"DO MIRACLES HAPPEN?"

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2013, 21 March 1914, Page 7

"DO MIRACLES HAPPEN?"

: AN INTERESTING DISCUSSION. "Do Miracles Happen?" was the subject of a discussion (the outcome of arguments provoked by Mr. G.'K. Chesterton's play "Magic") which was opened at the Little Theatre, London, recently (says the "Westminster Gazette"}.' The burly lion .of the occasion distinguished himself by stating that it' grieved him to be present, as he had anticipated spending the fleeting hours- in the country. One also gathered that Mr. Chesterton intended to speak but very little —a view .which was speedily disproved by the lecturer talking a great dial, sometimes outting in when those who disagreed .with him aired their views. Amongst those who took part in the discussion wore scientists, clerics, spirit-, ualists, and other nersons, several of whom agreed with Mr., Chesterton that miracles actually'' happen, and ..that ■table-turning is a proven fact. Mr. Chesterton said that, oven if they. believed ( t twhple. pf,, religion,', was 'a conspiracy'.: carried.' oh".-through ages by a priestly class, they had yet to get over tho impression which was borne by, hundreds and-..thousands of people that such extraordinary .' things as miracles did actually happen. Mr. Chesterton proceeded to give an interesting experience of his boyhood, when, he said, while making experiments with a planchette, ho certainly felt the instrument dragged from his grasp by means of a violent pull. Ho concluded that such experiments were bad rather than good and so he dropped them. The idea ' which had grown up that miracles did not occur was 'simply the outgrowth of -the present. philosophical dogma .that there Was no power behind the universe. II a philosophical dogma were to be set up that human life could not be ended violently, it would be just as easy to maintain . a philosophical school to prove that murder had never been committed.- > Mr. Joseph M'Cabe, who-spoko next, remarked that to say that miracles could happen,- and to add that therefore they did happen, was like saying that Mr. Bernard Shaw could drinJc beer and that therefore he did drink' beer. Tor his own- port ho had been told of miracles happening all over the world, but whenever ho had gonolo the particular place mentioned ho could never find them. Further, he contended that if a miracle ever happened it would be reported; in all the papers, but he had searched the papers for years without coming across a record of anything of tho kind. Miracles, he believed, never happened whero I there we're arc lamps to light the streets. -. .

Mr. Hilaire Belloc said that many miracles were just as well attested as any other historical fact, and tho same hind of evidence was called in support of them. "At forty-three," Mr. Belloc added, "I am not less inclined to believe in miracles than when I was an undergraduate, but more. In tho end a disbelief in miracles means atheism. Tt 53 the rich who are atheists to-day, it is their philosophy which cannot believe in miracles, and that is why we, who do believe in miracles, stand here to-day at the beginning of the decline of the plutocracy." A dramatic moment came when Dr. Warschauer, who followed Mr. Belloc, challenged him. to say whether he believed in tho miracles of the: Mohammedan and Buddhist religions. "Certainly," came the prompt answer. "Ono must either accept the supernatural en-tirely,-or not at all." Mr. Hobson observed that, according to tho view of the upholders of miracles, there was .no reason why a pumpkin should not turn into afour-horse coach.

"Of course there isn't," said Mr. Chesterton immediately, to the delight of his, supporters.Other speakers included Mr. A. P. Sinnett, wlio spoke of miracles from the point of view of the convinced Spiritualist, and Mr. Cecil Chesterton, who ably seconded his brother.' Replying on tho discussion, Mr. Chesterton said they lad been accused of believing that barnacle geeso grew on trees. But no one bad e?er been boiled for believing in barnaclo geese, while hundreds and thousands of' people had been boiled and burnt and killed in other ways for believing in Christ—and yot they persisted in believing.