The Tactics of Secularism

Abstract

"W E are sometimes assured nowadays 'on Yery good authority' that what G. J. Holyoake used to describe as "pot-house atheism" is dead and buried. The militant unbelief of the Charles Brad Ia ugh type has, so it is said, completely disappeared and its place taken by a wistful agnosticism which hides what 'light' it possesses under a bushel and seldom comes out into the open. These statements, made no doubt in all good faith, are only partially true. In some quarters the 'howlers' are still active and even increasing their act! v1ties. Amongst a certain section of the community dogmatic atheism is not yet dead or if it is dead, like the headless chicken on the roadside which an Irishman noticed was still kicking, "it is not aware of the fact yet." Incredible though it may seem, there are still some people who think that Feuerback's amaziDg assertion"