DEBATE ON ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY, SECULARISM AND UNITARIANISM.

A debate on Orthodox Christianity Secularism, and Unitarianism, which is to occupy three nights, was commenced at the school of Arts last evening, the debaters being the Rev Dr George Sutherland (Presbyterian), Mr W W Collins (secularist), and the Rev George Walters (Unitarian) There was a large attendance, and the chair was occupied by the Rev Benjamin Smith (of the Australian Church, Leichhardt) In opening the proceedings the chairman said that the disputants wore there to-night in the defence of truth. They were truth-seekers, and he trusted that all present were truth-seekers. Truth could not lose anything by that debate. Some people objected to debates of that kind, because they thought that truth was injured by them. He, however, was convinced that anything either of the disputants might say could not injure truth in any way.
 The Rev Dr Sutherland said this was an age of investigation. Every department of science, politics and religion must be prepared to stand the crucible of the platform and the press. Christianity should be prepared to stand the most thorough investigation which science and reason could bring to bear upon it. He then enumerated some of the chief points of Christianity, as viewed from the orthodox standpoint, pointing out that Christianity claimed to be a revelation from the higher world, with a distinct object in view —man's moral elevation and deliverance, called by the expressive term "salvation."  He next touched upon the dual nature— the physical and spiritual—of man, observed that Christianity give great prominence to the doctrine of a future life, and urged that that being so, attention should be devoted to preparation for the afterlife. Christianity showed man to be a fallen being, having aspirations for a higher state than he now occupied. The teachings of Christianity were that the fallen should be raised up, the outcast restored to favour, and the diseased cured by the intervention of a representative—one in human form, a perfect man.
 Mr Collins, in entering upon the debate, complained that instead of statements which had been proved, they had had merely propositions placed before them. He went on to point out that what had been said in reference to the existence of God was not sufficient to convince him of the existence of the Deity. Then, so far from falling in with the doctrine that man was a fallen creature, he contended that that was a mistake. So long as they taught humanity that it was fallen, they would have a fallen humanity. If, however, they taught humanity that it possessed strength and reliance they would bring about a healthier condition of affairs. The first duty of man was not to God, of whom he knew nothing, but to his fellow creatures.
 The Rev George Walters, in entering upon the debate, found fault with Dr. Sutherland on the ground that he had omitted to make any reference to some of the essentials of orthodox Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of the atonement, and the doctrine of eternal hell. Now he said that man was not a fallen being but was a rising being and by the doctrine of evolution was being raised from a state of barbarism and brutality to a higher and better life. A popular error ascribed to Unitarians a denial of the divinity of Christ ; what they did deny was the deity of Christ—they denied that he was God.
 Dr. Sutherland quoted from Herbert Spencer to prove the existence of God. Mr. Collins submitted that the interpretation which Dr Sutherland had placed upon Herbert Spencer's words was not warranted. The Rev. George Walters, whilst admitting the existence of God, said he did not believe that God created man in the way their orthodox friends believed ; but he believed that man had been evolved from a lower estate to the position he occupied now. Nations might have sunk, as Dr. Sutherland had pointed out, but humanity was rising. Dr. Sutherland contended that the improvement in the condition of humanity was due to the dissemination of the principles contained in the Bible.


The Sydney Morning Herald 20 September 1892,