MR. BRADL1UGH'S ATHEISM.
[To TER EDITOR OF THE " SpEcrATop.."1
should just like to say a few words in reply to your correspondent "J. K.," with regard to Mr. Bradlaugh's seeming inconsistency in the belief of a God. "J. K." shows great ignorance of either Mr. Bradlaugh's opinions or his writings or he would not have troubled you with his letter. I think the best plan will be to let Mr. Bradlaugh justify himself in his own words. Addressing a crowded audience in the Free Library at Norwich, on the subject of Christianity and Scepticism, on April 4th, 1871, he says :—
" I never read, except in tracts and sermons and religious essays, of any who say there is no God. Some persons talk about the fools who say there is no God, and Bishops preach against them ; but an Atheist does not say there is no God. The Atheist says the term 'God' conveys no idea to his mind. I have never yet heard a definition of God from any living man, nor have I read a definition by dead or living man that was not self-contradictory. I do not deny the word 'God,' because I do not know anything about its meaning. Denial, like affirmation, must refer to some proposition that is understood. But the moment you tell me you mean the God of the Bible, or the God of the Koran, or the God of any particular Church, I am prepared to tell you that I deny that God. So long as the term means absence of knowledge as to particular phenomena and represents the undiscovered, I am
not fool enough to say there is no God It is when you tell me of God distinct from the universe, creating the universe different from himself, and adding to his own existence, that I am compelled to deny that God."
I think the above a complete vindication of Mr. Bradlaugh,
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