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Ernest T. Seton: Founder of BSA and Non-Believer

Author: Larry A. Taylor

The Boy Scout Handbook, tenth edition (1990), p. 582, acknowledges Ernest Thompson Seton as a pioneer in boy scouting, and the first chief scout of the Boy Scouts of America.

E. T. Seton, artist and naturalist, was more than that. A great part of _Scouting for Boys_, by Lord Baden-Powell, was taken directly from Seton's _Birch Bark Roll_. Many of the games were taken from Seton's book, with just the names changed. Seton invented the merit badge system for his group, _Woodcraft Indians_.

When Baden-Powell's version of Boy Scouting came to the United States, Seton wrote large sections of the BSA manual (1911). Soon BSA became led, not by a naturalist, or a "boy-man," but by lawyer and bureaucrat James E. West. Due to personality conflicts and underhanded manipulation, E. T. Seton was finally forced out as Chief Scout in 1915, despite having dedicated years of his life to the advancement of the Boy Scouts of America.

Guess what. Ernest Thompson Seton, first Chief Scout of the BSA, originator of the spirit if not the form of scouting, did not believe in a personal God, and was antagonistic to traditional forms of religion. If he applied today as a scout leader, he would likely be rejected.

Occasionally using the word God, or more likely, Great Spirit, it may be quibbled that he was not technically an atheist. I will give you a section of his autobiography verbatim, in which Seton defines his terms, as well as reveals his character (pp. 355-6).

Seton and an Archbishop Corrigan had attended the same social function, and had inadvertently switched coats. The clergyman invited Seton over, and after drinks were served, asked

... "To what church, may I ask, do you belong?"

I replied: "I was brought up in the worship of Moloch."

"_What!_" he exclaimed in loud horror.

"Yes," I answered, "the demon-god of fire -- burn your children -- the more of them you burn alive, the greater your merit and likelihood of favor from the grim fire-god."

For a moment he gazed in astonishment; then his expression changed to one of understanding and amusement, as he said: "I see. You mean Scottish Calvinism."

I nodded. Then he went on: "I wish I could bring you into the True Church."

"There's no reason why you should not try," I responded.

"What would you give me for a starting point?" he asked.

"Well," I said slowly, "I will grant you that I exist, because I think. I will grant you that you exist, because we are here facing each other, and exchanging ideas; and we must postulate the reliability of our senses."

"I will grant that the universe exists, because if we exist, we must exist somewhere. That is all I will grant."

"Will you," he said, "grant that this universe whose existence you admit, must have a first cause?"

"Yes, as a necessity of debate, not as a proven fact."

"Will you let me go another step, and call that first cause by the name of `God'? "

"Merely as a polite, but dangerous, concession to one's respect for terminology."

"Since you grant that the first cause is God, will you further concede that God is a personal God?"

"No, I will not," I said firmly. "And I see no reason in logic, biology, or dynamics to justify any such assumption."

"Oh, brother," laughed His Grace, "let's have another glass of wine."