JB_005_218_001.xml

Title: [1 Jan 1813 (D) Church II Ch 6]

Description: 1 Jan 1813 (D)

Church II Ch 6

1 §. 1. Abstract

Part IV. {

Suspended by 3 o?

1

That which by

its instruments

- reward & punishment

power can not do

with certainty is to operate belief

or disbelief

That which, operating by its appropriate instruments

viz. punishment and reward, power can ill do - is -

in a given individual in relation to a given proposition in a direct and immediate

way, and without danger of failure with certainty entire certainty, to produce

belief or disbelief.

or 2

Applied to a large

assemblage of persons

some poits to a

great extent it

can accomplish.

with a near approach

to certainty:

viz.

But That which it can do, and when applied

to any large assemblage of individuals two three points

there are which with but too near an approach

to certainty it is able to accomplish; - and accordingly

to a vast extent has been found to accomplish

or 3

1. Applied to this

or that individual

to produce declaration

of belief by

which in so far as

belief does not exist

an act of mendacity

is committed.

1. One is - [when applied by its the application made of it to this or that individual]

to produce and that at any given moment — the very moment at which it is applied a declaration of belief:

a declaration by which, as in so far as the belief

the existence of which is thus declared, does not exist has no existence

an act of falshood - an act of insincerity, in

the shape of mendacity is committed.

Another is — by means of the instrumentality of the false declaration

of belief, true or false thus extorted from or purchased of A, to produce

on the part of B. C. D in relation and so forth

in relation to that some proportion whatever it be

in belief persuasion of a certain sort, and thence upon occa

as often as occasion calls, declaration of belief

which an act insincere

037_080.xml

Title: [1822 July 7. Constitut Code Rationale]

Description: 1822 July 7.

Constitut Code Rationale

Established Religion none

Now as to the vitiation of the intellectual part of the mental frame /intellectual corruption/: and first as to the teacher of that which to him seems /in his eyes is/ falshood. So long as he believes to be false that which he asserts to be true, the poison remains in his moral frame and goes no further. But what may happen, and to a certain extent probably does happen is - that finding this state of mind more or less irksome, he uses his endeavours to get out of it. That which he believes to be false he endeavours to believe to be true For this purpose there is one and but one course. This on every occasion is to call off his attention from all considerations tending to cause the belief in question to be regarded as false, and at the same time to apply his attention to all considerations tending to cause it to be believed to be true: not omitting to set and keep his invention at work in the search of /after/ new ones. /additional ones./ Call this the self-deceptive process. In the here supposed case by the supposition the system is true: therefore as the particular /individual/ /one/ system or subject matter in question, no error, no vitiation of the intellectual frame is among the consequence. But in the mean time a habit has been acquired by him, a habit by which the intellectual frame is vitiated in its application to all subjects: the habit of partiality: the habit of artful blindness the habit by /from/ which a man derives a propensity to embrace falshood and error in preference to truth whatsoever be the subject.

Look once more to the Westminster Hall witness with the straw in his shoe. The side on which he has been engaged has happened to be the right side - in this there is nothing extraordinary: for a fact which in itself is true is not rendered false by the death of a witness who if alive would have proved it. The side on /in favour of/ which he has given his testimony has been /is/ the right side: but the immorality /vices/ by which his moral character has been stained is not the less gross. So is it with the priest who of the true religion in the case of the true system in regard to religion so is it with the priest who having when first hired believed it to be false, by the use made of that process which in its general effects is the self-deceptive process, came to believe it to be true, the difference and only difference that in this case the seat of the disease is not /no longer/ in the moral but in the intellectual part of man's frame: it has shifted from the one to the other.

JB_806_151.xml

Title: [5 May 1812 Credulity Ch.1.]

Description: 5 May 1812

Credulity

Ch.1.

1

The Unreasonableness of Credulity

Chapter 1.

By credulity is commonly understood, the disposition to believe improbable things.

To say of a man that he believes a thing which to himself appears improbable, [is] in one sense and that the most obvious, a contradiction in terms.

But in saying of a man that he believes a thing which to other persons in general or to persons of repute for extent of knowledge appears or is or may be justly expected to appear improbable, there is no contradiction in terms.

In a certain sense let it [...?] [...?] and without any contradiction in terms be said of a man that he believes things which even to himself, and at the very time of his believing them, appear improbable. To his own judgement, abstraction made of the judgment of other persons, the things appears improbable: but understanding that in the judgment of this or that other person of these or those other persons whose judgment either in relation to matters in general, or in respect of the particular matter in question, he regards as more trustworthy than his own, the thing is regarded not only as possible but as certain, as certainly true, thus it is that he believes to be true that which even to himself and at the very time, appears improbable.

This is belief upon authority, or upon trust [...?] case is the sort of belief bestowed upon [...?] and miracles.