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The Immortality Of The Soul
MR. EDISON has taken time from his scientific investigations, which have
centered chiefly in electricity, to take a look into things metaphysical and
spiritual. In a magazine article recently he discussed the immortality of the
soul. He brought to his subject the reasoning and philosophical powers of a
gifted brain accustomed to look more carefully than usual at the relationship
and bearing of one principle upon another, one theory upon another, one fact
upon another. Mr. Edison denies the immortality of the soul; he declares that
he can see no facts in nature leading to any such conclusion. As a sample of
his close reasoning on the subject we quote one of his statements, which he
considers too self-evident to need proof. Indeed we doubt not that Mr. Edison's
position would be that human immortality is not to be assumed, in view of the
fact that we are a dying race. We presume that his position is that the proofs
must be sought in the opposite quarter--that man must be assumed to be mortal
and that any disputing this position must give the proofs of his immortality. We
quote Mr. Edison:--
"A man's intelligence is the aggregate intelligence of the
innumerable cells which form him--just as the intelligence of a community is
the aggregate intelligence of the men and women who inhabit it. If you cut your
hand, it bleeds. Then you lose cells, and that is quite as if a city lost
inhabitants through some tremendous accident."
PHILOSOPHERS OF THE PAST HANDICAPPED
BY DREAD
OF THUMB-SCREWS, ETC.
It will not do for us to claim that Mr. Edison is not a philosopher
because he disagrees with philosophers of the past. We must admit that his
attainments in science have all been results of the exercise of a naturally
philosophical mind, which now for years has been trained in philosophical
study, and that for this reason he has his splendid rank as a scientific man. On
the contrary, we must admit that many of the philosophers of the past in their
reasoning on theological questions were handicapped by dread of thumb-screws,
racks and other tortures of the "Dark Ages," as well as by certain
ignorance and superstitions, which, thank God, are gradually passing from the
minds of all intelligent people. Indeed, we must remember that nearly all the
philosophies as respects cosmogony and chemistry have proven themselves
fallacious, and the latest researches of science astound us by threatening a
revolution of the philosophies respecting astronomy. Perhaps philosophy has
made progress in every other direction than along religious lines. And in this
particular we note that the great majority of the learned have entirely
abandoned the philosophies of their fathers and are known as "Higher
Critics," "Evolutionists," etc. Only in the Catholic Church are
the theological philosophies of a century ago given the slightest weight
amongst the learned, although these theories, embodied in Protestant creeds,
still hold a powerful sway in the minds of many Protestants who still like to
think that what their fathers believed was infallible on every subject.
Meeting Mr. Edison's statement, above quoted, with such candor as the
gentleman's intellectual prowess seems to justify, we must admit that there is
a great deal of force and logic in his deduction. Mr. Edison has Apostolic
authority for considering man as made up of various members, each intimately
related to the welfare and intelligence of the whole. St. Paul uses this
argument in illustrating the true Church, "the Body of Christ." He
likens one member to the hand; another to the foot; another to the eye, etc.,
and declares that each is necessary to the completeness and harmony of the
whole and adds, So, also, is the Church.
We will not here follow the Apostle's argument to the Church to note
particularly how Jesus is the Head of the Church, how every member is united to
each other member and interested in each other member. We will take the same
example of the human figure. It seems to justify the statement that a man's
intelligence is represented in the intelligence of all his members. Human skill
is related to human intelligence. Consequently the man who has lost his hands
has less intelligence, less opportunity and less skill than previously. If he
lose also his feet, his intelligence decreases proportionately. If he lose his
sight, his hearing and his sense of smell, each loss diminishes his
intelligence. A whole village of people devoid of sight, hearing, taste, the
sense of smell and of touch, would be a very unintelligent community. This we
understand to be Mr. Edison's argument, expressed in different terms. Mr.
Edison's terms seem appropriate if we take a sufficiently broad view of his
language. To illustrate: If one [R4774 : page 70] lose
a few drops of blood, the loss may make no perceptible impression upon his
intelligence. But if he lose a quart of blood, his intelligence will be
considerably diminished; faintness, stupor, may be expected. This would seem to
prove Mr. Edison's statement correct, and that the loss of a few drops of blood
is really a loss, to some extent, of vital power, and hence a loss of
intelligence, but in so small a degree as not to be appreciable to one in
health.
PUZZLED OVER BELIEF THAT BLOW THAT
WOULD KILL
WOULD ENABLE MAN TO KNOW EVERYTHING
In olden times we were told, and tried to believe it, that a dead man
knew more than a living one. We were puzzled by the fact that a blow on the
head might stun one to insensibility, in view of the fact that we were told
that a heavier blow, that would kill the man, would enable him to know
everything in an instant. The philosophy (?) of this was handed to us thus: The
soul is the intelligent being, of which nobody knows very much. It is
imprisoned in our mortal bodies and can operate in them only unsatisfactorily. The
moment of death is the moment of release to the soul, which then can think and
reason more soundly than when obliged to use the brain.
Many of us tried in childhood years to believe such unphilosophical
philosophy. We asked for proofs and were told that it was the voice of the
Church's philosophers, and if we would doubt it we would be damned to eternal
misery. Believing this, and not willing to be doomed to eternal misery, many of
us restrained ourselves and that portion of our brain became well-nigh
atrophied.
Even the religious found it difficult to believe in so immaterial a soul
and inquired, Why, then, a resurrection of the dead? Will the resurrection
signify another real imprisonment of the soul and a decrease of intelligence,
as this philosophy (?) would seem to imply? Some gave up the quest for
knowledge in despair and sought for something more intelligent outside of all
the creeds and philosophies of "science falsely so-called." Others of
us have held to the Word of God and sought to see its philosophy, its
teachings, and to harmonize them.
We are glad to belong to this growing class of Bible students who
declare, Let God and his Word be true, though it disprove many of the theories
we once believed and almost worshipped. (Rom. 3:4.) We want the Truth!
MR. EDISON AND THE BIBLE
We are not personally acquainted with Mr. Edison, nor with his religious
views, but we believe that his philosophical mind is turning quite into line
with the teachings of the Bible respecting man and his future. We do not say
that he has attained the Bible viewpoint, but merely that he has taken a good
step in that direction. Without discounting good features contained in our own
creeds, we must admit that many of them are thoroughly illogical and
unscriptural. For instance, the theory that a human soul is an invisible entity
specially created by God and full of Divine intelligence and that this
intelligent soul is introduced into the new-born child and is the real
child--this is no longer reasonable nor logical to us.
We wonder that our forefathers of the darker period, in their wonderful
philosophies, did not see the absurdity of such a position. If it were true,
would it not make the Almighty Creator a co-laborer with fornicators and
adulterers in the bringing into the world of illegitimate children? Still
worse, does not this theory charge to the Almighty God of Wisdom, Justice, Love
and Power the creation of idiots and mental imbeciles and moral degenerates? If
the human parents merely bring human bodies into existence as receptacles for
souls which God individually and specifically creates in each instance, then
not the parents, but the Almighty is responsible for all the degeneracy we see
in the world, for it is the soul that is responsible, as all must admit.
THE FIRST MAN, OF THE EARTH
The center of the mistake on this subject, handed to us from the
philosophers of the "Dark Ages," is the assumption that the real man
is the spirit being, the soul. St. Paul assures us to the contrary of this,
saying, "The first man was of the earth, earthy." The Lord through
the Prophet David declares the same truth, saying, "What is man that thou
art mindful of him?...Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels." (Psa.
8:4,5.) The angels are the lowest in rank on the spirit plane, and man,
although in God's image when perfect, was still lower than the angels, in that
he was not a spirit being, but a human, an earthly being--"of the earth,
earthy."
The Scriptural proposition is not that God made a body for man out of
the dust of the earth and put a spirit man into that body, but that God made
man of the dust of the earth, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (an
animal life) and "man became a living soul"--an animal or earthly
soul. In other words, the entire Adam became a living soul--a living being. That
one man was subsequently made twain for the very purpose of propagating living
souls in his own likeness. And thus for six thousand years the Divine command
has been in process of fulfillment--"Multiply and fill the earth." God
created but the one soul originally, divided it, and then, by natural
processes, generation after generation of human souls have been born. Man is an
earthly soul or earthly animal, as are all the earthly creatures, only that his
is a higher nature--an earthly image of his Creator, who is a Spirit Being.
From this standpoint how clearly we can discern the mistakes of the
philosophies of the past and the true philosophy revealed to us only in the
Bible, although discerning, penetrating, philosophical minds like that of Mr.
Edison may reach the same truth from the study of the great Book of Nature.
From this standpoint we see that the entire man is a living soul--that
is to say, a sentient being. The formation of Adam was very important, just as
today, under the same Divine regulations, the shape of the brain has to do with
the character of the man--gentle or vicious, criminal or conscientious,
benevolent or stingy, reverential or otherwise. As the Bible declares: "As
a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." (Prov. 23:7.) And a man's thoughts
shape themselves according to the structure of his brain. Thus phrenology is a
widely-recognized science. Not only so, but physiology tells us that the
various portions of the human body are so intimately related to the brain that
the quality of the mind can be discerned in the general features, not only in
the shape of the nose, the curl of the lip, the glance of the eye, but also in
the grasp of the hand and its general shape, even to the particularity of a
finger print.
All these outward signs indicate the character of the soul, being--all
are identified with it. In a word, a soul is a person. The various districts of
the brain representing the various sentiments and passions of the individual,
are like so many members, each having its own personality. Amongst these
various members of the human mind some are stronger, some weaker, and the
stronger ones dominate. There are exceptions, of course, to this rule in what
we sometimes term conversion. Conversion [R4774 : page
71] means the establishing of a new rule or order in the individual life. Note
the method of its accomplishment:--
(1) Certain matters are brought to the attention of the person or soul
which seem to indicate a wiser course than the one pursued in the past. The
various districts of the brain, like so many members of a council, consider the
proposition, weigh its pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages, and then
reach a decision. That decision we call will. Sometimes there is desperate
struggle in the brain, the various members of the council of thought battling
and struggling against each other. The will may be strong or may be weak, just
as a party in Congress may be strong or weak while in power. But the will rules
with more or less vacillation or strength, according to the number and power of
the members supporting it. Thus we have found some possessed of strong
characters; others who are weak, vacillating--"double-minded."
THE WILL REPRESENTS THE SOUL, THE
PERSON,
THE EGO
Some of the qualities of the mind may be styled the
"flesh"--this term represents the lower and more animal qualities of
the person, the soul. To the contrary of these are the higher organs of the
mind--reverence, spirituality, conscientiousness, sublimity, ideality, etc.,
and these are called the heart, because they include the affections and
qualities of the mind to which God appeals, saying, "My son, give me thine
heart."
Thus seen, we are daily making soul-character, influenced by our
environment and the lessons and experiences which come to us through our
senses. The character develops either upward or downward--toward God or toward
sin. But there is no such thing as total depravity, except in idiocy, for, by
Divine providence, some features of the original Divine likeness in which
father Adam was created still persist in all of his children who have reason. The
effort of all reformers is to appeal to the mind, either through fear or love
or selfishness, to effect an organization of the mental qualities favoring the
things of righteousness and opposed to sin. The permanent conversion which
produces the saintly character is the appeal of love--"The love of Christ
constraineth us." The love of the Father is potent in the hearts of all
who receive it. It can effect changes in conduct, in language and in thought,
which can be accomplished by nothing else.
A METHODIST BISHOP'S DEFINITION OF
SOUL
A Methodist Bishop is credited with the following definition of a soul:
"It is without interior or exterior, without body, shape or parts, and you
could put a million of them into a nut-shell." Mr. Edison does not believe
in such a soul. In repudiating such a view he places [R4775
: page 71] himself in accord with the Divine teachings.
The word immortality is rarely used in its strict, academic sense, as
signifying deathlessness or that which is proof against death--inherency of
life, requiring no sustenance. Immortality in this sense of the word is, of
course, a quality which belongs to God alone. As the Scriptures declare of him,
"He alone hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can
approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see." Immortality in this sense
of the word, possessed by the Heavenly Father and his only begotten Son, the
world's Redeemer, is promised as a special reward (not possessed by angels or
any other creature) to the elect, saintly few, called, chosen and faithful
during this Gospel Age. These are styled the Bride, the Lamb's Wife, and the
promise to them is that they shall receive this great reward of glory, honor
and immortality when the Redeemer shall appear in his glory in the end of this
Age to grant to them a share in the First or Chief Resurrection from the dead. With
this attainment of immortality they are promised also new bodies, no longer
flesh, but spirit, no longer in the likeness of the first man--"As they
bore the image of the earthly, they shall also bear the image of the heavenly."
--I Cor. 15:49.
ARE ALL MEN IMMORTAL?
Mr. Edison is in full agreement with the Bible in his conclusion that
human soul or personality is always identified with an organism or body. We
must also agree with the Bible and with Mr. Edison that all souls die. The
Bible declares, "The wages of sin is death," and again, "The
soul that sinneth, it shall die." The Bible explains that Adam, as a
living soul, might have continued his existence perpetually had he not
transgressed the Divine Law and that the transgression brought to him the
penalty of death. Mr. Edison agrees with this conclusion without, perhaps,
admitting original sin or anything else connected with the Scriptures.
Where, then, is human immortality? We answer that there is no human
immortality, in the same sense that there is a Divine immortality--in the sense
that God is death-proof. He alone has immortality in that sense. When we speak
of immortality in respect to mankind, we use the word, not in an academic
sense, but in a relative way. We mean that death does not end all for Adam and
his children--that a future life is arranged for them in Divine
providence--when, where and how the Bible clearly tells.
We wish that Mr. Edison and many thinkers who have no confidence in the
Bible might see the beauties and harmonies of its presentations. The Bible
declares that the eternal life lost by father Adam has been redeemed for him by
the death of Jesus Christ, "the Just for the unjust." It tells us
further that as all of Adam's race share by heredity in his death penalty, so
they all shall be permitted to share in his recovery from the power of the
tomb, from sin and death. Thus the Scriptures declare, As by a man comes death,
by a man also comes the resurrection of the dead; for as all in Adam die, even
so shall all in Christ be made alive, every man in his own order or company.--I
Cor. 15:21-23.
The great Apostle Paul declares that there shall be a "resurrection
of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust." The Hebrew Prophet
declares, "Many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." The
awakening time will be the morning, as the present is the night-time of sin and
darkness. The glorious morning nears, as the night of sorrow and tears passes. There
will be a glorious dawn to that great day of a thousand years, whose light is
already fore-gleamed in the wonderful inventions of our time, in which Mr.
Edison has been used of the Almighty to assist. Shortly the Sun of
Righteousness shall shine forth, scattering the darkness, ignorance, superstition,
sin, death. Shortly the reign of the Divine righteousness and love,
co-ordinated, will bring blessings to our race, now resting under the sentence
or curse of death. Shortly all will have the opportunity of recovery from the
fallen condition of weakness and degradation, being uplifted or resurrected
gradually to the full perfection of human nature, earthly nature, in the image
and likeness of the Creator, in the midst of a world-wide Paradise.
CARDINAL GIBBONS' WORDS AGREE TO THIS
Cardinal Gibbons gave an interview to a reporter of the Columbian
Magazine in answer to Philosopher Edison. Noting with interest the Cardinal's
defense of the [R4775 : page 72] doctrine of
immortality, we have clipped and below produce the essence, the kernel, of his
argument on the subject as based upon the Scriptures. We are pleased to see
that, like ourself, the Cardinal finds the Scriptural proof of a future life,
not in the philosophies of a darker past, but in the resurrection promise of
the holy Scriptures, as follows:--
"Christ brings to humanity the certainty of eternal life. He proved
it by his own resurrection; and if anyone thinks the evidence for Christ's
resurrection is weak, I ask him to study and think deeply over the fifteenth
chapter of First Corinthians. No sane scholar, remember, denies that we have
the testimony of St. Paul himself; nor that St. Paul is honestly setting down
the testimony of those who claim to have seen our Lord after death. If so many
sane men, Apostles and disciples of Christ, are mistaken, if they cannot
believe the testimony of their own eyes, if such a delusion can keep so firm a
hold on so many different characters for so many years and become the basis of
all their beliefs and the transforming power of their lives, then no human
testimony is of any value; then let us close our courts of justice, for no case
is proven by so many trustworthy witnesses. No!" the Cardinal said, in the
tone of deepest conviction, "Christ is risen; and his resurrection is the
plainest evidence of man's immortality."
W.T. R-4773 a : page 69 – 1911 r.