This book is not an apology for Christianity, nor is it an
expression of personal religious belief. It is a commentary, in the light of
specialised knowledge, on a particular set of statements made in the Christian
creeds and their claim to be statements of fact.
It is necessary to issue this caution, for the popular mind
has grown so confused that it is no longer able to receive any statement of
fact except as an expression of personal feeling. Some time ago, the present
writer, pardonably irritated by a very prevalent ignorance concerning the
essentials of Christian doctrine, published a brief article in which those
essentials were plainly set down in words that a child could understand. Every
clause was preceded by some such phrase as: "the Church maintains",
"the Church teaches", "if the Church is right", and so
forth. The only personal opinion expressed was that, though the doctrine might
be false, it could not very well be called dull.
Every newspaper that reviewed this article accepted it
without question as a profession of faith—some (Heaven knows why) called it
"a courageous profession of faith", as though professing Christians
in this country were liable to instant persecution. One review, syndicated
throughout the Empire, called it "a personal confession of faith by a
woman who feels sure she is right".
Now, what the writer believes or does not believe is of
little importance one way or the other. What is of great and disastrous
importance is the proved inability of supposedly educated persons to read. So
far from expressing any personal belief or any claim to personal infallibility,
the writer had simply offered a flat recapitulation of official doctrine, adding
that nobody was obliged to believe it. There was not a single word or sentence
from which a personal opinion could legitimately be deduced, and for all the
article contained it might perfectly well have been written by a well-informed
Zoroastrian.
