The 'wentieth Century Philosopher By THOMAS h DIVEN cf':S '.'.'.'.':' v^>\ r /^i^o fyxntll Hmmsitg |f itaeg THE GIFT OF J^3wgl&.?\..SL.5\ vA\>Tv\.\.^- 7583 Cornell University Library arV13940 The twentieth century philosopher. 3 1924 031 301 744 olin.anx The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031301744 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY PHILOSOPHER NO. 1 BY THOMAS J. DIVEN Author of "Aztecs and Mayas'' and "Diseased Communities, Australia, New Zealand" "The demand of the age ,is for reconstruction of a reasonable religious faith. "Whoso can build it anew on a basis which neither physical science nor his- torical criticism can assail — him I shall regard as the benefactor and helper of our time." — President Jacob Q. Scfiurman Price 25 cents Published by the ANTIQUARIAN PUBLISHING CO. 180 N. Dearborn St., Chicago t-V. < t*^ — THE TWENTIETH CENTURY PHILOSOPHER. PART I. Permit one who witnessed the sparring match between the Evangelist Cuddy and the self-styled Christ Teed and who thinks they are equally in error to present a few thoughts on the subject under debate. Now that old be- liefs are being rooted from the human mind and so many are saying "I deny, I cannot believe," this article may help to settle some questions in the inquiring intellect. When the denial is made the reply always comes "Well what will you substitute after you have torn down the structure of organized religion?" While denial is easy the question of positive assurance is to most a stumbling block. It is hoped here to give a substantial base for a new field of action. The writer courts answers from parties or their followers or from re- ligionists of any creed. He only wants the truth wherever it may be found. 1 2 The Twentieth Centuey Philosopher The universe is infinite both in time and ■ extent. Our most powerful glasses show us about one hundred and thirty millions of suns. Photography as many more. To think that one could journey to the last star and stand- ing there view a total blank void forever beyond involves an assumption that no astron- omer can for an instant entertain. One great astronomer says: "To place a limit to the universe is to stamp a man as being no scientist. ' ' It never was crea ted, it never will be ex tinct. Nothing c an_Jbe__greateji, nothing_caji be dez stroyed.- The labors of all the chemists in the world prove this. Let one place any conceiv- able date as the duration of the universe. That period in comparison with -the infinity pre- ceding it is incomparably less than the wink of an eye in the life of a centenarian, during all of which time God existed before he made up his mind to create something, a creator without a creation, an absurdity. Some say, however, that prior to the exist ence of the ^universe jh ere~wa s_no_ time as th ere_was^no_ way t o me a sure I t— Then no period existed "between God's existence and his creation which The Twentieth Century Philosopher 3 is admitting the question. God and the uni- verse, to write m English and j50IreeR7 are jsame timed; neither existed before the other, neither could exist without the other. This universe is indued with the spirit of life and subject to immutable -laws. That spirit and those laws we may call GqdjDeus, Theos, Allah or what we will. If a princip le is not in ac- cordaiu'c with the _laws_of nature it is not a law of God. If any thing occurs that we do_ ja ot un derstan d it is not a s udden erratic whi m of His manifestation but the nat ural wo rking out of some law which wedo not understand. " The ££>wer_of nature is clearly proved and is shown to be what we call God." (Pliny the Elder.) "God is the Soul of the World. He is all ttatju-hichJJiQU_sjestimd L all that which thou ^SefisjLjDoJ^" (Seneca.) Man was not created in God's image for the Deity has no form. Followin g the law of the conservation of energy the human soul has no Beginning and will have no end. As long as God has existed I have existed. As long as God exists I will exist. " The mind of man never was cr eated an d jiey^erjwill be extinct." (Cicero.) It is an infinitely small part of the 4 The Twentieth Century Philosopher ever-existing God and at the end of this liv- ing organization is re-absorption. ' ' Then sh allthej iust return to the eart h as it was a nd the spiri t return unto God whogave it?' ^SblomonT) John Jones ceasesto~exist aiT John Jones. He moves on forever. The waters of the Mississippi River run into the sea ; they cease to be Mississippi River waters, they do not cease to be water. This fact ex- plains all the mysteries of telepathy and pre- monitions. In a vague, uncertain, intangible manner the mind sweeps back of birth, crosses continents and seas and even in the child fore- tells the happenings of mature age. I know it_has_repeatedl y happened to me and no ' thinker Tias" yet ever denied to me on being asked that the same experiences have occurred to him. I am not altogether sure that shortly after death the surrounding presence may not tune with soul still in the living. It is the fluttering of the divine spark within us cir- cumscribed and imprisoned by our gross sensual physical prison house. A Greek phi- losopher in my library, whom I regret not to have noted, says that probably as a drop of indigo put into a lake first tinges for a while the surrounding water ultimately to be dissi- The Twentieth Century Philosopher 5 pated and absorbed to an unnoticeable degree so the soul when first released hovers around its former habitations ultimately to be infi- nitely scattered. .B ut every mind must act for itself an djhe n only at rar e-intervals_not^ under control.. All w ho cla imto act ,f o r oth ers in these respects are fraud s, liars, swi ndlers Itnd imposf6rs7~ "God never has revealed a word to the human race. Man has had to dig every principle of ethics and the sciences by hard labor out of his own mind. It was the only place to hunt for them. It is now the only place to hunt for them. Think how long it took to agree that slavery and polygamy in principle were wrong, h ow lo ng it to ok to learn the ger m t heory of disease. Even now all over the world justice and equity are supposed to apply only to peo- ple of our particular tribe, our particular religion; even now the ortho dox beco me im- patient ifone speaks one good word for the Mormons, their industry, honesty, sobriety, etc. At the Chicago Parliament of Religions a Mohammedan was told if he attempted to speak he would be jerked from the platform. Within the last year the convention of all the 6 The Twentieth Century Philosopher anti- Catholics resolved that the Unitarians could not be considered as a religious body. There is no devil . No such a thing as evil ever existed. "Alj_s in is only a wrong use of existing good." (St. Augustine.) " The good are_onlv_wise. The wicked are only foolish . ' ' (Socrates.) Consequently ther e is no helL The follies of men whether as in di viduals or as nations bring their own punishment. Homer makes Jove say that men bring disasters upon themselves by their own senselessness and then throw the blame upon the gods. No prayers, no gifts, no atonement will alleviate or avert this punishment. "I take it that i t is not a partof the divin e nature to be swa yed— by gifts and pray ers like _ a rascally judg e." "XSocratesT) "The gods are in no need of sac- rifices. What then can one do in order to win their favor? One can, in my opinion, acquire wisdom, and, so far as one can, do good to such men as deserve it. This pleases the gods." "To help man is to be a God; this is the path to eternal glory." (Pliny the El- der.) "Ask nothing of God but what He will grant thee without asking." (Athenodorus.) The only remedy for foolishness is to cease being a fool. This is why all religious com- The Twentieth Century Philosopher 7 munities have been fa i lures. The praying Boors thought to build a commonwealth ruled, as they said, only by God wherein no. Catholic, Jew or infidel should have a vote. They were crushed as they deserved to be. The Jews thought the eternal laws were for them alone, that the other peoples of the world should have not even the right treatment accorded in their holy writings to the animals. They were crushed as they deserved to be. No great nation ever arose on so slight and narrow a foundation. The United States, Germany, France and England now understand that only the everlasting principles of right and wrong, not any one holy book, may suffice for a na- tion, and the whole world helps to uphold their banners. No amount of prayer ca n remove from our_ _ minds or our bodies the results of long years of f olly_and of violated_n atural law s. Either Th self or children who are parts of self all wrongdoing must be expiated. The prodigal son may have lived to an advanced age yet to his dying day the bitter regret for his errors burned upon his mind. I know many pious men whose enfeebled bodies and weakened minds still reflect the sins of their youth. 8 The Twentieth Century Philosopher Search your ow nm ind. Not one living person has told me otherwise than that he has suffered already almost beyond endurance for his sins. Who among us has not already said to him- self many times : "My punishment is greater than I can bear." Then we must only ques- tion whether we must suffer twice for the same offense. But are we sure what is a sin? " Troublgj Tot yo u rselveso v er the wrongdoing of yo ur neighbor. Perha ps he has not done wrong." (Marcus Aurelius.) What one re- ligioifsays is right another says is wrong. So all over the world. Every new prophet or new sect founder makes something a sin which the world did not previously. The Methodists say dancing is a sin, the Episcopalians and Catho- lics teach it. Dowie found out that using to- bacco was a sin. In my youth the Methodist preachers nearly all smoked and chewed. Dowie also had it revealed to him that secret societies were a sin. Tobacco is only a filthy habit and secret societies only nonsense and an unfair dealing with the rest of the world. Forty years of searching for just what may really be a sin has resulted in convincing me that the onl y sin aside from that _committed The Twentieth Century Philosopher 9 against self consists in taking from another that jeghichJift jfopjK not willing ly part f rom. ' ' The mid-world is best. Nature as we know her is no saint] The lights of the church, the ascetics, Gentoos and Grahamites, she does not distinguish by any favor. She comes eating and drinking and sinning. Her darlings, the great, the strong, the beautiful, are not chil- dren of our law, do not come out of the Sun- day School, nor weigh their food, nor punctu- ally keep the commandments. If we will be strong with her strength, we must not harbor such disconsolate consciences, borrowed too from the consciences of other nations. We must set up the strong present tense against all the rumors of wrath, past or to come." (Emerson.) If we must acknowledge an all pervading regulating spirit we must give him the attri- butes of absolute wisdom and justice. If of all the human beings who have inhabited this little globe since man first walked erect even one has, after the sufferings of this short life, cir- cumscribed by his environment, bound down by his animal nature and its workings through the mind all derived from defective ancestors, been condemned to eternal torment he is not 10 The Twentieth Century Philosopher a God but a monster fitly represented by the hideous South Sea idols. Eternity is a lon g time . "A-go od man jiy ing or dead has no cause to fea r_the gods/' (Socrates.) If God has those attributes of absolute wis- dom and justice he never condemned all the generations that existed between the mythical Adam and Christ to perdition for a trifle of disobedience. If he had known woman he would have known that Eve would eat the ap- ple simply because it was forbidden; Nor would he condemn all the Jews and Pagans from that time to this. He would not have submitted them to the test. I think we may say in the picturesque language of the mart, "He plays no favorites." Even the crimes and cruelties of Nero would be of feather weight in comparison. I have never seen the individual deserving the thousandth part of such punishment. Libanius, the Greek philos- opher, characterizes the whole doctrine of Adam's fall and the atonement through Christ's blood as a mass of foolishness. "What happens to one happe ns to all. "Any- thing so common and so universal as death is neither to be feared nor shunned." (Marcus Aurelius.) The Twentieth Century Philosopher H Nor is it the part of absolute wisdom and _justice~to be^ swli yMr7 ~His~Iaws7 the laws of nature, have never varied a hair's breadth. Miracles were and are impossible. It is of infinitely more importance for mankind to count on the certainty of their progression than that the laws can be bent or torn like a paper napkin. This principle is the only foun- dation of all our^cientijigjprogress,- Conse- quently prayersTgifts, processions, beatings of tomtoms and shaking of rattles are unneces- sary. Lucian asks Jove how he could decide questions as prayers seemed to be so evenly divided for and against. Jove replies: "I de- cide in favor of the one who bribes me the heaviest." Satire could go no higher. You can give God nothing. He owns it all. You can take nothing from Him. It is only in your limited use for a second. You can neither praise Him nor dispraise Him. Not a building nor a foot of ground can be conse- crated to Him. It is all equally sacred. The sailor swallowed up by the waves in the cen- ter of the Pacific ocean lies in as holy a spot as he who lies in the southern corner of a little country church-yard. The pagan woman, one of a number of wives, who in her limited light / 12 The Twentieth Centubt Philosopher does her best for her family and her neighbors is as near to Him and as dear to Him as the Archbishop of Canterbury. One of the noblest women I ever met in my life was a polygamous wife of a Mormon living sixty-five miles from the railway down in Mexico, the mother of eight handsome stalwart grown up song and of an Indian man whom she had adopted as a baby. To the_philosopher every day is Sabbath and the Sabbath only a d ajz. The Indian chief when asked by General Oglethorpe whether he prayed or used any mystic ceremonies to propitiate his deity re- plied: "No, it is unnecessary. God knows what is better for a poor Indian than he can tell Him." Priests are unnecessary. Every man should be the priest in his own family. If he feel himself incapable and is willing to pay his money to some one else to keep him in the way of wisdom let him do so. If he robs him- self or his family of the comforts of life as a fire insurance against the next world he is foolish. Among the Greeks as with Solomon foolishness was the worst sin man could com- mit. But when any man claims to be the The Twentieth Century Philosopher 13 mouthpiece of and to control the actions of the deity he should be regarded with suspicion. The whole history of the priesthood in all the religions from Saint Paul through John Wes- ley to Alex. Dowie shows that they are not exempt from all the failings and weaknesses of mankind. Agamemnon, in the tragedy ex- claims: "A curse upon the whole priesthood with all its ambition." How often during the more than two thousand years since that was written has that cry from suffering humanity re-echoed from against the heavens. If there be anything that would make the writer be- lieve in an over-ruling providence it is the cer- tainty with which he confounds any man or set of men who may claim to control His move- ments. Pausanias says in his "Description of Greece" that over one door to the temple at Adelphi was the inscription, "Know Thyself." Over the other door, "Not too much of Any- thing." These sum up all religion, all philos- ophy and all rules of conduct. ^oderatiQn-in everything leads to the most happiness in liv- ing and to the most serene evening of a longer life. "Live as though you were condemned to 14 The Twentieth. Centubt PhiijOSOPher die next week. Live as though you are to be- come eighty years old." (Theognis.) The most religious man is the man who searches most consistently after the truth, the laws of nature which regulate himself and his environment, the universe, and follows those laws. The high priests of the true religion are such men as Archimedes, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Pasteur, Guthrie, Lister and other epoch-making benefactors of the human race who took nothing for granted in their hunger for the truth. Philo-Judaus, the Alexandrian Jewish phi- losopher, says: "Any man born with an in- satiable thirst for knowledge coupled with a desire to improve the human race is a man called up by God." Thucidides, however, says that the mass of mankind wants anything but the truth. Many say. "All this is probably true but I question whether the world is ready for it or would be benefited by its substitution for Christianity. ' ' I thought so myself in my ear- lier years but in my old age I agree with Spinoza that the truth canhurtjio^nianjmd ^nojpeopTejfTOeJh^ltru^ "I can subscribe to all that if you accept Christ The Twentieth Cextvry Philosopher 15 as the Son of God." Jesus could no more be the son of God than is any right living man. He was the illegitimate son of Panthera, a Greek captain in the Roman service by a Jew- ish mother. (Celsus. The Talmud. Froude. Fiske ct al.) He united the Greek ideality with the Jewish devoutness. (John Fiske.) In a Jewish village where ancestry, as in Greece, was known back to the age of mythol- ogy he was the ridicule and derision of his boy and girl associates for his base origin. Feel- ing his equality, yes Ins mental superiority, he could not see why, lacking the blessing of the priesthood on his parents, he was inferior to the others. Like all other illegitimates he was insurgent. Knowing that no power on earth could make him like the other Jews he ap- pealed to the God of the universe and aligned himself with the whole human race. Like all other prophets except Mohammed he claimed to perform miracles. As Celsus says : ' ' Every faker on the street corner can perform mir- acles." His followers believed them just as the Mormons today believe in the miracles of Joseph Smith. As to calliug himself the "Son of God," failing in a lawful Jewish father he 16 The Twentieth Century Philosopher asserted he was the child of the Universal Spirit.- And he was. "Every soul is the child of the father of the universe. ' ' (Plotinus.) The claim of divine paternity was also the commonest thing in history. Buddha, Her- cules, Romulus, Plato, Scipio and hundreds I could name were given that Paternity. We find it among the Hindoos, the Siamese, the Greeks, Romans, Japanese, Aztecs, Mayas, Apaches and even the Esquimaux. In fact it is pretty hard to find a people on earth that had none such. Among the Greeks and Ro- mans they were about as common as illegiti- mates in the United States. History has a record of over two thousand prior to and since Jesus who claimed to be the Jewish Messiah, the anointed, which the word Christ means in Greek. Illinois in our own time has produced two Christs, Schweinfurth and Teed; two prophets, Joseph Smith and Alexander Dowie, Elijah Third, at Zion. There is a John the Baptist in Chicago and another Christ in London. The prophets over the country are innumerable. This is all. It is the result of over forty years' study of all the principal religious sys- The Twentieth Century Philosopher 17 terns of the world and of all its schools of phi- losophy and of living in Catholic, Mohamme- dan, Buddhist and Mormon countries as well as hearing Dowie and Teed and of living among tribes without any definite formulated religion. I ask no one to believe it, no one to change his sect on this account. If one has found tranquillity of mind in Salt Lake, Rome, Dowie 's Zion or Teed's Estero I would advise him to stay there. If like many he can only deny, I throw these ideas out for him to fol- low. They need not one dollar of his money, no priests, no churches, no mediator, no atone- ment. Alone during the waking hours of m id- night h e_inust_searc li his o wn souL_io__gee whpttigrJieJgJiving3cCor