ABSTRACT
The new Calvinism of the natural sciences, with its blind forces and destinies, more inexorable and terrible even than the ancient conception of an inflexible directing Will, has not yet entered into the scheme of any of the popular religions. Sufficient has already been said, perhaps, to illustrate the main details of the “religious” position as it affected politics in the United Kingdom of 1885. Among other “religious” subjects, submitted to the electorate by the candidates of 1885, was the Parliamentary Oath. The “religious” ground for the demand, which Bradlaugh had accepted, was that if a believing Christian had the choice between an oath and an affirmation, he would invariably choose affirmation when he desired an obligation to sit more lightly on his conscience. A few small communities of Primitive Methodists, Baptists, Salvationists, and similar bodies, as a general rule represent his contribution to the religious life of the nation.
