The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-08-29

VOC youi iNiibloI. lHtH lbt IOuIiUfsttlDn
OF your morals would go too: whereas.
did you cultivate your morals independ-
emily OF your religion, then should your
religion go. your morality would still re-
main" To assume what Is to be proved
Is the most insidious fallacy In argu-
ment. The learned gentleman took for
granted the question at issue. that god
less morality was possible. You cannot
build n house upon a roc unless you
first own the rock. neither can you argue
that you can build morality on a goddess
foundation unless YOU first assume hat
you have the foundation. The property
rights of the foundation must first be
secured. The second assumption is that
a mar may lightly cast away all re-
ligion as he would a discarded garment.
What IL sensible men Of all ages have
judged n man without a religion a mutt
lated specimen of n nornalhuman being?
Is rot such a serious deviation OF judg-
nent from uhe normal type suspected by
common sense 10 be a sign of insanity?
The great maj rity of reasonable and
AA'i Us AtANNA'tA " '' aS
integral a part Of mats mental constitu-
ton as the knowledge he has OF the air
he breathes or the brute matter he treads
under foot. TIE judgment of the ages
would call a goddess man abnormal,
Solomon II was that called him a harder
name. Since the voice of humanity then
proClaims there is n God. shall men bet
ter do ore wrong by refusing obedience
which the se!se of cur DBL CATION to Him
imposes. and thereby separate morality
from religion, In order that they may be
enabled thus to save the semblance of
righteousness should they commit an
other and a still greater wrong-to pro-
fess no religion at all? Such is the posi-
ton OF our worthy professor.
Waving all other considerations for
the present, men OF ordinary observation
VINO are receptive TO the logic of facts
must know the enormous increase OF
crime. especially juvenile crime, not 10
speak OF secret vice. among peoples
who have banished religious training
from their schools. And personal expert
ence must bring home to them that pre-
cepts of moral conduct born from the
strong motives of obedience which flow
from a sense of obligation to God-pre-
cepts which mere reason and philosophy.
or that most modern of cults. the wor-
ship Of humanity. have set forth-but
dimiy light the way OF Righteousness
while these rationalistic monitors of oon-
duct utterly fail in motive power to
habituate the masses Of men to carry
out In action they approve In the
DRY.
We here touch another vital difference
between the fundamental principles Of
Catholic and Eon-Catholic education.
Catholics teach that the far reaching
judgments and principles OF moral ac-
ton do good and avoid evil" Lead
a life according to reason" which form
the basis of the natural law. from which
all the COmmandants of the Decalogue
are derived, are, as st. Paul tells us,
written in the hearts Of men. Further
more as soon as reason is sufficiently
developed a man, from his own retiec-
lions, easily comes to the conclusion
that in these Judgments the will of a
superior being, our Creator, is made
manifest. The obligation then imposed
upon us to observe the moral law rests
ultimately in the will Of God. who
fashioned our nature. Hence Catho-
lies. whether aS priVat individuals or
citizens of their country, found their
obedience not upon the will OF the people
nor upon the will of King, Emperor
or President, but upon the obligation
which law carries with it as an ex-
preston OF the will of God. IL, then. right
human conduct is irrefragably bound
up with Gods will, it is impossible to
separate moral righteousness from
religious obligation.
Non-Catholic thought and non-Catholio
education are at variance with Cath
olios on this vital issue. Non-Catholic
ethics. at least In its more advanced
aspects. teaches with Kan fashionable
thought prefers nowadays to begin with
Kant rather than with Iather) that tho
obligation which the moral law imposes
does not arise from the will OF God. but
from the will of man. or. as II Is morn
l%earedly put, from mans own au-
tonomy. Hence we can readily under-
stand what a wide open breach such an
education as this makes between mo-
rality and God. Catholics say and most
men think 1t reasonable, that man can
not violate the moral aw without re-
belling against God. Non-Catholic
Kantian teaching says that man simply
rebels against himself. What a sorry
nhliuatinn In that uhiph man iunpnua~