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Church Addenda Addenda Church
How far superior
uneasiness in argumentation
is
to proof of error
2* The question concerning
the truth
of Christianity is
a mere question
of evidence. There
can be no more
merit or demerit
in believing on
one side than
on the other: no
more than in a
question on the
genuineness of a
will. No more
irreverence is
meant to Christ
in the one case
testator supposed than to the testator
in the other.
If it was really
his will, every
body is disposed
to conform to it.
But the question doubt
is whether it
was his will or
no.
Intolerance Cause
The uneasiness produces
an appetite
for revenge.
No case of contradiction
but what is liable
to produce this
appetite in some degree
It wants only pretence
and power.
Here the importance
or imaginary importance
of the subject
and the supposed grievousness
of the offence affords
such a pretence as
will may often appear
a just one.
And the importance
of the Magistrate where
he has happened
to take a part in
the dispute gives
the power.
Unfortunately even
Christian charity
& philanthropy
suggest the same
practical causes
that are suggested
by controversial
wrath.
Both suggest punishment,
the one
for revenge, the
other for reformation.
Reference to Introd.
Further inducement
the facility that
coercive measures
& war give for
extending temporal
power & gaining
wealth
It is sufficient to
here at Crusades
& Religious
Wars foreign & civil.
Remedy against
the unhappy propensity
thus generated
& pointing
out the falshood
of all the grounds
proceeded upon
Acceptation
of these
1. Disbelief is no
offence against God.
2. The truth of a
proposition no
more creates on
obligation to believe
it in this science
than in any other law or mathematics.
3. A proposition is
not the more important
for being sublime
4. Nor does even
the importance of
a proposition create
an obligation to
believe it
5. Obligation
attaches not upon
belief. To believe
according to apparent
probability
requires no obligation,
and to
believe against
it is impossible
6. All that the
notion of an obligation
to believe
can do is to
give birth to
such a course
of conduct with
the mind as
is the surest
road to error.
7. There can
therefore be no
merit in belief.
8. Nor in the
endeavour to
believe on one
side rather than
the other.
9 Duty, then,
as far as there
is any duty in
the case, and
wisdom at any
rate dictates
the giving an
equal reception
to the arguments
on both sides.
10. The uneasiness
produced in me
by the arguments
of my adversary
ought to produce
on my part a
suspicion of his
being in the right
11. The doing any
thing that shall
hurt him, out
of revenge is a
practice that must
stand condemned
by every body,
nobody pretending
to justify the
following the mere dictates
of revenge
in any case,
still less where
there is has been no injury
12. The taking
a similar course
with views of philanthropy
stands
condemned by
the consideration
that one every man
may have the
same disposition
as certainly he
has the same right
to take his own
notion however
formed for the exclusive
standard
of rectitude, in which
case
case the effect of this
imagined philanthropy
must be the producing
a war of all
against all, &
that an interminable
one.
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Identifier: | JB/005/047/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 5.
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005 |
church of englandism |
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047 |
church addenda |
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rudiments sheet (brouillon) |
2 |
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recto |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::l munn [britannia with shield emblem]]] |
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benjamin constant |
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2464 |
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