_Question_. The Parliament of Religions was called with a view to
discussing the great religions of the world on the broad platform
of tolerance. Supposing this to have been accomplished, what effect
is it likely to have on the future of creeds?
_Answer_. It was a good thing to get the representatives of all
creeds to meet and tell their beliefs. The tendency, I think, is
to do away with prejudice, with provincialism, with egotism. We
know that the difference between the great religions, so far as
belief is concerned, amounts to but little. Their gods have
different names, but in other respects they differ but little.
They are all cruel and ignorant.
_Question_. Do you think likely that the time is coming when all
the religions of the world will be treated with the liberality that
is now characterizing the attitude of one sect toward another in
Christendom?
_Answer_. Yes, because I think that all religions will be found
to be of equal authority, and because I believe that the supernatural
will be discarded and that man will give up his vain and useless
efforts to get back of nature--to answer the questions of whence
and whither? As a matter of fact, the various sects do not love
one another. The keenest hatred is religious hatred. The most
malicious malice is found in the hearts of those who love their
enemies.
_Question_. Bishop Newman, in replying to a learned Buddhist at
the Parliament of Religions, said that Buddhism had given to the
world no helpful literature, no social system, and no heroic virtues.
Is this true?
_Answer_. Bishop Newman is a very prejudiced man. Probably he
got his information from the missionaries. Buddha was undoubtedly
a great teacher. Long before Christ lived Buddha taught the
brotherhood of man. He said that intelligence was the only lever
capable of raising mankind. His followers, to say the least of
them, are as good as the followers of Christ. Bishop Newman is a
Methodist--a follower of John Wesley--and he has the prejudices of
the sect to which he belongs. We must remember that all prejudices
are honest.
_Question_. Is Christian society, or rather society in Christian
countries, cursed with fewer robbers, assassins, and thieves,
proportionately, then countries where "heathen" religions
predominate?
_Answer_. I think not. I do not believe that there are more
lynchings, more mob murders in India or Turkey or Persia than in
some Christian States of the great Republic. Neither will you find
more train robbers, more forgers, more thieves in heathen lands
than in Christian countries. Here the jails are full, the
penitentiaries are crowded, and the hangman is busy. All over
Christendom, as many assert, crime is on the increase, going hand
in hand with poverty. The truth is, that some of the wisest and
best men are filled with apprehension for the future, but I believe
in the race and have confidence in man.
_Question_. How can society be so reconstructed that all this
horrible suffering, resultant from poverty and its natural associate,
crime, may be abolished, or at least reduced to a minimum?
_Answer_. In the first place we should stop supporting the useless.
The burden of superstition should be taken from the shoulders of
industry. In the next place men should stop bowing to wealth
instead of worth. Men should be judged by what they do, by what
they are, instead of by the property they have. Only those able
to raise and educate children should have them. Children should
be better born--better educated. The process of regeneration will
be slow, but it will be sure. The religion of our day is supported
by the worst, by the most dangerous people in society. I do not
allude to murderers or burglars, or even to the little thieves.
I mean those who debauch courts and legislatures and elections--
those who make millions by legal fraud.
_Question_. What do you think of the Theosophists? Are they
sincere--have they any real basis for their psychological theories?
_Answer_. The Theosophists may be sincere. I do not know. But
I am perfectly satisfied that their theories are without any
foundation in fact--that their doctrines are as unreal as their
"astral bodies," and as absurd as a contradiction in mathematics.
We have had vagaries and theories enough. We need the religion of
the real, the faith that rests on fact. Let us turn our attention
to this world--the world in which we live.
--_New York Herald_, September, 1893.