Change became too easy;
judgment too hasty; and error and unbelief were naturally the result.
It is especially a bad thing when an earnest young student sees signs of
carelessness in religious writers; a readiness to repeat what has been
said before; to support what is popular, without endeavoring to
ascertain whether it be true or not. It is still worse when a student
discovers in religious writers signs of dishonesty and fraud. I
discovered both. I saw cases in which false doctrines were passed on
from generation to generation, and from writer to writer, without the
least attempt to ascertain their true character. I saw other cases in
which dishonesty was manifest, in which fraud was used, in support of
doctrines. Old creeds were allowed to remain unaltered, long after
portions of them had been found to be unscriptural; and error was
subscribed as a matter of course. The result was, a distrust of
everything held by such parties, unless it was supported by the plainest
and most decisive proofs.
29. I was now in a state of mind to go down quietly and almost
unconsciously into utter unbelief. And I _went_ down. I did not _reject_
the doctrine of the divine origin of the Bible and Christianity, but
gradually _lost_ it. My faith died a natural death.
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