Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 62, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1904 — INGERSOLLISM DYING OUT. [ARTICLE]

INGERSOLLISM DYING OUT.

Rabbi Says Atheism Is Now Regarded as Intellectual Weakness. Replying to articles published recently in London, raising a question as to the success of the ministers of the world in spreading the gospel, Rabbi Silverman of New York has declared that atheism and agnosticism are uow generally looked upon as evidences of intellectual weakness: “The Ingersollian type,” he aserted, “has almost disappeared from polite society. There is a tacit understanding that religion is an evidence of culture and refinement and that it has a wholesome effect upon the development of man. “There never was a time,” he continued, “when men of all shades of belief were as interested in religious study, in worship and practice, as to-day. The religious press has increased and is successful financially. Theological institutions have improved and are better endowed. It is no unusual spectacle to eee rich men who devote their energies all the week to making money teaching Bible classes on Sundays. “These evidences and others that could be presented demonstrate that in our day the ministers have certainly not failed. They are a great social and even political influence, for they exert that silent ethical force that is effective in all social and government reform.”