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What does Christ teach regarding salvation?
“Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John xi, 26).
“He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already” (iii, 18).
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not on the Son shall not see life” (36).
A demand so preposterous could have been made only in support of claims that were realized to be untenable. Credulity was appealed to because convincing evidence could not be adduced. Claims which reason rejects are manifestly false, and it is only by a renunciation of reason that they can be accepted as true.
The absurdity of this requirement of Christ is thus exposed by the poet Shelley: “This is the pivot upon which all religions turn; they all assume that it is in our power to believe or not to believe: whereas the mind can only believe that which it thinks true. A human being can only be supposed accountable for those actions which are influenced by his will. But belief is utterly distinct from and unconnected with volition: it is the apprehension of the agreement or disagreement of the ideas that compose any proposition. Belief is a passion or involuntary operation of the mind, and, like other passions, its intensity is precisely proportionate to the degree of excitement. Volition is essential to merit or demerit. But the Christian religion attaches the highest possible degree of merit and demerit to that which is worthy of neither, and which is totally unconnected with the peculiar faculty of the mind whose presence is essential to their being” (Notes to Queen Mab).