i. rights of reason.
as a means of developing and establishing secular principles, and as security that the principles of nature and the habit of reason may prevail, secularism uses itself, and maintains for others, as rights of reason:—
the free search for truth, without which its full attainment is impossible.
the free utterance of the result, without which the increase of truth is limited.
the free criticism of alleged truth, without which its identity must remain uncertain.
the fair action of conviction thus attained, without which conscience will be impotent on practice.
ii. standard of appeal.
"secularism accepts no authority but that of nature, adopts no methods but those of science and philosophy, and respects in practice no rule but that of the conscience, illustrated by the common sense of mankind. it values the lessons of the past, and looks to tradition as presenting a storehouse of raw materials to thought, and in many cases results of high wisdom for our reverence; but it utterly disowns tradition as a ground of belief, whether miracles and supernaturalism be claimed or not claimed on its side. no sacred scripture or ancient church can be made a basis of belief, for the obvious reason that their claims always need to be proved, and cannot without absurdity be assumed. the association leaves to its individual members to yield whatever respect their own good sense judges to be due to the opinions of great men, living or dead, spoken or written, as also to the practice of ancient communities, national or ecclesiastical. but it disowns all appeal to such authorities as final tests of truth."*
* "programme of freethought societies," by f. w.
newman. (reasoner, no. 388.)
iii. sphere of controversy.
since the principles of secularism rest on grounds apart from theism, atheism, or chris-tianism, it is not logically necessary for secularists to debate the truth of these subjects. in controversy, secularism concerns itself with the assertion and maintenance of its own affirmative propositions, combating only views of theology and christianity so far as they interfere with, discourage, or disparage secular action, which may be done without digressing into the discussion of the truth of theism or divine origin of the bible.
iv. personal controversy.
a secularist will avoid indiscriminate disparagement of bodies or antagonism of persons, and will place before himself simply the instruction and service of an opponent, whose sincerity he will not question, whose motives he will not impugn, always holding that a man whom it is not worth while confuting courteously, is not worth while confuting at all. such disparagements as are included in the explicit condemnation of erroneous principles are, we believe, all that the public defence of opinion requires, and are the only kind of disparagement a secularist proposes to employ.
v. justification of controversy.
the universal fair and open discussion of opinion is the highest guarantee of public truth—only that theory which is submitted to that ordeal is to be regarded, since only that which endures it can be trusted. secularism encourages men to trust reason throughout, and to trust nothing that reason does not establish—to examine all things hopeful, respect all things probable, but rely upon nothing without precaution which does not come within the range of science and experience.
