"PASSING ON"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 779, 25 June 1954, Page 5

"PASSING ON"

Sir.-I am sorry that Mr. Jackson is unable to find any assurance of a hereafter. In this he would appear to represent a very slender minority, for among nearly every race and people of whatever. religion there is found belief in a hereafter. The Christian belief is derived from the Founder of Christianity, whose teaching is contained in the four Gospels, Jesus Christ said, "In My Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am there ve mav be also."

A. H.

REED

(Dunedin).

Sir,-The argument under this head seems to revolve round the question as to how we may most accurately describe a physical and mental happening. At death body and mind cease to function -just as a motor ceases to function if the power be cut off-and this condition we describe as death. I share "Sundowner’s" preference for this unambiguous description. If, as others contend, ‘death is a "passing on," should it not apply to all death? It may be retorted that to human beings there is promised an after life; but who is to say whether or not animals, or even inanimate things, have not an after life? A writer of real scientific attainment says: "It is possible that the table on which I am writing these words is experiencing a dim subjective impression

of being used as a table." That implies consciousness in what we call the inanimate. And another says: "If we suppose the unity to be unbroken, we then arrive at the existence of consciousness in all forms of the Force which is at work in the world." Schopenhauer explicity declares: "The name will denote that which is the inner nature of everything in the world, and the one kernel of every phenomenon." By will he means the will-to-live, which is immortal; and "everything" in the world must include the inanimate. Living and inanimate alike are but manifestations of the Force or will-to-live. Dunne goes so, far as to say, "Everything that you have ever known is immortal." So that as I put the log on the fire I must remember that it is immortal. We can, and do, create for ourselves comforting illusions that aid us in bearing the bitterness and terrible finality of death. Whether we describe the fact by using the word death or "died," or whether we sustain doubtful propositions by using some other form of description, we are alike describing that journey to "the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns."

J. MALTON

MURRAY

(Oamaru).