The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-12-18
FATHER CREMIN OF ST. PAUL
SEMINARY TAKES ISSUE WITH
A HINDU LECTURER AT THE
STATE UNIVERSITY WHO I'M
PLIES THAT RELIGION is UN-
SCIENTIFIC AND LEGENDARY.

Wonderful are the expedients which
popular lecturers-who pass by the
lBarned name of sociologist phil
oaopher or scientist would e-2nhss,.
j,iilg man back to religion, or COM
mend religion to the acceptance Oh
the modern man." But as a rule
their suggestions amount to the ELI
mination of all true religion-though
strange to relate they themselves seem
the least conscious Of this fact-and
it's substitution by social service, or
vague mysticism, or by the cold
facts and general deductions of mere
physical science. Recently we had
lecture delivered before the st. Paul
Institute by a DR.. Colt, the head of
an ethical culture society in London,
who would reduce all religion to the
limits of patriotism, and refuse cult
to any Deity who was not fully SYM
bolized by the national flag. Now a
Hindu philosopher, who rejoices in
the euphonious name of Swami Abhe-
dananda, speaking under the auspices
of the Cosmopolitan Club of the Uni
verSity of Minnesota on the philosO-
ply of his native land, airs his views
on religion in general in these words:
Religion must be made scientific to
appeal to this scientific age. 1t is
only by such a process that modern
man will accept religion. That which
has no scientific grounding and is
purely legendary must be eliminated
from the real facts presented in mod
ern religion"
This statement contains some
truth and some error; and as is too
often the case in the use of Sapient
generalities, the error is not so
much what is clearly expressed in
words as what is vaguely implied in
the underlying current of thought, and
so becomes the more insidious be-
cause the elements of truth on the
surface are employed as vehicle to
mislead the mind into the error en-
tailed If the speaker invokes the dis
tinction between scientific facts and
legendary lore as of application to
the religions of India and especially
to Buddhism we have no ground OF
quarrel. We are sure that legends
play a large part in the religions OF
India, as they do in all primitive
forms of paganism. But if he wishes
to distinguish between science and
religion as though the former were
fact and truth, and the latter but
legend and fiction, we must at once
repudiate the distinction as unwar
ranted and unjustifiable. For religion
is grounded on objective facts and il
concerned with truths that are nj
less real and unassailable than are
the facts and conclusions of physica
science Gods existence and man;
relation of dependence on Him arr
no less true in religion than the
suns existence and the law of graVi
tation, whereby the earth is made t.
revolve around the luminary, are tru'
in astronomy.
Furthermore, if our Hindu philoso
pher implies in his distinction be
tween science and legend, that TIT
Christian religion like SO many othe
forms of religion had its origin, no
i'm the indisputable facts Of histor
but in the tissue of legends woven III
to its fabric by pious fancy, we a
once join issue and repudiate the in
plication as wholly gratuitous an
altogether untrue. We make bold t
affirm, and feel absolute security i
the truth Of our affirmation, that tn
one essential that differentiates Chris
tianity from all the religions Of anti'