SUPERSTITION'S DECLINE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2371, 22 December 1921, Page 1

SUPERSTITION'S DECLINE.

Writing in Ihe Rational Press Association's Annual for 1!)22, Sir E. Kay Lankesler discusses the question, “Is there a revival of superstition?” In his opinion there is no real revival of superstition in these days, nor of weakening in the growth and spread of “rationalism,” which is its-destroyer. “If we look buck over even so limited a period as the past century, there is no doubt possible as to the decrease in this country both of the general prevalence of superstitious beliefs and of the virulence of their nature, notwithstanding that they are still almost universally present in various forms to a deplorable extent. Compare the ‘orthodoxy’ of to-day with that of the ‘fifties’; compare the mental attitude of the poorer class, both in town and country, of 70 years ago with that existing today. They tire to-day less superstitious than the idle rich. Hell-iire no longer serves as an instrument of coercion; children are less frequently tortured into submission by stories of ‘bogies’; and we Rationalists are free, as was not the ease 70 years ago, to express our views.” There is, the writer says in conclusion, only one hope for the increase of rationalism and the ultimate disappearance of superstition, “and that is in the revolution of the teaching, or ‘education,’ administered to new generations—in the nursery, in schools, and in universities. That revolution is going on, and has already gone a long way; but we must not slacken our efforts. Every man and woman must grow up with a true knowledge of the forces of Nature, with a trained understanding of the methods of inquiry, of the weighing of evidence, and of the powers and limitations of the human mind.”