A Voice in the Wilderness In Defense of "Mere Conservatism"

G.K. Day already?

These weeks are flying by far too quickly for my liking.  It's already time for another installment of "G.K. Chesterton Day" here at AVITW.

I've been re-reading Orthodoxy this past week, and could not pass up the chance to share with you this excerpt on the differences between the secular-materialist and Judeo-Christian worldview from Chapter 2: The Maniac.  It's one of those sections of a Chesterton book that confirm in my mind why I adore the man's writing to the extent I truly do.

We must remember that the materialist philosophy (whether true or not) is certainly much more limiting than any religion.  In one sense, of course, all intelligent ideas are narrow.  They cannot be broader than themselves.  A Christian is only restricted in the same sense that an atheist is restricted.  He cannot think Christianity false and continue to be a Christian; and the atheist cannot think atheism false and continue to be an atheist.

But as it happens, there is a very special sense in which materialism has more restrictions than theism (belief in a "Higher Power").  Mr. McCabe thinks me a slave because I am not allowed to believe in determinism.  I think Mr. McCabe a slave because he is not allowed to believe in fairies.

If we examine the two vetoes we shall see that his is really much more of a pure veto than mine.

The Christian is quite free to believe that there is a considerable amount of settled order and inevitable development in the universe.  But the materialist is not allowed to admit into his spotless machine the slightest speck of spiritualism or miracle...The Christian admits that the universe is manifold and even miscellaneous, just as a sane man knows that he is complex.  The sane man knows that he has a touch of the beast, a touch of the devil, a touch of the saint, a touch of the citizen.  Nay, the really sane man knows that he has a touch of the madman.

But the materialist's world is quite simple and solid, just as the madman is quite sure he is sane.  The materialist is sure that history has been simply and solely a chain of causation, just as the man who thinks himself a chicken is quite sure that he is simply and solely a chicken.

Materialists and madmen never have doubts.

Spiritual doctrines do not actually limit the mind as do materialistic denials.  Even if I believe in immortality, I need not think about it.  But if I disbelieve in immortality,  I must not think about it.  In the first case the road is open and I can go as far as I like; in the second the road is shut.

You can read the entire book, or even just this chapter (or this section of this chapter) here.  Please do.