity of the simplest things is past
the imagination of man. When you rise in the scale of existences and consequently advance
in the study of science, you come across the most mysterious secrets in the natural
world-secrets so illusive that as yet the mind of the modern man has utterly failed to
uncover them. But a few days since the Associated Press carried "For Science
Service" an article proving the discovery of heatless light. This suggestion is based
on the fact that low forms of life have been found to generate heatless light. The
bacteria and fungi that cause rotten wood to glow in the dark, and the mysterious firefly
that can, with a wilful or automatic motion in his body, emit a heatless light out of all
proportion to the best that man's devices have ever approached; these bugs and bacteria
becoming, as the article stated, at once the admiration and despair of scientists, but
clearly indicating the acceptance of a mind infinitely above that of man. Man's invention
of light involves a slow combustion and always generates heat; not so with the light of
the bacteria and the bug; and to date that secret is with God.
God's work, in its simplest
form, exceeds the understanding of man, and our amazement grows as we acquire additional
knowledge.
The Psalmist said of his
body, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works. My substance
was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest
parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy Book
all my members were written, which in continuance were- fashioned, when as yet there was
none of them" (Ps. 139: 14-16).
In order to impress this
truth one needs only to study physiology a little.
I don't know that I shall
even attempt to talk to you about the intricacies and efficiencies of the human eye. I
will leave to others the detailed description of its lenses, the intricacies of its
muscles, the delicacy and efficiency of its nerves. The eye constantly baffles the
imagination and justifies Darwin's statement, "To suppose that the eye with all its
illusive contrivances for adjusting the focuses to different distances and admitting
different amounts of light, could be formed by natural means, fails in the highest degree.
But when it is all analyzed and the mind comes as near comprehending it as the human mind
can, one simply stands amazed at the minutest evidences of the Divine, in the eye, and the
proposition of an infinity fixed greater credit to the same."
But the eye is not alone.
Let some physicist tell you of the 600 muscles in the human body, the one thousand miles
of blood-vessels in the human body, the 550 main arteries of the human body, or let him
place before you the fact that 1,500,000 sweat-glands spread out on the surface of the
same, or that the lungs are composed of 7,700,000 -cells, or that in the 70 years of human
life the heart has struck 2,500,000,000 beats and has lifted by its throbs a load of
500,000 tons of blood; and if this does not bewilder you, then let him add that the
"nervous system, controlled by the brain, has three trillion nerve cells, while the
blood itself is made up of thirty million white corpuscles and one hundred trillion native
red ones," and you will be ready to throw up your hands in despair in comprehension
of your physical self. And yet, with such an intricate machine, completed perfectly, set
in operation, apart from accidents and incidents of danger, known to function from 70
years, the natural limit of a person's life, to 969 years, the longest on record, and who
will say that there was no intelligent designer for this competent machine?
But if the study of
physiology does not suffice to impress one with all the wisdom and power of an infinite
God, then let him lift his face to the heavens above and the stars will speak; and when he
has been told that the moon is 240,000 miles removed from the earth and that the sun is
more than 90,000,000 miles distant, he will begin to think in terms of space, and then he
learns that the sun is, in science, more than a million times as large as our earth.
It is only unused light that
leads to spiritual darkness. The naturalist who does not find God in the universe has
utterly failed to correctly interpret anything in it, from its greatest central sun to its
most insignificant bacteria. To go back to the text, Paul tells us exactly how the process
is accomplished. "The invisible things of Him (namely, His wisdom, power, beauty, and
grace), from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." And then he tells us how it came
about that they failed to so connect the two as to create in their own hearts faith; and
he indicts them with moral deficiency, saying:
"When they knew God,
they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they
became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things" (Rom. 1:
21-23).
It would be difficult,
indeed, to see in all literature any more accurate description of the degenerating effects
of Darwinism than the apostle here pens. For inanity, could anything surpass the
combination of infidelity and the acquisition of learning?
Only men whose imaginations
are wild and whose foolish hearts are darkened and whose egotism has puffed them up, could
ever come to the conclusion of atheism. The portrait shown is impressed in the following
words:
"There is no God, the fool in secret said;
There is no God that rules o'er earth or sky.
Tear off the band that binds the wretch's head,
That God may burst upon his faithless eye!
"Is there no God?-The stars in myriads spread,
If he looks up, the blasphemy deny.-
While his own features, in the mirror read,
Reflect the image of Divinity.
"Is there no God?-The stream that silver flows,
The air he breathes, the ground he treads, the trees,
The flowers, the grass, the sands, each wind that blows,
All speak of God; throughout, one voice agrees,
And, eloquent, His dread existence shows;
Blind to thyself, ah! see Him, fool, in these!"
It is only false science
that leads to the bestial philosophy of infidelity, Darwinism has never done anything
else. Its history of 3,000 years since the days of the Greek philosophers and down to its
most modem revival, first by Erasmus Darwin, and later by his grandson, Charles, has
accomplished no better ends. Never, in the history of man, has it made one colossal
character or eventuated in a single outstanding discoverer of nature's secrets. The
established sciences were found out and proved to the satisfaction of the public by
believing men. The histories of these individuals are an open page. They were not only men
of God, but many of them ministers; men in touch with God, and congruently capable of
interpreting the work of God. In the universities the professed scientists of this present
day are not scientists. What have they discovered? What contribution have they given to
men by their knowledge? Certainly you do not count "The Hall of the Age of Man,"
by Henry Fairfield Osborne, a contribution, since it is evidently a hypocritical pretense.
Certainly you do not call
Charles Darwin a contributor to modem science. His speculation has only succeeded in
exciting an endless controversy. Why should you name Conklin or Davenport scientists? All
that they have ever done was to mouth over what other men have said; neither has made any
discovery! Neither can you add Millikan, since his published discoveries are not yet
proved, nor have they received anything like assured acceptance. These men are either open
unbelievers or largely advocates of the mechanical theory.
Galileo was an ardent
Christian believer; Copernicus, while a Papist, had an unshaken confidence in God and His
Word, and was brought up in -the house of a priest. Kepler was a ministerial student of
such scientific tendencies as to triumph over the priest, and the works of Sir Isaac
Newton show that he combined in one man a search for nature’s secrets and the
discovery of the secrets of revelation; and lastly, Mendel, the devoted monk, who, while
about his pastoral duties, checked up many facts and discovered more of the laws of nature
than all Ms boasted scientific brethren combined. Now let it be forever understood that
Atheism is the enemy of science, and Faith its father and friend.
Atheism is the Enemy of Society
God-deniers are not delightful
souls! Go where you will throughout the world, when you find them you will not want to
abide with them, and it would be difficult for God Himself to brook them.
The first murder that
stained the earth with human blood was wrought by a man who refused to recognize the
sacrificial atonement as a type of the saving Christ. And when the flood came and wiped
the earth with the besom of destruction, it was that it might rid it also of skeptics and
atheists - men who had forgotten and denied God.
There has been a stir
recently in the circles of education and religion over the wave of suicide sweeping our
colleges, and outstanding men have been discussing methods of abating this blot upon
civilization. The solution of the problem is not far to seek. When the schools stop
teaching an atheistic philosophy, the fruits thereof will not be so openly found, and
those fruits are despair, degradation and death.
God-deniers are usually men
of reprobate morals. You will seldom find a man who combines in one and the same person
the philosophy of atheism and a course of upright moral conduct. "The American
Association for the Advancement of Atheism" declares that they "will undertake
to abrogate all laws for enforcing Christian morals." Later they add they wish to
better civilization by "operating as a wrecking company."
That is what atheism has
ever been-an enemy of Christian morals, "a wrecking company," indeed! Had others
charged them with this, they would, undoubtedly, have repudiated the charge; but now that
they have asserted their purpose, they can hardly complain. Intelligent and thoughtful men
will remind them that they are running true to form. The history they make will of
necessity be of a sort which atheism has known through all the centuries.
The love of sin is the
individual's lowest estate. There are many unfortunate men and weak women who fall into
sin, but who positively loathe the same. The adversary's trap takes them; his pitfalls
catch them, but they uniformly grieve over their weakness, regret their folly, and plead
with God for recovering favor. But Paul says in this text that they come to the point
where they not only give themselves up to uncleanness through lust, where they not only
change the truth of God into a lie, worshipping the creature rather than the Creator,
where they not only offend against God, but even against nature itself, being filled with
all unrighteousness, but where they actually have pleasure in them that do evil.
That is the character of
infidels! "The American Association for the Advancement of Atheism" deliberately
publish their pleasure in them that do evil, and express the hope that "one
representative from their camp may undo the work of a score of missionaries," and
that "a few thousand dollars spent in the circulation" of their infamous
literature may offset millions spent by the churches."
The drunkard is not the
lowest man; the man who takes pleasure in making other drunkards, is lower still. The
harlot is not the lowest of women, but the woman who takes pleasure in teaching her sister
harlotry is taking the last plunge toward the pit. The grieved doubter is not necessarily
damned, but the man who destroys the faith of his friends and the professor whose teaching
wrecks the confidence of students-such are allies of Satan himself!
Atheism Is the Enemy of the State
Civilization has not
been the product of atheism. We challenge "The American Association for the
Advancement of Atheism," or any other advocate of this God-denying, soul-destroying
doctrine, to show one instance in which their philosophy has built a State, or a single
instance in which they have made anything but an evil contribution to the same. In view of
this fact is it not amazing to find many school-men-men set in positions of opportunity
and responsibility-stealthily poisoning the minds of the young? "The American
Association for the Advancement of Atheism" is quoted in the following:
"Dr. Irwin Erdman, of
Columbia University, teaches his students that 'man is a mere accident,' that 'immortality
is a sheer illusion,' and that 'there is practically no evidence for the existence of God'
"
"Everett Dean Martin,
Director of Cooper Union in New York City, has the largest class in philosophy in the
world. He teaches his students that 'religion is primarily a defense mechanism,'
subjective in its organism.
"Professor John B.
Watson, of Johns Hopkins, teaches that 'freedom of the will has been knocked into a cocked
hat,' and that 'soul-consciousness, God, and immortality, are merely mistakes of the older
psychology'."
All across this continent
text-books are filled with their vicious work, going under the name of Science, which is
being compelled to carry the straining burden of such statements, and society already
feeling the consequences of the same, is but reaping the first-fruits of a bitterer
harvest that is sure to come.
Witness France and her
plunge into atheism and the reign of terror that followed; or, take Russia and her present
debauch of infidelity, and the natural disgrace coming in consequence.
Civilization has ever
been the product of religion, and false religion will produce poor civilization. Heathen
countries have' illustrated this; yet even their religion is helpful, and the wildest
superstition has proven more beneficial than the most balanced atheism that ever voiced
itself. If you want to know what the condition of any state or nation is, find out what
its religion is, and you can readily determine; it is as unerring as the electric needle!
The world has suffered much
from religion; Paul charged the people of Athens with being "too religious." Yet
perhaps it can be said with absolute candor that none of these are so detrimental to
society, so harmful to the state and so destructive to national life, as atheism or
"no religion." Christianity has produced the highest known civilization.
There is not an ennobling
influence known to humanity that is not the emphasized product of Christianity. There is
not a desirable institution existing with any peoples that has not been fostered and
favored by the Christian faith. There is not a philosophy that tends to the social,
political and spiritual uplift of mankind that may not be found better phrased in the
Bible than unbelieving men have ever expressed the same. The Christian faith, with its one
and true God and its wondrous and true Book, has brought to the world more light and has
given to living men more happiness than all the philosophies of unbelieving men combined;
and the crime of the ages is not the murder of individuals, now characterizing and cursing
modern society, but it is the sinister, devilish, damnable doctrine, now lurking in the
halls of every university in the land and of all civilized lands, and seeking by smooth
speech and in the name of "Science," falsely so-called, to destroy the faith of
men in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in His revealed Will, the Scriptures!
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