SCIENCE AND RELIGION

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 5008, 4 July 1903, Page 7 (Supplement)

SCIENCE AND RELIGION

A REJOINDER TO LORD KELVIN. (By A. G, Mauthel). As I was pondering over tho speech delivered by Lord Kelvin at the London University College I recognised the truth of the London correspondent that tho striking declaration made then, would raise a controversy by a largo number of scribes eager to traverse Lord Kelvin’s statement, so as to make sure that New Zealand also shall hare a say in tho matter.. I, in a moderate way. set myself the task to try and verify tho statement of that Prince of Scientists about that beautiful world of ours and tho dogma of the “creative pow'er” as against natural phenomena. I straightway put myseit m a trance, constituted myself a medium, and invoked tho spirits likely to assist mo in going over this terrestial globe to try and find out if it ready was a beautiful world. A galaxy of spirits appeared. Virgil put forward his claim as having already acted as guide to Dauto iu tho infernal regions; tjtrabo said lie was a geographer and knew all about our globe. Cicero said, “1 shall make tho best guide as since my bodily death they call al] good guides Cicerone after my name, and besides when X was in tho flesh I used to dabble a bit iu philosophy myself and could tell you something about a crystal ana a sprig of moss.”

Jdis wonted eloquence decided me and his services, so he proposed to absent himself for a fow minutes to go to that inventive genius in Wesiralia and give him a million pounds for his aonal ship; ho returned in a fow moments, 1 embarked aud wo started on our journey.

In less time than it takes to toll, wo were in the Arctic regions my guido tolling me that in working Southward we shall visit every part of tho globe, seeking all tho beautiful spots. “Of course,” ho said, “you know that when I was a dweller on this globe, after benefittiug my native laiui so that I was called tho father of my country, I was murdered when. I was scarcely GO years of age, In the full enjoyment of good health, and I could contradict Lord Kelvin about this, being a beautiful world. In my time it was a wretched world, and from my observations it is the same to-day. Now look around you. What do you seo in this land of silence aud desolation? You can soo the bones of numberless bold explorers who would never have agreed with Lord Kelvin about this being a beautiful world.

Wo will now go and ask the Samoyolles, the Esquimaux, the Laplanders, if they see such beauty in this world, hemmed in by snow with huts they enter by ladders from the top, enjoyment of any kind unknown to thorn. Now have a look over here. Observe these sealers and whalers swept by a hurricane. Ask them if they are happy or if they see much of the beauties of this world. Lee us now have a look at Greenland, Alaska and labrador, those inaccessible and inhospitable countries and explore them as wo may we shall not find much beauty there, and if wo go on and view Western Canada, Montana, where not long ago a blizzard froze and killed ail the cattle, sheep and herdsmen included, wo cannot dub that a beauty spot. My guide now took me across the United States and called my attention to the periodical devastion of the Mjssissipi making its thousands of victims, and also pointed out to me a tornado carrying in a whirl buildings, , houses, men and worn on and dashing them to the ground miles away, and the men and women riding on the top of a tornado are too .busy to look for the beauties of this world. Wo next went to the northern part of South America, where all the beauties consist of malm and the most venomous insects and animals.

Wo then proceeded round to Cape Hem, an abode only fit for the stormy petrol. , . In search of further beauties wo crossed the Facdflo to China where my guide showed me the Yellow river overflowing its banks, killing over two millions of people. We from there went to India and were appalled by the sufferings unto death by hundreds and thousands, victims to famine; Arabia Petreae was next visited, an immense tract of oountiy so devoid of beauty that it is unfit for the homo of any human being. In crossing over to Africa wo saw tho groat Sahara desert, an extent of country of thousands, probably millions, of square miles and wo in vain looked for any beauty. My guide now suggested that we should go and look at tho wretchedness and misery which is the outcome of civilisation. The first country we went to was the home of Lord Kelvin, namely, Great Britain. He then introduced me to the principal gaols, hospitals, lunatic asylums, asylums for the blind, asylums for the deaf and dumb, hospitals for incurables and workhouses. In the gaols wo saw indescribable misery and wretchedness. In the lunatic asylums the sight of tho degradation of our fellow creatures made our hearts blood.- In the asylums for the blind some of the inmates said to ns, “don't ask us about tho beauties of this world, for we were born blind, and have no conception of any beauty whatever, and consider that we are unjustly punished • for the probable dereliction of some of our forefathers.

The remainder of the institutions we visited imprinted upon our vision tales of sufferings, wretchedness and poverty tho very antithesis of either happiness or beauty.

My guide now proposed to take me to the slums of lamdon and other large cities ware the homeless, the destitute, the starving multitude grovel, also to the horrible prisons of Siberia, but 1 said that I had. seen enough to convince mo that if this is a beautiful world for Lord Kelvin, who probably lives in affluence andi luxury, there are millions of his fellow-creatures to whom this world is anything but “a thing of beauty 1 ’ or “a joy for ever.” Here I parted with my guide, who before vanishing from my signt remarked that he . thought Lord Kelvin’s statements entirely erroneous. As regards creative power, which Lord Kelvin asserts that science positively affirmed, and that there also exists a directive power, 1 take it that those who set up this dogma put themselves on the horns of a dilemma, for if there exists creative and directive power, that power must of necessity also be a controlling power, and if so we would expect that power to he beneficent, which, considering the terrible misery that abounds in this world, is anything but beneficent. If creative power exists for the crystal and the sprig of moss, we must assume _ that that power has created everything in existence, so why create noxious and venomous weeds venomous animals, the leper, the halt and the blind; and as the followers and believers in religion maintain that God created everything. Why has ho created .evil, also the devil, considered to be the arch enemy of the human race?.