impossible that any two human beings can agree exactly
in religious belief. Secularism teaches that each one must take
care of himself, that the first duty of man is to himself, to the
end that he may be not only useful to himself, but to others. He
who fails to take care of himself becomes a burden; the first duty
of man is not to be a burden.

Every Secularist can give a reason for his creed. First of all,
he believes in work--taking care of himself. He believes in the
cultivation of the intellect, to the end that he may take advantage
of the forces of nature--to the end that he may be clothed and fed
and sheltered.

He also believes in giving to every other human being every right
that he claims for himself. He does not depend on prayer. He has
no confidence in ghosts or phantoms. He knows nothing of another
world, and knows just as little of a First Cause. But what little
he does know, he endeavors to use, and to use for the benefit of
himself and others.

He knows that he sustains certain relations to other sentient
beings, and he endeavors to add to the aggregate of human joy. He
is his own church, his own priest, his own clergyman and his own
pope. He decides for himself; in other words, he is a free man.

He also has a Bible, and this Bible embraces all the good and true
things that have been written, no matter by whom, or in what
language, or in what time. He accepts everything that he believes
to be true, and rejects all that he thinks is false. He knows that
nothing is added to the probability of an event, because there has
been an account of it written and printed.

All that has been said that is true is part of his Bible. Every
splendid and noble thought, every good word, every kind action--
all these you will find in his Bible. And, in addition to these,
all that is absolutely known--that has been demonstrated--belongs
to the Secularist. All the inventions, machines--everything that
has been of assistance to the human race--belongs to his religion.
The Secularist is in possession of everything that man has. He is
deprived only of that which man never had. The orthodox world
believes in ghosts and phantoms, in dreams and prayers, in miracles
and monstrosities; that is to say, in modern theology. But these
things do not exist, or if they do exist, it is impossible for a
human being to ascertain the fact. Secularism has no "castles in
Spain." It has no glorified fog. It depends up