istinct from mental discernment. What
does that mean? It means that man has other means of understanding
besides his reason.

This spiritual discernment is a metaphysical myth.

Man feels, sees, and reasons with his brain. His brain may be more
emotional or less emotional, more acute or less acute; but to invent a
faculty of reason distinct from reason, or to suggest that man can feel
or think otherwise than with his brain, is to darken counsel with a
multitude of words.

There is no ground for the assertion that a spiritual faculty exists
apart from the reason. But the Christian first invents this faculty, and
then tells us that by this faculty religion is to be judged.

Spiritual truths are to be spiritually discerned. What is a "spiritual
truth"? It is neither more nor less than a mental idea. It is an idea
originating in the brain, and it can only be "discerned," or judged, or
understood, by an act of reason performed by the brain.

The word "spiritual," as used in this connection, is a mere affectation.
It implies that the idea (which Archdeacon Wilson calmly dubs a "truth")
is so exalted, or so refined, that the reason is too gross to appreciate
it.

John says: "I know that my Redeemer liveth." Thomas asks: "How do you
know?" John says: "Because I _feel_ it." Thomas answers: "But that is
only a rhapsodical expression of a woman's reason: 'I know because I
_know_.' You say your religion is true because you feel it is true. I
might as well say it is not true because I feel that it is not true."

Then John becomes mystical. He says: "Spiritual truths must be
spiritually discerned." Thomas, who believes that _all_ truths, and all
errors, must be tried by the reason, shrugs his shoulders irreverently,
and departs.

Now, this mystical jargon has always been a favourite weapon of
theologians, and it is a very effective weapon against weak-minded, or
ignorant, or superstitious, or very emotional men.

We must deal with this deception sternly. We must deny that the
human reason, which we know to be a fact, is inferior to a postulated
"spiritual" faculty which has no existence. We must insist that to
make the brain the slave of a brain-created idea is as foolish as to
subordinate the substance to the shadow.

John declares that "God is love." Thomas asks him how he _knows_. John
replies that it is a "spiritual truth," which must be "spiritually
discerned." Thomas says: "It is not spiritual, and it is not true. I