GOD STILL LIVES

Grey River Argus, 12 April 1916, Page 2

GOD STILL LIVES

A RABBI'S ANSWER TO HAECKEL, Professor Ernst Haeckel avers that the present war . has ended the "illusions" of the existence of a providential God, of predestination, and of the immortality of the soul. Dr. Schulmaiij a Jewish Rabbi, replies rather tartly that the dean of the German scientific world is a type of scientist that becomes a dogmaspeak with no more authority than anyone else." He gave his -views, to a representative of the New York "Times" in these words: — "God still lives, though men refuse to obey His law. There is no more difference about God and immortality j ins eeing a man dead in battle than in seeing a man dead in battle than by a microbe or carried away by an earthquake. The manner of a man's aeath has nothing to do with the Divine plan for his destiny. It is very interesting to observe that an English statesman, Balfour, in his latest bood, 'Theism and Humanism,' comes td altogether different results. The fact is, were it not for the reality of God, the assumptions with which the scientists operate, uniformity of nature, etc., would have no basis. God and right and love and the value of the spirit are realities despite this war. "I will tell you what illusion this war has swept away — the flatering unction to_ our soul which a materialistic science has dinned into our ears foi the last 50 years-, namely, that men become better and „more civilised because of the mastery over nature which enables them to increase then material comforts. "This war proves that the civilisation of the head is but the smallest part of human culture, but that if brutal wars are ever^to end, humanity's heart must be educated. Men must take seriously and everybody in their lives the faith in God tha wants them to love one another. It is Haeckel's gods that have been swept away by this war, and not the God of Jerusalen and Christianity."