# Dabney vs. the Atheist



## TylerRay (Jul 5, 2018)

This is from _The Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney_ by Thomas Cary Johnson. He quotes Dr. J. H. McNeilly's account of a conversation with Dabney about a materialist/atheist.



> I remember in a conversation he asked me about a certain German materialist, who was lecturing then in some cities of the Mississippi Valley. He asked me what was the gist of the lecture. I told him that it was a denial of the existence of a soul or of any spiritual principle, that there can, therefore, be no life after this for man, as his mind is simply a product of physical organization, and when the organization returns to dust, is disintegrated, then mind ceases; that there is no God, no responsibility to God, no right and wrong; that man is to be guided by what he finds best for his comfort and happiness here.
> 
> "I then said, 'Doctor, suppose you had to meet such a man in argument before an audience, how could you answer him, seeing there is no common ground for you to stand on?' He sat for a minute or two, as if studying it over, then he sprang up to his full height, buttoning his coat about him — and he was a magnificent specimen of manhood — with eyes flashing, he strode forward, as if on a rostrum, and said: 'I would call on the audience and say, "Let's kill this fellow! It cannot hurt him more than taking away a short time of his fleshly life. It cannot be wrong, for there is no such thing as wrong. By experience we have found that such ideas as his bring great trouble to the world, and produce much unhappiness; so, for our own comfort and peace, let us kill him, and so save ourselves all such trouble." Then I would say to him: "Of course, you are in no danger, we are not going to kill you; but your safety depends on that very spiritual sense of right which you sneer at." I said, 'Doctor, that would certainly be the argumentem ad hominem.' 'Yes,' said he; 'but it is absolutely the only argument to which such cattle are amenable.'

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