The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-09-30
POPULAR APoLoGETIcs.
Adapted From the German of Rev.
Peter Mikes, S. j., by Rev.
James Watcher.
XVI. Aaeckel's Solution of the
World-RiddIes.

objection: Haeckel professor of
zoology at the University of Jena in
Germany, has the immortal merit to
have developed the Darwinian theory
consistently, to have abolished the
dualistic system of God and the world,
spirit and matter, and to have abol-
ished the grand system of Materials
tic monsm (world-view that all exist
ing beings are matter, without God or
spirit).
In the most important questions of
the world, where Du Bois-Reymond
says Ignoramus 1--WE do not know,
Heeckel presents q solution. That de-
serves credit.
Answer: Before we give this credit,
we want to look closer at the thing
In 1880 the Berlin professor Du Bois-
Raymond G 1886 set up his seven
famous World-Riddles, and he had the
honesty to confess, that from his in
fidel standpoint he was not able to
solve them. He said that science found
it's limits, because, as he said, it does
not want to admit supernaturalism,
that is, a personal, eXtramundane
(outside the worldD God, which sound
reason and clear logic demand mex
Orably.
These seven riddles are as follows:
!. What is the essence Of matter and
force? 2. Whence the origin OF mo-
ton? 3. What is the origin Of life?
d. What is the origin Of the purpose in
nature? s. What is the origin of the
simple sense-perception and con-
sciouSness? 6. What is the origin of
rational thinking and language? Z.
What is the origin of free will?
Haeckel makes fun of Du Bois-Rey-
mond, calls him a Berlin rhetOrician
Gin the sense of talker), praises
ironically his speech as an important,
rhetorical work of art, ;" "a fine sermon
of perfect form and quick change OF
scientific pictures" and adds mali
ciously: but as everybody knows, the
majority of people-especially the fair
sex-does not judge beautiful SER
mon by it's wealth of ideas but by its
aesthetic entertainment (Weltraet
sci, chap. 10.)
Haeckel himself, who is no philOso
pher according to his own confession
we must give him credit for his
great knowledge of himself-finds nc
difficulty in these riddles, and he
solves all of them with ease.
According to his opinion the first
two are solved by the conception OF
substance. Whence is matter and what
is it? Why, the world-substance once
has these two sides: matter and force;
-as we see the world-substance is
here. There is no use asking any
more questions, as this was always
so. 1t is plain, Haeckel has not the
faintest idea where the difficulty is
(See articles 1888 of this series.) We
gladly believe him that he is no phil
Osopher!
Whence is motion? Nothing simpler
than that! Motion is without begin
ming, eternal Others may bother
their heads with a thousand Difficult
ties, Haeckel sees none. The philoso
pher Kant (T1804) and Laplace
(f182O, the greatest French astron
omer, assumed a beginning of motion
and took that as the starting point Of
the mechanical development of the
world. Du Bois-Reymond calls this
beginning Of motion the second world
riddle, transcendental riddle, admit
ting of no solution. He thereby in
duced many scientists and philoso
pliers to admit a supernatural i'm
pulse" hence miracle" But Hack
ell says: According to our opinion this
riddle is solved by assuming that mo
zion is an immanent (indwelling) anG
primal property of substance (matter)
The right to this assumption we fine
in the law of substance Il. c. chap
49,
But just this claw of substance the
great Russian physicist, Prof. Chwol
son, from the standpoint of scientist
has mercilessly torn to shreds. eve
shall quote him in the next chapter)
(To be continued.)