The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-10-14

state, are known to all, they exist just
as they did before the reformation.
Unfortunately many German princes
foster the ambition of the Roman
clergy, maying their "Canossa-jour-
ney' to Rome, and bending the knee
to the great charlatan at the Vatican.
1t is also very regrettable that the
increasing tendency to external show
and festive parade at what is called
the new court" does grave injury to
real and inner religion. We have
striking instance of this external re-
iigion in the new cathedral at bernn,
which many would have us regard as
catholic" not protestant and evangel-
ical. often met in India priests and
pilgrims who believed they were
pleasing their God by turning prayer
wheels, or setting up prayer-mills that
were set in motion by the wind. One
might utilize the modern invention OF
automatic machines for the same pur-
poses, and set up praying automatic
in the cathedral, or indulgence-ma-
chimes that would give relief from
lighter sins for one mark (shilling),
and from graver sins for twenty
marks. 1t would prove a great source
of revenue to the church, especially If
similar machines were set up in the
other churches that have lately been
erected in Berlin at cost Of millions
of marks. 1t would have been better
to have spent the money on schools.
These observations on the more re-
Dellent characters of modern ortho-
| loxy and piety may be taken as some
reply to the sharp attacks to which
/ have been exposed for forty years,
and which have lately been renewed
with great violence. The spokesman
Of catholic and evangelical beliefs, es-
pecially the Romanist Germania and
the Lutheran Reichsbote, have We'd
with each other in deploring my lee
lures as "a dissertation of this veneer
able hall, - and in damning my theory
of volution-without of course, MAX
ing any attempt to refute its scientific
truth They have, in their christian
I SAAuA t1g bhOuS III III W put SdAuNlCu-
men at the doors of this room, to dis
tribute scurrilous attacks on my per-
son and my teaching to those who
enter. They have made a generous
use Of the fanatical calumnies that
the court chaplain, Stocker, the theol-
ogian, Loofs, the philologist, Dennert.
and other opponents of my Riddle of
the Universe" have disseminated, and
to which make brief reply at the end
Of that work. pass by the many I'M
truths of these jealous protagonists
Of theology. We men of science have
different conception of truth from
that which prevails in ecclesiastical
circles.%
As regards the relation of science
to christianity, | will only point out
that 1t is quite irreconcilable with the
mystic and supernatural christian be-
liefs, but that it fully recognizes the
high ethical value of christian NOR
atty. It is true that the highest COM
mands OF the christian religion, espe-
cially those of sympathy and brotherly
love, are not discoveries of it's own;
the golden rule was taught and prac-
ticed centuries before the time of
Christ However. christianity has the
distinction of preaching and develop
ing 1t with a fresh force In its time
it has. had a beneficial influence on
the Development of civilization, tho
in the middle ages the Roman catholic
church became, with its inquisition,
It's witch-drowning, its burning of here
tics, and It's religious wars, the blood
lest caricature of the gentle religion
OF love. Orthodox historical chris
tianity Is not directly destroyed by
modern science, but by its own
learned and jealous theologians. The
enlightened professionalism that was so
effectively advocated by Schleier-
macher in Berlin eighty years ago.
the later works of Feuerbach, the in
quiries into the life of Jesus of David
Strauss and Ernest Renan. the lee
lures recently delivered here by De-
litEsch and Harnack. have left very
little of what strict orthodoxy regards
as the indispensable foundations OF
historical christianity. Kalthoff, Of
Bremen, goes so far as TO declare
that all christian traditions are myths,
and that the development of chris
tianity is a necessary outcome Of the
civilization OF the time.
ITO be continued.)
u may remind those who think that
the hall OF the Musical Academy IS
| "desecrated" by my lectures that II was
In the very same place that Alexander
Won Humboldt delivered seventy-seve
years ago ls2s), the remarkable lectures