Citizens Say

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 577, 1 February 1929, Page 8

Citizens Say

(To the Editor.)

NAVAL TARGET Sir, — With reference to “John Citizen’s” letter in your issue of 28th instant, I think “Sea Gull’s” reply of January 30 leaves little to be said. However, if “John Citizen” will forward a marked cheque for £IO,OOO to the Minister of Defence, I have no doubt that it can be arranged for the New Zealand Naval Division again to shoot at the target, and he may rest assured that the fragments thereof will not exceed twelve baskets full. ANOTHER SEAGULL. OUR SAMOAN PROBLEM Sir, — Our wisest course in dealing with the Samoan High Chief Tamasese would be to set him free, regard ana treat him as a friendly fellow-citizen, and give him every assistance in our power to learn to understand our system of government. Tamasese is a man of good intelligence, and would soon realise that it is worse than use--I<tss t ? , resist th e laws that must be obeyed by all, whether we regard them as perfect or faulty. While he is detamed in prison Tamasese will never understand us. If he were treated in the manner I have suggested he might possibly assist in the solution of faamoan problem. „ . _ WILLIAM PERRY Great Barrier Island. THE BIBLE Sir,— ’ ' Firstly, 1 should like to express mv regrets that I did not make my statements clearer for Mr. Major’s benefit for he evidently took the wrong meaning of the word “sometimes." I presume that he thought I meant that tire diseases were only sometimes traceable to man, whereas I meant that sometimes man played a part in the contraction of these diseases deliberI hope Mr. Major can understand me now. Mr. Major's assertion that, in the face of every rigidly carried out investigation, Spiritualism has failed to sustain its claims,” is rather open to criticism. Sir Oliver Lodge and Sir A. Conan Doyle are by no means the only famous scientists who endorse Spiritualism. There is a long line of others, including Crookes Flammarion, and Wallace. These nr’ each famous in his own line, were bitter sceptics before tlieir rigid investigations, the results of which converted tli£m to the new religion. It is the great number of unscrupulous frauds who are exposed from time to time, often by Sir A. Conan Doyle himself, that prejudices the public’s mind. The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, and when it was translated into European languages it retained practically every word. Now the Eastern nations, notably the Semitics are rather apt to speak and wri.e in a hyperbolical manner. Thus, their manner of describing an event would be full of embellishments, c.g., “The wall fell down flat,” is merely their way uf say’ng that the noise was ver\ great. In its translation into English, the Bible retained these hyperboles.

which were regarded as gospel truth by other peoples. The fact that several Hebrew words have different meanings would explain some of the mistakes in the Bible. The personification of certain virtues and evils, or sometimes the representation of them by animals, is also a common feature of the Scriptures. Thus the incident of Jonah and the whale would mean that Jonah succumbed to temptation. • W.R..E.CA QUESTION OF TRADE Sir, — I would like heartily to endorse the remarks made by “Pro-New Zealand” in his very sensible letter in The Sun on Saturday last. We have recently had information that the duty on New Zealand lamb landed in the United States is to be increased, and tne wool tariff to be revised. In spite of the fact that New Zealand buys a large and varied assortment of produce and manufactured articles amounting to millions annually from America, it has so successfully surrounded itself with tariff barriers that it is impossible for us to find a market there for our primary products. The farmer is absolutely dependent on the English market to absorb his produce. I hope New Zealanders will be keen to trade with their own people, and by so doing will find that they put their money where it pays. R. S. PORTER. PALEY STILL SUPREME Sir, Enough has already been written to show that “A.E.C.” did misrepresent Professor James and the Rev. Mr. Shebbeare, so I shall not waste time on such side issues, but reply immediately to “A.E.C.’s” attempt to confute Paley’s watch argument. He begins by saying: “The bones of a dog or bird were not made in the same manner as a watch.” Astounding information ! Paley could not have known that! A sovereign is not made “in the same manner” as a cigar or a book, therefore no intelligence designed it. Tho bones came by “gradual evolution.” Biblical writers were well aware of this fact, but Paley could hardly be expected to know it. And, of course, it took no time to design and produce a watch! Paley knew nothing of his own members, “which in continuance were fashioned.” Only such as the Psalmist and Darwin knew anything like that. By “the operation of natural forces,” “A.E.C.” tells us the bones uf u dog or bird were produced. Were these “natural forces” intelligent, or expressive of intelligence? The ends achieved, which are higher than any achieved by human intelligence, prove that they were. Whether these natural forces” are called evolution or God, matters not. for our argument “A man finding a watch . . . recognises it as a human product in contrast to tlie natural features su rounding it,” wc are told. Not necessarily so. He ma;- find it in a house or aboard a ship. ITo nv.y know “it cannot have (Continued in next column.)

been produced in the same manner” as the house or ship, but that does not imply that intelligence is not also manifested in the structure of house or ship. The same applies to rocks and hills and meadows where a watch may be found. It is not only by contrast with environment that we recognise useful collocation in watch or bee or flower. If “the very purpose of the argument is to prove that the whole cosmos ... is a product of design,” why did “A.E.C.” try to convey the idea that “the defeat of this argument,” on the “grounds of adaptation of organs, etc,” was the defeat of the argument in a full and true sense? The teleological argument is based on the fact that every cell and every atom displays organisation far more wonderful than any watch. I do not admit that “natural law very frequently produces what is chaos and disorder.” If chaos and disorder existed, it would belong in the realm of nescience; for science can deal with that alone which has science, or the order of a reasonable arrangement, in it. If “A.E.C.” or any of your readers can suggest anything which may be taken as “chance.’’ in that it is outside the laws or orderly processes of nature, I should be glad to know what it is. Since everywhere in nature we observe those things which give evidence of higher intelligence than our own, it is but reasonable to conclude that beings with higher intelligence than ours exist whose existence accounts for the matters of super-human intelligence If “A.E.C.” cannot confute Paley’s argument by himself, I would suggest that he call Messrs. McCabe and Bertrand Russell and Sir Arthur Keith to his assistance. I have openly defier the whole school of Athiests on this matter. FREE THINKER.