DARWIN ON IMMORTALITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22328, 31 July 1934, Page 5

DARWIN ON IMMORTALITY

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —In a recent issue a .correspondent, " Profanum Valgus," was critical about softie notes in your Sunday Circle column on the views of Darwin on immortality. The purport of these notes was, in his opinion, "dishonest and unjustifiable. I thought that somebody would, have had a tilt at him, even if only to teach him to be a little more mannerly in his choice of adjectives. But, so far, he appears -to/ have the arena to himself. I read his comparative statements, -,nd the only conclusion I could reach was that he was making much ado about nothing. He is evidently an unbeliever in survivahot the human soul—a doctrine that, I should say, would be terrifying to him—that is, if.he lias to render an account for his faitiiwreckinc activities, as seems to be inevitable. And as for his interpretation of the views of-Darwin, it looks uncommonly like pure sophistry. The world has been in existence, so scientists assert, at least 2000 million years, and, at present, is about middle age. That is to say, it is still virile enough to survive vast and unimaginable epochs of time. \Now, Sir, is it likely that Darwin would seriously speculate about the state of the human race a million years hence, leave alone 2000 millions? A thousand years .hence would impose a terrific strain on the imagination of a Wells; but 1000 million years! I should like to ask your correspondent if there is such a thing as complete annihilation? In other tfords, how is extinction possible? Not one atom ot the countless billions and billions that combine to make up the human body is destroyed at death. The great jaw of life is change, not death, or extinction. But of course your correspondent will say that, in some inscrutable way, the soul is extinguished at death. He might just-as logically assert that electricity is extinguished* when a battery is destroyed. I wonder if it ever occurs to your correspondent that when he denies the immortality of the human soul, he actually presumes to set a limit to the omnipotence of the Creator. Just think of. itman with his humiliatingly puny intellectual powers presumes to assent that there is no such thing as continuity of existence beyond the grave, because, forsooth, he thinks so. Does your correspondent not realise how abjectly ignorant he is, in common with such intellectual giants as Shaw, Einstein, and Rutherford, concerning things seen, leave alone those unseen. Let him look at rose and ask himself how its fragile beauty came from the earth and air and its exquisite fragrance with it; and how, say, a hyacinth, or a carnation, growing beside it, extracts a different fragrance. Does any scientist know, or will any ever know? Of course not. The human brain would simply reel at the first glimmer of enlightenment and be numbed. And then, concerning-his body, the vehicle by which your correspondent, doubtless unwittingly, sets a limit to. the powers of the Creator. What does he or- anybody else know about its deeper mysteries, Absolutely nothing! Ask any doctor or scientist how, for example, gastric juice is extracted' from what nihil'eats and drinks and then regulated to the needs of

the body. He knows that it is done, but how it is done eludes him, as it ever will, elude man's profoundest researches. These are only two or three questions out of thousands that can be asked concerning the deeper mysteries of life—mysteries that surely justify a little faith in the omnipotence of the Creator. The truth appears to be. that man lives in a world of magic, and,. relatively speaking, is blind and insensible to the wonder of' it all.. Why; even the lovelight in the eyes of a mother passes all human understanding,' and bespeaks continuity of existence.. Surely nobody.will seriously suggest that anything so perfect and ethereal is an.emanation of matter and is subject to "this muddy vesture of decay." There are several other aspects of this subject to which I should like to refer, Sir, but I fear that I have already trespassed too far on your well-known generosity to correspondents The conclusion, however, to which I have come is that the mysteries of life and of Nature and the majesty of the universe are so incomprehensible to man's tiny intellect that they justify "a faith that looks thrpugh death,*' and the tomb, in the words, .of .Victor Hugo, is" not a blind alley; it is a thoroughfare. It closes on the twilight,' it opens on the dawn.—l am, etc:, " J. E. Hamill. Taihape, July 26.