The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-01-13
POPULAR APoLoGETlcs.
Adapted from the German of Rev
Peter Mikes, S. j., by Rev. James
Watcher.
LVII. Pantheism.

Objection: l take the whole world
as a united substance and every sim
gle being, material or spiritual, as
phenomena or appearances of this
substance. Every thing comes into
existence and disappears like the I'M
dulating waves of the ocean, only the
ocean remains: the alone Of the
world.
Also man is no substance, but only
a manifestation or phase of the one
nature-substance, an emanation or
outflow of the deity (God@, the All.
Answer: u Therefore you and I
are in reality the same substance!
The thief and the police who arrests
him are only different forms of the
same substance! The professor and
the fool are the same substance! The
praying child and the robber behind
the bars, the emperor and the beggar,
nay, the dogs, mules, cats, lions,
monkeys, are only emanations or
radiations of that same substance!
This substance, this being is, there
fore, at the same time learned and
foolish, virtuous and vicious, rational
and irrational. and a conglomeration
of contradictions-God
And you believe such nonsense?
q Self-consciousness tells me to
evidence that l am an independent
being, different from every other
thing, substance for myself. Or are
you and Jack-in-the-box the same
being? Are you, the Sultan of Turkey,
the cannibal in Africa the same sub
stance?
The pantheist Zone who believes
that everything is God in battle
must imagine that the general who
commands and his horse that neighs,
the assaulting enemy and the army
waiting with ready arms, are only
one active being, that commands on
attacks on one side and defends on
the other.
In pantheism, says the French
philosopher Bayle (f1706), the self.
same God as an, Austrian is at war
with himself as Turk. And now this
pantheistic God is at war with him
self, being both Entente and Central
Powers. And, ye gods and little
fishes, this bedlam nonsense is be
lieyed and taught by philosophers"
81 This nonsense originated from
the apostate Jew Baruch Spinoza
it+1677), who two centuries ago fall
sifed the idea of substance and palm
ed off this counterfeit currency on an
unthinking world.
Without any proof he defines sub
stance: by substance l understand
that which is in itself and which car
be thought independent from every
other being
But a creator and a creation say:
Spinoza, "can not be thought indie
Dendent of each other, hence both are
no substances. The world is not ere
ated and not separate from God, bu
lis the same with God and has no
only it's essence and being in itself
but of itself"
This definition and, explanation O
\ Spinozas is the purest sophism (falst
reasoningl. 1t is true that the ldef
of servant is not independent of the
idea of masters because servant i:
"a servant because he has master
But does it follow from that that thu
:seryant and his master are one ant
ftae same thing and substance? L
therefore the servant only modifica
tluu of the master? | can think O
the person of the servant absolutely
without his relation to his master
s The same holds good with regard tt
the world and the Creator: they arr
mot the same being and substance.
A substance is something which
has being by itself Gems per Sc stans)
as contrasted with accident, e., g.. form
color. etc, which of course can no
exist by itself, but can exist only il
"a substance Gems in alio). Every sub
stance exists indeed by itself, but i
not necessarily Of itself Ca SCI; Coz
is the only substance which is Q
itself Gems a SCI; the other sub
stances exist indeed by themselve
q l(per SCI, but not of themselves "a SCI
;but owe their origin to another, t
Il God and hence are ems alb alio (beini
frgna another). EsF Tgts n
This simple and natural idea Spine
q