Article February 12, 1916 Issue

Worldly Philosophy

WILLIAM D. MC CRACKAN, M.A.

CURRENT events are causing the public to probe prevailing creeds, philosophies, systems, and so-called sciences with pitiless keenness. Mere authority and antiquity are proving no defense against these attacks. No traditional sanctity suffices to ward off the impatient questions about the meaning of life, the possibility of immortality, the presence of an overruling Providence, and kindred questions. People who have never before taken thought of these subjects are beginning to pry into their own concepts of God and man, of heaven and life eternal. They are not easily put off today with the stock objections that religion is mystical and mysterious, that God's way are inscrutable, and that to attempt to inquire into them means rebellion if not blasphemy.

Most of the questions now asked brush aside the usual defenses and go straight to the point. They keep coming ever faster and more numerous. and will not be satisfied with the usual evasions. Is there a God? If there is, what is His nature? Does He sanction sin, sickness, and death? Is He a participant in or a silent spectator of strife, fratricide, despair? Is there an overruling providence or is the universe given over to blind chance? Does the testimony of the physical senses constitute the evidence upon which final judgment as to reality must be passed? These are the questionings that will no longer "keep silence."

It is becoming obvious to present-day inquires that reliance upon physical testimony must lead to a philosophy of despair, for according to this testimony man is material; so also is the universe in which he dwells and the laws under which he maintains his existence. Under this rule man begins and ends miserably, and during his short span of life is the plaything of the elements. There is nothing in the so-called physical facts to indicate the presence of mercy or compassion, of salvation or healing, of permanence or immortality. Thus the harassing question arises, If man is the sport of circumstance, what consolation can there be in religion? The fact is that current theories concerning the value of life and the nature of man are wholly inadequate to give humanity a satisfying hope. They are "blind leaders of the blind." The dark abyss of despair awaits those who trust their leadership. They are without hope because they are without the Science of being.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Worldly Philosophy

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access