RELIGIOUS NEUTRALITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19415, 25 August 1926, Page 8

RELIGIOUS NEUTRALITY.

Sir,—With Dr. Giles I agree that Miv Norman Burton's letter on- "Religious Neutrality" is timely. It is also valuable as showing the difficulty, even the.impossibility, of adhering strictly to the principle of .religious neutrality. "A.E.E. ; * should realise that "because a certain section of the public • objects to tho doctrine of evolution on religious grounds," it must be a religious subject, otherwise it would not have religious grounds. Evolution is as much a question for philosophy and religion as it is for science, and it is fallacious to argue that because it. comes within the purview of biology it is not, therefore, also a philosophic and religious question. To regard science, philosophy and religion, or the secular and sacred,, as being in something like water-tight compartments is common but erroneous.; "A.E.C." asserts that there is not-"equivalent unanimity in matters of religion" to that found among scientists on the alleged fact of evolution. In this I think he is mistaken, for on such matters as the reality of God and the importance of prayer there is as great agreement'among religious teachers a,s there is among scientists on the matter of evolution. "Secular subjects," says "A.E.C.," "are built up of, and stand or fall by, ascertainable facts. Religion is built up on revelation, which is interpreted in divers manners incapable of reconciliation or verification." This is but partly correct. One has but to think of the contradictory rubbish taught as history in schools of different countries, also of scientific theories of yesterday which are "incapable of reconciliation" with those of to-day, and both lacking in verification, to realise that these "secular" doctrines are not superior to .religious doctrines which are based on facts of experience, such as definite answers to prayer, prophesies fulfilled, upon conscience, the sense of dependence, the "religious faculty," and many things beside revelation. Religion is life—dynamic —and cannot be shut out of our schools. J. G. Hughes.