CONDUCT CRITICISED

Grey River Argus, 20 May 1938, Page 9

CONDUCT CRITICISED

“Too Many Athiests”

NAPIER, May 17.

A claim that there was no possibility of social justice unless men were willing to rule their conduct according to the laws of God was made in a lecture, in St. Patrick’s Hall, Napier, on Saturday night by the Rev Father J. A. Higgins, Director of Social Studies to Archbishop O'Shea. The lecture was well attended.

| “It has often been said that religion is the opium of the people and that because of religion the people are doped so that they live in some sort of unreal world,” said the speaker. “They are assured that it ever they are to have their due, they must refuse to have any truck with religion. Atheism is what is required for the modern world. That is, according to the mind of many people today. •

1 “There are far too many atheists lin the world. It is not that so many I people actually profess atheism as ; a theory, but that so many live the lives of practical atheists. They are atheists in practice even if they profess to be Christians on Sundays or at some special lime. I “The result of this practical atti- | tude is evil for the masses of the people. Practical atheism means that men do not live by any principle of

right and wrong, but guide their conduct by what is convenient for them, and’ as consequence social life is reduced to a struggle in which only the few can really obtain any secure hold on the decencies of life. EXPLOIT FELLOW MEN. “Men exploit their fellow men and practice usury on them. And yet we are assured that we live accordling to reality, as though it were of the essence of life for men to be controlled by greed and selfishness. The 'fact is that the dope of the people is lhe black lie which states I hat man alone is self-sullicient without God land His Laws. By himself man is ■utterly unreliable. The experience of the present day proves this assertion I “Just let men be sane and sensible ' — that is all we need. If this be so are the children of New Zealand towhy are men not sensible? Why day undernourished.? We certainly are great realists! We get a grip on money and wealth and wc will not 'let go, not even for the welfare of our children. Again so real are we, not doped by religion, but expert in practical atheism, that, as a people, we are committing race suicide with our aitificial birth control and abortion. We are so practical that we do not value human life, but only our own little selves. This is the result of declaring in very . plain practice that religion has nothing to do with social life.

INSTINCT FOR GAIN. “When are men going to realise that justice is a virtue by which men must control themselves?” Father Higgins continued. “Without such self-control there is no hope for sc-jai justice. Is it money which goes astray? Has wealth some malign and living power by which it can destroy man? Obviously there is nothing wrong with money itself; clearly it is not wealth but men who are just or unjust. Society, therefore, must see that men reasonably curb, for the sake of justice, their instinct for gain.”