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Excerpt from Christianity or Secularism: Which Is the Better for Mankind?: Verbatim Report of the Great Debate Between Mr. W. T. Lee (Representing the North London Christian Evidence League) And Mr. Joseph McCabe (Representing the Rationalist Press Association, Limited), Held at the Town Hall, Holborn, on Thursday and Friday Eve Mr. Lee: Mr. Chairman, Mr. Mccabe, Ladies and Gentlemen, - By I understand those ideas, precepts, and doctrines given to the world by Jesus Christ, and which are made known to thought and proved to be applicable to life in the various books Of the New Testament. These ideas, precepts, and doctrines embrace God and man, sin and salvation, time and eternity; and constitute a religion which has not merely a local or temporal meaning, but also a universal and eternal significance. In this religion God is represented as Perfect Father and Holy Love, and is declared to have expressed Himself in the wondrous life and work Of Jesus Christ. This religion regards man as not only needing redemption, but also as having a value greater than that Of worlds. Hence it addresses its appeals to man as man, without regard to culture, creed, or country, and aims to establish a kingdom Of redeemed men which shall out-last time and transcend all material, social, and national limita tions. This, then, is what I understand by Christianity. By Secularism I mean all those forms of thought and theories Of conduct which have their origin and their end in this world, without reference to any other - a world whose substance is material, and whose latent and active energies are mechanical. In a word, Secularism is a system Of Naturalism - a system which looks on the world order as a closed circuit, and therefore rejects all ideas Of God, Freedom, and Immortality as valueless and pernicious - denying the presence and action of Spirit in the affairs Of men. It grounds its hopes for the betterment of mankind on the doctrine of salvation by organisation. Recognising that the natures of some men are radically corrupt, it gives these up to destruction. Thus Secularism in relation to God is Atheistic in relation to nature is Materialistic in relation to man is Pessimistic. This brings us to the word man, which, I presume, my friendly opponent will allow me to suppose includes woman. What do we mean by man? If we study men. We shall find that they appear to think, speak, and act as though they were rational, moral, and religious beings. They live not only in a world Of things, but Of thoughts, Of feelings, of deeds, Of worship. These thoughts, these feelings, these deeds, this worship, are hall-marks of personality; they not only exist, they have power, they have meaning, they have value, and cannot be made part and parcel Of any world-order which is interpreted by mechanical processes alone. Man is more than a body energised by physical forces: he is a mind, a will, a person. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
