The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1906-10-27
PROBLEM OF LIFE.
Continued from Page I.

Here unbelief, hoping to score victory. as
serts that from the distinction made I'D behalf of
faith it would also follow that all animals have
souls No one in defense OF Christian principles.
will deny that they have souls, but not rational and
immortal souls. The arguments given leave NOS
room for doubling that they have mmateral. bur
not spiritual, souls. Christian faith. when anal
wed Will be found much broader i'm its couces-
sions than the materalists ever dreamed OF. u
even comedies an immateria soul not only TO am
mals but to every cereal and shrub that grows in
the field, but not intelligent or sensible soul.
The Iilateriasts whose avowed mission Is to do
away with the ancient faith OF the human race.
can give proof that any living organism. be it
vegetable. animal or human, is simple material
effect flowing from what they term natures laws.
Huxley, III his theory of prOtoplasm, which meant
the formation of matter in unknown way by
the combination of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and
nitrogen. labored hard to prove that such the
basis Of life for the plant that grows and through
the plant it reached the animal. Then he
cluded that all life, thought feeling and even
son had their origin i'm the peculiar combination
of the particles of matter derived from inorganic
matter. According to the professor. it was the
combination Of different molecules OF the proto-
plasm that gave rise to the difference in the plant
animal and human lives. His theory, which dates
back to the days of Homer and Heroditus. has
been exploded by the most eminent psychologists,
who. by long end patient experiments, have estab
Hshed the fact that it is impossible b. any com
bination of material atoms, however arranged to
originate life in inorganic matter Hence it must
flow from God and must necessarily be the effect
OF creation coming from pre-existng male and
female. This conforms with the account of the
creation given in Genesis. and applies to plants,
animals and man, that were to yield fruit after
its kind male and female created he
them.
To the admission Jha animals and plants have
souls the only objection that be raised by
Christians IS that il Getracts from the
III, o. h,
overcome if we reflect on the fact that there may
be different orders Of souls. as there are different
species of living organisms We know God Is
spirit. So angels, yet angels are not God
We learn from the inspired word that in the
direction men like angels only because they
neither marry given in marriage: yet be-
fore the throne of God the spirits of the just, whr
have attained perfection, not angels
But The materialist. pressing his objection,
may still maintain that Jhe proofs to the mma
teriality of the soul do not prove its Immortality
But the materialist denies that the soul is mma-
terial, he has standing in court and cannot
shift his objection from the immaterial to the
immortal soul.
Whether it Is question that reason is com
petent to dispose OF or not by logical arguments
is of little consequence. if it can be shown that
reason is not opposed to it. and it certainly is
Then the doctrine of Immortality of the SOul
has always been believed by the human race back
10 its root both savage and civilized ignorant and
in the long stream of humanity that takes us back
to the beginning of time. reasonably conclude
that this belief IS dictate of universal reason or
was revealed by God in the beginning. In either
case, the reason for believing the doctrine of i'm
mortality of the soul is sufficient. If we rest with
revelation we can trace the belief back to our
first parents, and see it perpetuated through the
patriarchs. the synagogue and the church down to
the present. whilst ind the original belief trav-
estied by the heathes after their separation from
the synagogue. Has science brought forth dnv
facts that disprove this belief! 1t certainly has
not Then. prioro. we conclude that what Is
claimed for science is not science at all. because
science cannot contradict divine truths as both
have their origin in God, who is the Creator of
all things and the source and origin of all truth
en- the materiast. pretended scientist rests
the laboring oar to prove that the soul is mortal
1t is something distinct and separate from the
body. ard instead Of receiving its life from the
body it is the soul that imparts life to the body
What proofs do the materialists give that it dies
Net one single proof. Yet according to all the
rules of debate, it is ON those who assume the af
fr1natve side the burden Of proof rests. "Tho
soul is mortal is positive assertion "The SOU
is not mortal" is negative assertion, because if
denies mortality. Life presumes continuance of
life and may be reasonably presumed in the case
Of the soul where there no proofs to establish
that it dies after its dissolution with the body