ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on agnostic's spirituality. In the teens, particularly the romances of the great Scottish writers like Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson are widely read. In particular, the works of H. G. Wells are found as excellent instruction. His The Outline of History provided a clear view of the way that man and society had developed, and he pointed out repeatedly how the ignorance and superstition of organized religion had led men into foolishness and destructiveness down the centuries. All religions had people who proclaimed such experiences—mystics. Often they were a great nuisance to the established church because they were liable to announce that their personal revelation had shown the church to be in error. The Catholics had to burn quite a few ecstatics and, in more modern times, excommunicate them. The Muslims had to execute a number of Sufis, whilst the Puritans in England and America persecuted and even executed early Quakers.
