In _Agnosticism: a Rejoinder_ (p. 266), I have referred to the
difficulties under which those professors of the science of theology,
whose tenure of their posts depends on the results of their
investigations, must labour; and, in a note, I add--
Imagine that all our chairs of Astronomy had been founded in
the fourteenth century, and that their incumbents were bound
to sign Ptolemaic articles. In that case, with every respect
for the efforts of persons thus hampered to attain and
expound the truth, I think men of common sense would go
elsewhere to learn astronomy.
I did not write this paragraph without a knowledge that its sense
would be open to the kind of perversion which it has suffered; but, if
that was clear, the necessity for the statement was still clearer. It
is my deliberate opinion: I reiterate it; and I say that, in my
judgment, it is extremely inexpedient that any subject which calls
itself a science should be intrusted to teachers who are debarred from
freely following out scientific methods to their legitimate
conclusions, whatever those conclusions may be. If I may borrow a
phrase paraded at the Church Congress, I think it "ought to be
unpleasant" for any man of science to find himself in the position of
such a teacher.
Human nature is not altered by seating it in a professorial chair,
even of theology.
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