ome is dogmatic and Canterbury is dogmatic.
Without dogma there is no theology. And what is dogma? An opinion, or
a set of opinions, promulgated by somebody for the blind acceptance of
somebody else. Arrogance, therefore, is of its very essence. What right
has one man to say to another, "This is the truth; I have taken the
trouble to decide that point, and all you have to do is to accept what I
present you "? And if one man has no such right to impose his belief on
another, how can twenty thousand men have such a right to impose their
belief on twenty millions? This, however, is precisely what they do
without the least shame or compunction. Before we are able to judge for
ourselves, the priests thrust certain dogmas upon us, and compel us to
embrace them. Authority takes the place of judgment, dogmatism supplants
thought. The young mind is rendered slavish, and as it grows up it goes
through life cringeing to the instruments of its own abasement.

When a superior mind rises from this subjection and demands reasons
for believing, he is knocked down with the Bible. A text is quoted to
silence him. But who wrote the text? Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Matthew,
John, Peter, or Paul. Well, and who made them lords over us? Have we not
as much right to our own thoughts as they had to theirs? When they state
an opinion in the pompous language of revelation, are they less fallible
than the rest of us? Obviously not. Yet prophets and evangelists have a
trick of writing, which still clings to their modern representatives, as
though they could not be mistaken. "I am Sir Oracle," they seem to say,
"and when I ope my lips let no dog bark." No doubt this self-conceit is
very natural, but self-conceited people are not usually taken at their
own estimate. Nowadays we laugh at them and try to take the conceit out
of them. But what is absurd to-day is treated as venerable because it
happened thousands of years ago, and prophets are regarded as inspired
who, if they existed now, would be treated with ridicule and contempt.

The style of downright God-Almighty-men is very simple. They need not
argue, they have only to assert, and they preface every statement with
"Thus saith the Lord." Now suppose such a declaration were made today.
A man with no greater reputation for sense than his neighbors stands
up and shouts "Thus saith the Lord." Should we not look at him with
curiosity and amusement? Would he not strike us as a silly fanatic?
Might we not