The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-02-08
FATHER CLEARY'S LECTURE
The Relation of Religion and Crime
Discussed.

.Does Irreligion Encourage Crime?'
was Father Clearly topic at St. Char
les church Sunday evening. After again
giving an explanation OF the meaning
he attached to theEterm '.irreligion,' =
Father Cleary said:SI In order to draw
anything like a fair comparison between
the influence of positive religion and the
theories of irreligion upon individuals
and nations, we#shonld be able to pre-
sent the examples Of either individuals
or nations-all other things being equal
respectively swayed by long-standing
belief and unbelief This, OF course, is
impossible. Belief in God, and the in
born conviction of mans accountability
to his creator, is SO firmly fixed IN the
human mind that since the creation OF
man the thoughts and conduct OF men
have been nodded and directed by the
influence of religion. What is the con-
science but the voice of God Whispering in
the human soul? The man, in his right,
mind, who pretends his conscience JUS
titles him in taking the life of a human
being is not following his conscience, for
his conscience is not the light
the light that has ledSh to any such ur-
that has led him to- any such unlaw-
full act-he simply, lies about his
conscience. Men who are guilty or GRIM
inal acts are not very reliable witnesses
as to the motives that prompted their
criminal conduct. y.
1t is not impossible, however, for the
mind of an honest man to become per
verted by, false and delusi7e theories.
Right is not the outsroWth or fruit OF
human progress. Men may come to
more clear conception Of right and
rPs al ar1H m
culture. But right was always right,
whether mankind sinks into a savage
state, or rises to the highest possible de-
gree of education and culture. ,,
Irreligion directly encourages crime,
for it. attempts to slessroy the principle
by which reasoning men may know what
lit is that constitutes crime. Irreligion
comforts the criminal by the consoling
doubt that, after all the long-standing
convictions of men, perhaps it is all a
mistake: there may be no future, no
soul, no accountability to a higher power
than the strong arm of civil law. lr-
religion stands convicted of high treason
against the reason Of man, for 1t attempts
to dethrone this royal faculty Of the soul
by DENYING it's claim to the innate right
of being able 70 ascertain, with abso-
l1lte certainty, the source and the end OF
it's existence, It required no process Of
evolution for the first murderer, Cain,
to understand that the crime of which
he was guilty was just as grievous in the
sight of God as we know it to be in our
day. 50"
To say that right is the result of evo-
lutionary development is just about as
sensible q claim: to make as to say that
two and two did not make four until men
had found this out by evolution.
Theories that encourage men to doubt
about the absolute guilt of criminal acts
logically encourage crime, for they tear
down the barriers which eternal truth
has erected against evil.
Following out the theories of unbelief
to their logical conclusion leads men to
the commission of crime. 1t is a blessed
thing for the world that good came into
existence before evil, and that the eter
nal principles of right had been instilled
into the human mind before the destruc-
tive theories of irreligion had attempted
to corrupt the reason and the heart Of
man. AS all men, believers and unbe-
levers alike, the blind as well as those
who can see, are benefited by the life
giving rays of the sun of the heavens 50
rationalists and agnostics are Influenced
whether they admit it or not by the life
giving principles of religious truth.