WHY WORSHIP GOD?

Evening Star, Issue 22639, 4 May 1937, Page 6

WHY WORSHIP GOD?

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —In. a sense it is. really pathetic to have to realise that there are still existing people who are so mentally akin to our ancestors of long ago that they can sincerely express sympathy with another fellow humanbeing for being so mentally evolved as to be intelligently living in the present. Such veneration for the ideas of his fathers is quite an interesting example of survival in mental evolution. , Such examples are like museum specimens, treasured by their custodians and students, that one can examine and study at leisure, and without which modern thought would be to that extent deficient in material for a scientific understanding of the evolution of human beliefs and mental eccentricities. 1 appreciate the intensely interesting specimen that One . Who Worships God ” is to me. Without such as he is there would be m man s mental evolution many a “ missing link ” but it is a welcome aspect of Nature that stages in mental evolution are not lost as they tend to bo in physical evolution. I assure "One Who Worships God ” that I am not

intending to be satirical at his "ex* pense. What I have said is in all seriousness and truth. My critic" will not, probably, "realise ahd' r understand this, but when he forces ’his own mental outlook upon me in terms of a condescending sympathy, such as “Poor ‘ Profanum Vulgus, V” then I must be as equally specific in presenting to him my, outlook. It would be useless for me to attempt a discussion with him upon any aspect of the question “ Why Worship God?” ‘lt is, as has been well said: u lt is weakness to enter into arguments when, to sustain them, you must the part of a teacher. In arguirig with a person already well informed upon _ the subject in dispute, you. may politely refer to knowledge which he already possesses, but when he does_ not possess the knowledge (or,, possessing it, fails to understand it), you’ cannot argue with him; you must first teach him, you must become didactic, or, therefore, odious.” But I am. thinking that I have already become; odious to myi critic. If I have,- he- can only blame himself for adopting such a supercilious attitude as he has.—l am, May 3. Profanum Vulgus.