Page:Religion of a Sceptic (IA religionofscepti00powy).djvu/17

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE RELIGION OF A SCEPTIC

balance of probabilities is against our arriving at any sort of certitude in these high matters, that moment we are liberated from the necessity of either explaining away these dogmas or of rendering them more rational.

A rational faith is a contradiction in terms. The essence of any faith is that it should be irrational. If it is not irrational it leaves a certain subterranean craving in us unsatisfied.

To the whole-hearted rationalist all faith is hocus-pocus, and it always must remain a very open question whether the rationalist is not right!

But right or wrong, it is clear that to his mind the Resurrection of the Body and the Virgin Birth are so much discredited balderdash; and it is only when we are in a position to undermine the scepticism of the rationalist with a scepticism deeper than his own that we become free to enjoy the beauty of these ideas without denying them some possible residuum of reality.

The simple-minded religious people upon whose piety the whole continuance of the thing depends are ready to stake their personal faith against all discussion.

But the sceptical minority whose feelings I am attempting to articulate have already completely lost their faith and have not the least wish to regain it.

[7]

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.