WHY HAVE FREETHOUGHT ASSOCIATIONS?

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 10, 1 July 1884, Page 9

WHY HAVE FREETHOUGHT ASSOCIATIONS?

There are some people who always put the question, why have Freethought Associations ? They say, and say truly, that there are hundreds of men attending Churches who do not accept the popular creeds. Nay, they can also with historical accuracy show that many of the old faiths—the obsolete beliefs—come to an end not by argument but with the growth of knowledge. For example, it was not by writing against witchcraft that a disbelief in witchcraft ceased, The 30,000 persons judicially hanged and burned for witchcraft were forgotten, and the law of James was repealed when superstition was conquered by knowledge. All this is true and should not be forgotten. Old beliefs decay without attack—some, and considered vital, are seen to be decaying. The belief in a personal devil does not loom so large in an every day life as it did even twenty years ago. It is not now necessary in an indictment for murder to say that the accused was moved and instigated to the crime by the devil. We can laugh at the devil now—he has lost his terrors, and outside the ranks of the Salvation Army and the membership of the more narrow sects, the belief in the devil is not vital. And little argument will be required during the next twenty years to destroy this decaying creed of an evil once almost all powerful.

But yet I consider Freethought Associations necessary. There is much vitality in many narrowing beliefs yet, and there are in our midst many who, from hereditary and social surroundings, lack backbone enough to state their honest beliefs. We are not true to each other. We think it wrong to be heretical. We often sail under false colours because it is unpopular to be candid. In one. of his charming lectures Colonel Ingersoll tells a story of twenty Texan settlers meeting in a small hotel on the frontier. One of them said : " Now boys, let us all tell our real names." Is not every society often constituted in a like manner ? There are people attending Presbyterian Churches who, if they called themselves " in religion" by their real names would not be named ' Presbyterians but ' Unitarians.' And so is it amongst the educated laity in all the

Churches. In the Texan society it was not nice for the real names to be disclosed. And if Freethought is deemed not reputable, to be a freethinker will not be proclaimed by many of our weak-kneed fellow colonists. The first use of Freethought Associations is that it helps us to be truthful. Is not this a great moral gain to a community ? Is hypocrisy of any value to a society ? I doubt it. If then there is any organisation that helps men to be true to each other, surely that organisation, even amongst " orthodox " people, should not be discouraged. Everything that helps to a purer moral life is a gain to a community. Everything that helps to weed out hypocrites and hypocrisy from the world is a good, not an evil. But Freethought Associations help men to be manly. They inculcate self-reliance. If a man thinks as the Churches think much will be forgiven him. Creedal belief covers more sins nowadays than charity. Let a man be a Freethinker and he is liable to be subjected to many social punishments. And if the new criminal code, introduced by the Hon. Mr Conolly, became law, to legal punishments also. These tend to destroy manliness. The fact, however, that Associations exist amongst men who do not repeat the old creeds makes men look after their self-respect _ more. They know that if they are persecuted for opinion's sake they will have friends in their trouble ready to help them. This is of immense service in any State.

Then there is another thing that should never be forgotten, namely, that the price we pay for liberty is eternal vigilance. The more sincere churchmen are, the more will their efforts be diverted to get all men to believe as they believe. Their creed leads them to make such efforts. They believe that what a man believes affects him here and hereafter; nay, they who say they believe that if society does not have their " faith" as its guide it must make shipwreck. It is this that explains the frantic efforts made by almost all the Churches to get the State to help them. The effort takes various shapes. Sometimes it is Blasphemy Laws ; sometimes Bible in Schools Reading; sometimes cries for State Grants, 6°c. Every appeal to the State to favour one particular religion is an appeal to destroy liberty. A State has no more to do with men's opinions about God and immortality than it has to do with men's opinions about the rotundity of the Earth or the Anglo-Israel absurdity. All that the State has to do is to preserve equal liberty to all. And if the State's own existence is not threatened and the public peace not disturbed the State must give its citizens the utmost freedom. Even in a monarchy it is recognised that men may be Republicans and advocate Republicanism. This liberty has been won. If Republicans in violation of law plotted to kill the monarch then they have a rightto be punished for treason ; but so long as Republicans keep to their opinions, and to the expressions of them, the monarchical state even does not interfere. If this is allowed in a monarchy what should be the liberty of the subject in dealing with Religion ? And I hope the colonists of New Zealand will never forget that unless this liberty is preserved and watched, there may be efforts made to invade the freedom we have up to the present enjoyed. The thumb-screw of the Protestants and the tortures of the Holy Inquisition may alike be so obsolete as not to be able to be revived, but we may see people denied offices because of their heresies. With strong Freethought Associations in every electorate true freedom could not in a democracy be much threatened.

There are, however, two other reasons why we should encourage Freethought Associations to which I must refer. The first is that they tend to teach men to walk alone. The second, that they tend to the solidarity of society —a sort of parrot cry of—What will you give us in the place of our Churches ? often assails one's ears. Unless the Churches subserve a useful function nothing is needed to replace them. Men should be able to walk alone. There are some women who through ' use and habit' like to meet their fellow men and discuss theological questions. To them the Association is useful. And if there arc men who dispassionately will review the history of the presentday creeds, and will think of what the future must be,

they will see that the time is not far distant when some of the popular beliefs will soon be as obsolete as that of the creeds of our ancestors. They believed, as Jesus Christ believed, that epilepsy was a demoniaical possession. They believed, as some of the writers of the Bible believed, that there were witches. These beliefs in these subjects are even obsolutc amongst all educated people. The time is coming when a belief in an infallible book and an infallible church-will alike be as obsolete. And Evolution tells us that men are so constituted that they are helped by aids in shaking off old creeds. The danger, it is said, is an anarchy in beliefs. Will Associations of Freethinkers supply this want. The Freethinkers have a creed. « They also believe and therefore speak.' They believe that men can be moral without relying on a book. They believe that every good act tends to humanity's well-being, and every evil deed hurts the race. There is a character of morality for them higher than ten or twenty commandments. And if they can ' live the life' in the presence of their fellows without repeating what they do not believe they have learned to walk alone, and they have done more—their example will be as a light to others to guide them in their pathway to moral goodness in the world. Then Freethought Associations tend to solidarity. One thing we need in the colonies more than another is the feeling of brotherhood. We have come from many lands, and with us we have brought sectional and national feelings. We are of diverse races. We are descended from men and women of different religions—all these things tend to separate us. The very maintenance of peace in a democracy depends upon two things : ' Respect for Law' and ' Brotherhood.' I have put ' Respect for Law' first, but I believe the feeling of ' Brotherhood ' embraces it. Let us only have a feeling of Brotherhood and whatever rivalry may exist between district and district and town and town there will be no danger of the destruction of our New Zealand nationality, no dread of ever seeing civil war in our fair islands. Every society formed on a wide basis helps this feeling of brotherhood. Every association that has equal freedom and no special privileges asked as its watchword is helping the solidarity of our nation. Oddfellows Societies, Masonic Lodges, &c, &c, are all helping—but Freethought Associations, aiming at keeping freedom, are doing more —for I take it that it would be the duty of every Freethought Association in the colony to protest against the punishment of a Catholic or a Methodist, on account of his opinions, as vigorously as if one of their own members were indicted for Blasphemy. Robert Stout. Dunedin, 16th June, 1884.