Evening star., 1925-11-22

Y T must be an easy matter to
write of ones religion when that
religion has been inherited from
L ones ancestors, indorSed by one S
own mental acQuieScence, and re-
mained unchanged as the explanation
and guide of life. But II is different
when in attempted pursuit of truth
one has sought and tested and proved
and discarded with firm determine
ton never. never to assent to that
which ones reason condemns. Then
it is Il difficult and even painful
task. for il involves probing deeply
into the springs Of action in ones own
soul
I was born into a Roman Catholic
family and was educated as such
Even now ] must admit that If | were
forced to become an orthodox Chris
tian and to justify my position by
scriptural texts, or by an appeal TO
the traditions of the early church,
should again be a Catholic. AS an
abstract creed its position is strong.
AS a practical system Il has produced
both the most Christian and the most
un-Christian types OF any religion. I
could on the one hand, imagine
nothing more opposed to all that
Christ stood for than a dominican
familiar-the most dreadful figure in
all history-or IL Borgia pope.
Indeed, any pope who lives i'll Ii
palace and wears a triple tiara is
strange representative of Him who
knew not where 70 lay His head.
But. on the other hand. where shall
we find anything more beautiful than
u Francis d'AsSisi, q Damien among
the lepers, a Cure d'Ars, or indeed
any of that host Of gentle, humble
souls who. as parish priests. mis-
sionaries or workers among the poe.
subordinate their own lives to that
Of the church? 1T Is only fair, how.
ever, to add, that all creeds have been
associated with some beautiful souls.
but that none have ever evolved
system so informal as the Inquisition.
Ny quarrel, as I attained my fuller
power Of mind, was not merely with
the Catholic Church-though its in
tolerance was always abhorrent to me.
II had SO much to attract in its tradt-
ton and its beauty that l could not
conceive myself turning from 1t to
any other form of Christian orthodoxy.
My real quarrel was with that
scheme, which was common to all
churches, involving as 1t does the as
sumption that man was born with
hereditary strain upon him, that this
stain for which he was not personally
responsible had to be atoned for, and
that the Creator Of all things was
compeiled to make a blood sacrifice
of His own innocent Son in order to
neutralize this mysterious curse.
I remember reading the phrase IAN
intellectual nightmare" as applied 10
such a system, and il echoed my own
thought. It seemed to me that no
heather tribe had ever conceived so
grotesque an idea, and l turned away
from such q creed and wandered into
a darkness, which was only dimly lit
by my own God-given reason.
X X X X
There followed my years Of agnosti-
cism. I remained a firm believer in
God, for l clearly saw order IN the
universe. and the existence Of order
postulates a central intelligence. That
supreme intelligence was my God.
But all else l rejected. As to the
survival Of the individual soul, it
seemed to me that all the argument
was against it. Did this soul not
obviously spring from the brain? An
accident to the brain would affect 1t
and possibly turn a saint into sinner.