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Show "A Universe Without a God is An Intellectual Absurdity" Wrote the Late Senator Original and Interesting Ideas on the Aspirations of the Soul He Denies the Personality of God, Which from a Catholic Standpoint, is Erroneous A Pure and High-Minded Statesman. i .i ) (Written for the Tntcrmountain Catholic.) The late John J. Ingalls was one of the keenest observers and thinkers; one 1 of the most Rifted writers of his time, j i and this study on the "Immortality of the Soul," whieh was written shortly ' I before his death, is worth the serious j j ; attention of the readers of The Inter- j mountain Catholic. I Mr. Ingalls wrote: : I When Voltaire said if there were no i Cod it would he necessary for man to j j invent -fine he formulated, unconscious- i j 3y perhaps, the fundamental truth of i ; existence. : I ' A universe without a God is an In- ; j I tellectual absurdity which reason re- ! j ; jects sjmntaneously. 1 God is indispensable. Fate, force and ! J blind chance d not satisfy the mind. j If all the letters in the play of "Ham- let" were shaken in a dice box and j j thrown at midnight in a tempest on ., the desert of Sahara they might fall : i exactly as they are arranged in t drama. It may be admitted tha I " destiny kept on casting long enouir. ) they would inevitably at some time so jf fall, which would render the Bard of j Avon superfluous and unnecessary. But j i this does not disturb our belief in j ' Shakespeare. Irrespective of creeds i s and theology, they are wise who would ' recognize God in the Constitution, be- j j cause faith in a Supreme Being, in im- I mortality, and the compensations of "i eternity conduces powerfully to social 1 i order by enabling man to endure with j composure the injustice of this world I in the hope of reparation in that which i ' is to come. ? Inasmuch as both force and' matter y are infinite and indestructible, and can .j be neither added to nor subtracted I . from, it follows that in some form we j if have always existed, and that we shall 1 continue in some form to exist forever. j Whence we came into this life no one . I knows nor cares. Involution metem- i psychosis, reincarnation are not be- I liefs. They are parts of speech, inter- jf . esting only to the compiler of lexicons, if Cur appearance here is not volun- 1ary. We are sent to this planet on I ! some mysterious errand without being I: consulted in advance. Manv of us ! would not have come had the oppor- j- tuniiy to decline, with thanks, been i I i resented. I To multitudes life is an inconceivable j ; Insult and injury, an intolerable af- l; front: torture and wretchedness inde- I I scribable from poverty, disease, grief, N "fortune's slings and arrows; wrongs ! i deliberately intlicted by some unknown ' malignant power, as Job was torment-j torment-j f-d by the devil, with the consent of j j ;id. just to try him. till at last the j troubled patriarch cursed the day he was born. If Worst of all. we are sent here under sentence of death. The rnost grievous f and humiliating punishment man can f . inflict UTion the criminal is death. i.I Human tribunals give the malefactor I a chance. His crime must be proved. : lie can put in his defense. He can ap- I pear by attorney and plead and take if appeal. But we are all condemned to I I il ath beforehand. The accusation and i if the accuser are unknown. An inexor- !i) able verdict rs been pronounced and r-corded in the secret councils of 1he f-kies. We are neither confronted with i the witness nr allowed a day in court, j ' From the hour of bir'h we are beset ; by invulnerable and invisible enemies. ; j the pestilence that walketh in darkness if and 'he destruction that wastelh at : noonday. Fata! germs, immortal ba- i cilli. heaven-sent microbes inhabit the I nir we breathe, ihe food we oat. the, 1 I water wo drink, poisoning where they flv and infecting where they repose. j I "Science continually discloses male- ! j voient agencies, hitherto undetected. f which vainly try to extirpate or to J I tuiid frail and feeble barriers against I tli' if depredations. I f Theology complacently announces j that for the majoritv of the human I I ' ra.-e this tough world is the prelude to j J rn eternity in hell. If any trembling ' sinrv-r desires comfort and consolation Jr. these awful miseries let him read ? Hie sermon of Jonathan Edwards from Hi.- eyt. "Their Feet Shall Slide in i T'li,. Time." j Hell wont, be Tr ferable to annihila- I lion, it m.'iv b", but this alternative , I docs not satisfy those who reoeat Ihe ' everlasting interrogatory of Job, "If a j man die. shall lie live again?" I Nature, like a witness in contempt, j i stands mute. Science returns from its j ti motest evcursions. shakes its head, I and. smiling, puts the question , by. j Christ contented Himself wi'h a few ! vague and unsatisfactory generalities- "This dav shalt thou be with me in Paradise;" "Whoso liveth and believelh Jn ni" shall never die:" "In my Fath- I ei-'s hon--e are many mansions." St. Peter, the greatest n" the teachers of Christianity, could only respond by a j misleading analogv. He knew the :! wh-at reaped is not that which is I sown. .The harvest is a succession, not i1p. resurrection. The evidences of a superintending , moral purpose and design in the affairs of men are faint and few. The wicked 7'iosper. the good suffer. The problem of sin. rain and evil are Insoluble. Vis-itinir Vis-itinir the sins of the fathers upon the children of the Ihird and fourth genera-i genera-i lion, making th innocent suffer for the offenses of the guilt v. is an unjust and cruel law that ou2ht to be repealed. Civilization has long since rejected the principle from human jurisprudence. Even treason, the highest crime known to its code, no longer works corruption of blood or forfeiture of estate. Unless man is immor'al. the moral universe, so far as he 's concerned, disappears altogether. If he does not survive the grave it makes no difference differ-ence to him whe'her there be God or devil, heaven or hell. And i must be not only a survival, but with a continuity con-tinuity of consciousness as well, if the evil are to be punished and the good rewarded hereafter. To inflict the penalty pen-alty of violated law unon a bein? who does not know that he has offended is not punishment, but revenge. Con-pcious Con-pcious identity may not be a necessary ondit'on o' i'"ti"""". but it 1p e- sential in morals. It is conceivable j that a being may know without know- i ing that he knows, but he cannot sin , without knowing that he sins, nor be punished unless he knows for what j wrong he suffers. Frederick W. Robertson, the eminent j English divine, closes one of his dis-i dis-i courses by saying: "Search through j tradition, history, the world within you and the world without except in Christ, there is not the shadow of a shade of truth that man survives the grave." Many years ago I heard a distin- guished American orator deliver a lecture lec-ture upon the evidences of immortality outside the Bible. In the stress and pressure of the closing days of a short session of Congress he held the rapt and breathless attention of an immense j audience, comprising all that was most . ! cultured, brilliant and renowned in the social and official life of the capital. I He dwelt with remarkable effective-I effective-I ness and power upon the fact that no-; no-; where in nature, from the highest to ' the lowest, was an instinct, an impulse, ' a desire implanted, but that ultimately ; were found the conditions and the opportunities op-portunities for its fullest realizati n. ! j He instanced the wild fowl that, moved by some mysterious impulse, start on I their prodigious migrations from the i frozen fens of the pole and reach at I last the shining south in the summer I seas; the fish that from tropic gulfs j seek their spawning ground in the cool, bright rivers of the north: the bees that ! find in the garniture of fields and for-I for-I ests the treasure with which they store their cells, and even the wolf, the lion 1 and the tiger that are provided with their prey. Turning to humanity, he alluded to the brevity of life; its incompleteness: its. aimless, random and fragmentary ; careers; its tragedies, its injustice, its sorrows and separations. Then he referred re-ferred to the insatiable hunger for knowledge: the efforts of the unconquerable uncon-querable mind to penetrate the mysteries mys-teries of the future; its capacity to comprehend infinity and eternity: its desire for the companionship of the departed: de-parted: its unquenchable aspiration for immortality, and he asked, "Why should God keep faith with the beasts, the bee. the fish and the fowl, and cheat man?" JOHN J. INGALLS. Jr,hn J. Ingalls was born at Middle-ton, Middle-ton, Mass.. in 1R33: graduated at Williams Wil-liams college, 1855; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1857; the fol-j fol-j lowing year he removed to Atchison, Kan. But he was not allowed to remain re-main at the bar long, "being elected a member of the Wyandotte convention, ISofl; Secretary Territorial Council in 1860, and of. the State Senate, 1S61; State Senator, 1S6'J: United States Senator Sen-ator from .Kansas, 1ST3, which position posi-tion he held until 1891; was president pro tern, of the United States Senate 1SS7-1S91. Since then he has been widely wide-ly known as a lecturer and journalist, j Elsewhere in this impression will be found an article written by this distin- ! guished statesman on the immortality I of the soul. Few writers of modern times seem to understand so well the I yearnings of the soul, its aspirations and consequences, as the late lamented John J. Ingalls. Abstracting from his ' false notions and erroneous ideas of God, his arguments for His existence if not logical, are at least original and reasonable. "A universe without a God is an intellectual in-tellectual absurdity," he wrote. This is, and always has been, the belief of the human race. Herbert Spencer in his first principles of philosophy states regarding the universe, that three possible pos-sible hypothesis may be laid down first, self-created; second, self-existent; third, created by some external agency. He rejects the first and second as absurd ab-surd and untenable. The first self-created self-created would unset the well-known I and universally admitted axiom, "From nothing nothing is made." j Nothing cannot make itself some-I some-I thing; second, self-existent is equally absurd; because the universe is evidently evi-dently contingent and must have had a beginning, and therefore a first cause or creator. The third hypothesis which presents the world as created by an external agency he also rejects, not in defense of science or philosophy, being a subdiversion of both, but in defense of aetheism. Self-existence, self-creation, are inconceivable. A denial of the third is a virtual denial of the world or universe. He may seek refuge in the favorite saying of modern infidel writers by asserting Neseio (I did not know.) This would be falling back on Topsy's theory who declared "she did not come, but growed." Hence the logical log-ical conclusion of Ingalls, "A universe without a God is an intellectual absurdity. ab-surdity. God is indispensable." This conclusion is sound philosophy and in accordance with the belief of the human race since the beginning of time. The distinguished writer errs in his idea of God by identifying Him with force and matter which he says "are infinite." Here is a denial of the Personality Per-sonality of God. To deny God in infinitely in-finitely free independenta, a divine person, is a virtual denial of His existence, ex-istence, for an impersonal God is no God. He gives to infinite matter, (which is an infinite absurdity), infinite force (equally absurd) of operating without intelligence, reason or i;iH JOHN J. INGALLS. power, from the necessity of their nature. na-ture. If the infinite force, acting with will power. It must of necessity be a person, such as God is knowji to be, , the only living and eternal being, who says of Himself, "I am who am." To his conclusion drawn from an absurd ab-surd and unphilosophical premises namely, infinite matter and force we simply say tramseat (let it nass.) "It does" not "follow that in some form j we have always existed." The very j contrary is the initial belief, the germs j of which were planted in the synagogue syna-gogue and still taught by Christian ' philosophy. All efforts to uproot it by Spencer, Tyndall, and their disciples disci-ples have proved a miserable failure. He writes of life itsejf: "Many of us would not have come had the opportunity oppor-tunity to decline, with thanks, been presented. To multitudes life is an inconceivable in-conceivable insult and injury, etc. Very true the idea of immortality is not always a pleasing one. Eternity, which means an infinite succession of days, years and centuries, is not a con- soling idea to many a member of the human family. There is something of a cold, piercing nature connected with the great unknown, that follows death, unless religion comes to unveil the mystery and fill that abyss toward which man is traveling. In the pictures pic-tures presented by the writer so full of threats and mystery, it is not to be wondered that the soul should deny itself it-self the noble prerogative of immortality, immor-tality, preferring annihilation to the chances of future life. But there is nothing more obstinate than facts, and the human soul trembling with fear, or transported with hope is forced to acknowledge with the same evidence, as that of its existence and of its na-! na-! ture, that death will open only a new phase of life, from which we are separated sep-arated only by one step. "Between me and death there is but one step." The above hasty sketch shows the sphere in which Mr. Ingalls moved, his wide and varied attainments, the important im-portant and honorable offices he has filled: but it does not attempt to tell of his great ability as a statesman. Apart from the fallacy pointed out in his idea of Godr and for which he cannot can-not be held responsible, Mr. Ingalls may be' classed as a pure, upright man, an honest, able and high-minded statesman, who will be long remembered remem-bered by his countrymen. |