Superstition Unveiled

Superstition Unveiled

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Title: Superstition Unveiled
Author: Charles Southwell
Release Date: April 24, 2005 [EBook #15696]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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SUPERSTITION UNVEILED.
BY
CHARLES SOUTHWELL, AUTHOR OF "SUPERNATURALISM
EXPLODED;" "IMPOSSIBILITY OF ATHEISM
DEMONSTRATED," ETC.

Abridged by the Author from his "APOLOGY FOR ATHEISM."

"Not one of you reflects that you ought to know your Gods before you
worship them."

LONDON: EDWARD TRUELOVE, 240, STRAND, THREE DOORS
FROM TEMPLE BAR, AND ALL BOOKSELLERS
1854.

SUPERSTITION UNVEILED.
Religion has an important bearing on all the relations and conditions of
life. The connexion between religious faith and political practice is, in
truth, far closer than is generally thought. Public opinion has not yet
ripened into a knowledge that religious error is the intangible but real
substratum of all political injustice. Though the 'Schoolmaster' has
done much, there still remain among us, many honest and energetic
assertors of 'the rights of man,' who have to learn that a people in the
fetters of superstition cannot, secure political freedom. These reformers
admit the vast influence of Mohammedanism on the politics of
Constantinople, and yet persist in acting as if Christianity had little or
nothing to do with the politics of England.
At a recent meeting of the Anti-State Church Association it was
remarked that throw what we would into the political cauldron, out it
came in an ecclesiastical shape. If the newspaper report may be relied
on, there was much laughing among the hearers of those words, the
deep meaning of which, it may safely be affirmed, only a select few of
them could fathom.
Hostility to state churches by no means implies a knowledge of the
close and important connection between ecclesiastical and political
questions. Men may appreciate the justice of voluntaryism in religion,

and yet have rather cloudy conceptions with respect to the influence of
opinions and things ecclesiastical on the condition of nations. They
may clearly see that he who needs the priest, should disdain to saddle
others with the cost of him, while blind to the fact that no people
having faith in the supernatural ever failed to mix up such faith with
political affairs. Even leading members of the 'Fourth Estate' are
constantly declaring their disinclination for religious criticism, and
express particular anxiety to keep their journals free of everything
'strictly theological.' Their notion is, that newspaper writers should
endeavour to keep clear of so 'awful' a topic. And yet seldom does a
day pass in which this self-imposed editorial rule is not violated--a fact
significant, as any fact can be of connection between religion and
politics.
It is quite possible the editors of newspapers have weighty reasons for
their repugnance to agitate the much vexed question of religion; but it
seems they cannot help doing so. In a leading article of this days' Post,
[Endnote 4:1] we are told--The stain and reproach of Romanism in
Ireland is, that it is a political system, and a wicked political system,
for it regards only the exercise of power, and neglects utterly the duty
of improvement. In journals supported by Romanists, and of course
devoted to the interests of their church, the very same charge is made
against English Protestantism. To denounce each other's 'holy apostolic
religion' may be incompatible with the taste of 'gentlemen of the press,'
but certainly they do it with a brisk and hearty vehemence that inclines
one to think it a 'labour of love.' What men do con amore they usually
do well, and no one can deny the wonderful talent for denunciation
exhibited by journalists when writing down each other's 'true
Christianity.' The unsparing invective quoted above from the Post is a
good specimen. If just, Irish Romanism ought to be destroyed, and
newspaper writers cannot be better employed than in helping on the
work of its destruction, or the destruction of any other religion to which
the same 'stain and reproach' may be fairly attached.
I have no spite or ill-will towards Roman Catholics though opposed to
their religion, and a willing subscriber to the opinion of Romanism in
Ireland expressed by the Post. The past and present condition of that

country is a deep disgrace to its priests, the bulk of whom, Protestant as
well as Romanist, can justly be charged with 'regarding only the
exercise of power, while neglecting utterly the duty of improvement.'
The intriguing and essentially political character