OCR Text |
Show FRENCH ATHEISM. A Paris correspondent of the New York-HeraW recently interviewed Gen. Bergeret, one of the Communist leaders, lead-ers, who thus expounded the atheistic sentiments of the class whom he represents rep-resents : Correspondent. You have no religion, relig-ion, of course. Do you, however, believe be-lieve in the imortality of the soul ? Bergeret. I believe in the immortality immor-tality of the human mind, but not of the individual soul. We Hve; we grow up: we fall and ,die as the leaf, and return to the dust from whence we came ; and we are only immortal im-mortal in our children. C, Do you believe in God ? B. No. C. -Why? B. Because it is not republican. Because, if there were a God,he would be a tyrant. I fight God in the universe uni-verse as I did the empire in France. It is the one man power, the pouvoir personnel of Napoleon III. If there were such a place as heaven, and I went there and found a God, I would immediately commence throwing up barricades. I would hoist the red flag. I would rebel. It is contrary to justice, it is contrary to right, that one should govern the many that there should be a God. C What do you substitute for God ? B. Universal harmony. C. What do you mean by that ? B. The union of everything tbat exists in oDe harmonious whole. Man, animals, flowers, planets, trees, stars, plants everything. . C. Otherwise the universe itself B. Yes. C. Did this universe, or umversal harmony, as you call it, create itself? B. Ah, that is a question I cannot answer. It is something the human mind cannot grasp; probably because we lack a faculty. As a person who is born blind cannot comprehend light, so we cannot understand the creation. I could ask you as well who created God, and you would probably give me the same answer. Try to think it out, and you will go crazy. C. Therefore, at this limit of the human understanding there is a banner which you call harmony, whereas we call it God. . B. That is my meaning exactly. The sentiments thus expressed by Seneral Bergeret are almost precisely the same as those avowed by the murderer Kuloff; and the crimes of Rnloff as well as the atrocities of the Paris Communists are the natural fruits. Without a belief in God and in a future state of rewards and punishments, pun-ishments, men become devils. .Eliminate .Elim-inate Christianity from modern civilization, civiliza-tion, and mankind would become fiends. Without religion there can be nc true Liberty, no order, no peace, n( happiness. Even Voltaire recognizee this fact, when he said that "if then were bo God, it would be necessary t( invent one." Ex, |