consequently of all revealed truth. How, in practice, a man endowed
with reason and a conscience can do this, is one of the unexplained
mysteries of life. Christian philosophers refuse to admit that an
atheist can exist in the flesh. They claim that his denial is fathered
by his desire and wish, that at most he only doubts, and while
professing atheism, he is simply an agnostic.

An agnostic does not know whether God exists or not--and cares less. He
does not affirm, neither does he deny. All arguments for and against
are either insufficient or equally plausible, and they fail to lodge
conviction in his mind of minds. Elevated upon this pedestal of wisdom,
he pretends to dismiss all further consideration of the First Cause.
But he does no such thing, for he lives as though God did not exist.
Why not live as though He did exist! From a rational point of view, he
is a bigger fool than his atheistic brother, for if certainty is
impossible, prudence suggests that the surer course be taken. On one
hand, there is all to gain; on the other, all to lose. The choice he
makes smacks of convenience rather than of logic or common sense.

No one may be accused of genuine, or as we call it--formal--heresy,
unless he persistently refuses to believe all the truths by God
revealed. Heresy supposes error, culpable error, stubborn and
pertinacious error. A person may hold error in good faith, and be
disposed as to relinquish it on being convinced of the truth. To all
exterior appearances, he may differ in nothing from a formal heretic,
and he passes for a heretic. In fact, and before God, he belongs to the
Church, to the soul of the Church; he will be saved if in spite of his
unconscious error he lives well. He is known as a material heretic.

An infidel is an unbaptized person, whose faith, even if he does