The Collapse of the Faith [pp. 164-184]

THE COLLAPSE OF FAITH.
faintly believe, but discover the more appalling evidence that
multitudes are drifting into the half-formed conviction that the
reasons for faith seem one after another to be dissipated by the
advance of science and culture as morning clouds melt before
the morning light?
No phrase seems more fitting for this state of mingled doubt
and fear than "The Collapse of Faith," whether it describes the
failure of faith or the fear that this failure is reasonable and is
likely to be universal. Other phrases make the presence or
absence of faith to be dependent on the subjective condition of
the persons concerned. Whether the hindrances to faith in these
cases be intellectual or moral, they have only to be removed
and the light of truth will appear again. The condition for
which we seek a suitable appellation is the more or less settled
and prevailing conviction that faith is not only failing, but that
it is doomed to a slow but certain dissolution, and that all the
indications of the prevailing time-spirit justify this conclusion.
We are well aware that the presence and prevalence of such
a conviction are no new phenomena in the history of Christendom. Bishop Butler recognizes a similar collapse of faith in
his time in the words so often quoted: "It is come. I know not
how, to be taken for granted by many persons that Christianity
is not so much as a subject of inquiry, but that it is now at
length discovered to be fictitious; and accordingly they treat it
as if in the present age this were an agreed point among all
people of discernment, and nothing remained but to set it up as
a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were by way of
reprisals for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of the
world." It was doubtless his reflections on this condition of
opinion which led him on one occasion when walking in his garden with his chaplain to stop suddenly and ask the question,
"Why might not whole communities and public bodies be seized
with fits of insanity as well as individuals?" and in response to
the reply, to add, "Nothing but this principle, that they are liable
to insanity equally at least with private persons, can account for
the major part of those transactions of which we read in history." The amiable yet sharp-witted Berkeley has drawn a
lively portrait of the freethinkers of his time, which, with certain
inconsiderable changes, finds its exact counterpart in the ad
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