The Irish standard., 1911-01-21
A CRITICISM OF
Mr.. ED|S0N'S VIEWS
The Distinguished Scientist Says
That we Are Sure of
Nothing.
Yet in the Face of His Admitted
Ignorance He Declares There
is no God.
Penetrating Criticism of the In
consistencies of MIR. Edison's
Materialism.

timely and penetrating criticism
OF some of the views of Mr. Thomas
A. Edison on the existence of God, the
origin of life and the existence Of the
soul recently given wide publicity ap-
lears in the Catholic Standard and
Times. The article is from the pen
of Jesuit Father. Here are the state
ments of Mr. Edison on which the
criticism which follows is based:
1T is absurd" says Mr. Edison, Ito
talk OF the mercy, kindness or love
OF God. Perhaps matter is getting
more progressive. That may be it.
But-God-the Almighty? No! Ma
ture is what we know. We do not
know the gods Of the religions And
nature Is not kind, or meroiful, or low
ing. If God had made me, the tabled
God of the three qualities of
which [ spoke, He also made
the fish which catch and eat.
And where do Flis kindness, mercy
and love for that fish come in? M,
nature made us; nature did 1t all
not the gods of the religions. And
nature did 1t mercilessly; she had no
thought of mercy or against it. She
did it imDersonally, what we call
cruelty" Again Mr. Edison says.
I'VE are undeveloped, cropping in the
dark We know nothing, we are sure
of nothing"
In the light of this last statement
Mr.. Edison's covert but nevertheless
apodictic denial OF the existence or
God, and his equally certain afflrma-
tion OF the supremacy of matter be-
wilder us. We suppose that Mr.. Ed
ison knows something about electric
ity; we know from his statement that
after working ut 1t for fifty years
for sixteen hours a day, this knowl-
edge is very slight for he tells us
that "no ono, after years of exhaustive
labor, has ever been able to find n
tangible clue that might lead to the
solution of that energy" He asserts
that he is cropping in the dark" and
knows nothing He claims that as
yet the "oriGin of human energy
hadn't begun TO be explained, and
wouldn't be until some OF the lesser
problems that have confronted hui
manity for centuries were Solved"
and thon, with supreme Inconsistency,
after having spent fifty years in try
lens, and after having failed in it's
solution, he has the effrontery to tell
us that he has solved, and that with
certainty, the mystery Of the origin
of this world, at least under one i'm
portant aspect, by relegating God into
the realm of fable and by deifying
matter.
And then the flimsy argument he
advances against the mercy and kind
ness of God! A school boy would an
swer it by saying: "If you don't ac-
cuse me of cruelty and unkindness
when | catch and eat the fish, why
accuse God, who gave me the fish to
eat?" And il we toll Mr.. Edison that
there are difficulties about this very
matter of Gods mercy and kindness,
the ultimate solution of which we ad-
NIT would clearly be given if we had
Gods knowledge; and If We saw
things as He sees them, on that ac-
count we do not deny the existence
Gf an all-merciful, all-loving God, who
has given us In ways innumerable
proofs Of that mercy and love, any
more than Mr. Edison denies the ex-
istence of electricity, even though he
admits it is full of mystery to him.
And we might tell Mr.. Edison further
that If we could solve all the myster-
les of the God that made US, He would
be very small God indeed to be en-
compassed by a mind that cannot un-
derstand fully even one Of the forces
of His universe.
In place of God Mr.. Edison puts
mature" and he tells us in one
breath, nature is what we know" and
in the next he denies this knowledge,
J telling us that nature is full Of mys,l