HAECKEL AND M'CABE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 871, 18 July 1910, Page 2

HAECKEL AND M'CABE.

Sir,—Tour correspondent, "Veritas," ami others, are most unfair to Haeekel and M'Oabe, both very estimable scientists unci gentlemen. Were it not for such men the world would not advance —I advise any New Zealander who wishes to strengthen his or her moral backbonu, and regard our good Creator in the new light or learning of "modernism," to send a post office onlnr for .'is. to the secretary, Rationalist Press Association, London, and ask for 8 or 10 of the sixpenny editions; and to do this yeany until all tho publications arc received. In answer to "Veritas": No reliance can be placed upon excerpts from what is happening now in France, which Jius practically expelled Christianity from its midst. Most of tbe hooligans,, or Apaches, of Paris were educated, as children, in tha ordinary Church schools, secular education having only lately been adopted. 'Franco is nndnr a clorical revolution, -and nothing can bo accepted as correct until that revolution settles down. There are not 8,000,000 Christians now in France, out of 40,000,000 people.. There are not 10,000,000 churoh-goors in England out of its 40,000,0011. Consequently there aro 18,000,000 Christians out of those 80,000,000. In Belgium, the Church hits already lost half that population. Spain and Italy are both abandoning Christian teaching in schools also. Until lato years Franco was exceptionally free from the chief crime of murder. The great Revolution of .1792, of course, 'dealt a great blow to Church teaching, but until quite lately tho Apache, or hooligan, element was entirely absent. Tho statistics of murders to tho million of inhabitants in different countries are- as follow:— England and Germany, 5; France, 12; Spain, 15; Italy, 7G. J obtain these figures from a French journal, published some time before this Apache trouble became so accute. Tour roaders need only tafcf. thn Mo awful, "Black Hand" cold-blooded murders in Now York. Those Italians wore educated in the ordinary schools of Italy. As to Haccfcol of Jena. Mr. M'Caljt> has shown that in place of Haeckel boing condemned by the 45 German professors, it was Dr. Brass's charges of falsification they condemned. Yet onii of. your correspondents turns this round, most unfairly and unjustly, to condemnation of Hneckel. 1 expect, of coursu, tii meet with falsification' and deceit by thoso engaged in bolstering up the present form of Church Atheism, but I did not to find such utter tergiversation as this. That Haeckel was perfectly justified in supplying imaginary parts to his drawings I can prove to the hilt, from the one instance.we all know of in New Zealand, viz., il'rofessor Owen and the moo. A thigh-bone of a moa was sent In him for identification, .and ho built the whole bird from that ono bone. What right had ho to do that, if Haeckel had no similar right as a scientific man? I advise everyone to read Hacckel's "Riddlu of the Universe."

Mr. M'Cabe's Uctures were an intellectual treat, and I am delighted Sir Kobert Stout gavo them his patronage. Our worthy Chief Justice had as much right to do that as his Honour Mr. Justice O'Connor, who in New South Walts quite lately advocated State Roman. Catholic schools. Sir Kobert, Mr. John Gammell, Professor Mackenzie, Miss Richmond, hundreds of other people, and myself, ill this province, ars resolved to maintain our secular system of education, as again&t tho Kectarianism-in-School party (mistakenly called the Bible-in-School party), a,nd that is why we helped on the M'Cabe lectures. Not that wo followed M'Cabe entirely, seeing that whilst wo believe in Monism, or the Unity of the Universe, we also believe -that that Unity is God. I put that question personally to Mr. M'Cabe, and asked ham why Haeckel could not so have based his formula of the matter-foroe-substance. His reply was: "Haeckel does sometimes call the Universe God"; but M'Cabe himself, being an Agnostic, could not follow Haeckel in that—(l always ask such visitors as General Booth, Dr. Henry, or M'Cabe, w;hy they do not base their missions in God's name, and carefully note the replies I receive). I respect in every way the Agnostic position, as the present terrible growth of Sectarianism in New Zealand requires great modification. Similarly, I think that God and morality should bo taught in our public schools, not Sectarianism. Bishop Wallis looks to the Soman Catholics, Presbyterians and Wesleyans to each impart their teaching with those of his own Church in our schools. Well, sir, M'Cabe showed how the moral teachings of Confucius rule 400,000,000 of people in China to-day, and how a few texts of that moral philosopher will usually cabn an angry crowd there. Quote any such texts from the New Testament to an excited English crowd, and it will turn and rend the speaker. Morality, not Sectarianism, should bo taught in New Zealand State schools. I affirm without fear of denial that reverence for God and morality can be taught in the schools quite apart from the Bible or the Sectarians.—l am, etc., THEIST. Wellington, July 9, ISIO.'