Show A LOGICAL BLOW at AN andente denty with special reference to the of or york SALT LAKE CITY april 9 IM editor deseret news an individual in this city has been delivering a series of lectures the object ot of which has been chiefly to disprove rove the divinity ol of all religion and it ft may mav not be unpardonable in one who is a comparative stranger in your city to briefly notice a few points made bi by the fi learned doctor while many good things have been advanced as to education morality etc very much ot of his professed have been mere or downright misrepresentations of the truth all veneration for a personal god and his overruling over ruling provi 0 vi dences have been repudiated and ar his il very existence 1 impliedly in denied man kas has been left by the dr a wait waif on the ocean of life without faith without a guiding star or gleam of light without eien even a hope in the dreary darkness of ef absolute skepticism little wonder that those who regard the stern realities of life with dread and misgivings are by such doctrines ur urged g d forward to despair and suicide ae the greatest among men of science mr herbert spencer while denying the efficacy of religious dogmas has proven by the very laws of thought and reason that there is a supreme intelligent power and an ultimate reality for man he has also said that it is in wrong to wrest from man his faith to in religious doctrines and ordinances which afford him a rule of life and an incentive to morality without substituting doctrines at present too abstract to furnish a rule of life for the masses that will keep the social structure from becoming demoralized and he spencer gratefully acknowledges the great debt which science owes to religion for maintaining through all those centuries of darkness and skepticism the existence of a supreme power it if the doctor has never read which is doubted those wise and conservative bugge suggestions scions st ions he can lind them in the first three divisions of mr soen cers first principles viz ultimate religious religions ideas ultimate scientific ideas and Re concilla t uon tion and then in ia the complete barrenness of the doctors substitution of skepticism for religion ask aasc himself if he be has not done many of his listeners a grievous and irreparable wrong it is not tae brightest and most logical minds that become skeptics but on the contrary it is those who while standing amid the harmony 0 beauty and utility ol of nature and h her er productions fail to sense the presence of infinite mind throughout nature there are the most convincing evidences of design for mans existence and progress the fact of design involves the existence of one who designs to quote thedac the doca tors classical chestnut cant he see it or dont he be want to see it that par paragon agoA of animals 1 man is endowed with such transcendent pow erlof ers of mind and perfections perfection of body as to warrant the implication that he is an eternally progressive being natures law forces and productions are but so many wise provisions tor for his progression factors provided by the fattier father for the ultimate perfection of his children children in the natural and consistent acceptance of the term note the wise provision for mans comfort and progress in the storing up of fuel fael the conserved heat of the sun during the coal forming period the presence 61 the metals in veins available for mans use as also those more subtle elements which he be is now using as a means of advancement together with the forms habits speed and utility of lis his domestic animals so admirals adapted to his bis needs and comfort ani and we find irrefutable evidences of 0 design and so on the thelong long li lis i of benefi clent provisions for his bis progress a true science and true religion are traveling in the same path there is M no conflict they are twin sisters working together toward the m p li of a perfect type of acu humanity coa an each postulates PO stu lates ultimate for the rase ra both proclaim the same ame immortal truth give man infinite time and he ifill become infinite in his knowledge infinite knowledge means infinite power can god be more or man be less if lie he but avail himself ot of those forces and opportunities that are p present re s with him it if the drin his I 1 learned ignorance ignorant ces I 1 of those powers and principles sees fit to deny the premises and method of only proves that his is 0 one of the minds that are incapable h I 1 e or f ol lowine out truth to its log ta leal 1 sequence 11 here let me add that while many of his arguments meats tell against tile the dogmas of sectarianism which are largely responsible for the spread of they fall harm harmeem lem at t th tb e feet of divine truth to illustrate the doctors recklessness lot lof statement when inspired by tha seems have defied the influence of evolution ju in his bis mental transition from methodist to infidel permit mv me to answer his wonderment why god selected the jews as hate chosen people in preference to t the ad greeks with thir arts literature ana ll 11 that the were not noi in existence at toe the time god selected Abra abraham hata and wa hw posterity of which the jews are but a branch to be his chosen people peaple in this instance he exhibited a method of reasoning which has been lamentably apparent through a large portion of his lectures and it way may be well to inform him that the remnant of his false theology in his early life which still clings to him as the wet cerements cere ments to a drowned corpse rant and in which he unsparingly indulged in last sunday evening was an exhibition of fanaticism such as is unworthy of conservative science and instead of making it red hot for the christians only serves to disgust thinking people and to render reader obnoxious those true principles of science which all men ir irrespective etive of creed should desire to see more widely dis semina ted and accepted respectfully yours for truth F J GIBBS |