From the Floor

Kevin O'Brien: This so dynamic speaker maintained that Thomas Aquinus produced five…(rest of sentence was drowned by laughter and so is lost to posterity).

Jim Witten-Hannah: Leaning heavily on a stick, he changed the tenor very rapidly by speaking quietly and convincingly. "Let us take the ant hill (or bees), although there is no suggestion of Christianity here there is equally no chaos."

John Ziman: What matters is what Mr. Jones does to Mr. Brown (interjection—or Mrs. Brown).

Nig. Taylor: We must change world affairs by changing the individual outlook—Buddhism and Confucianism (interjection—"Who say?)…Remedy must work with men.

Margaret Ross: Woman needs a belief in the essential goodness of Man! A woman without faith is a danger to society. Woman needs faith to have the strength to say No (chaos!). She has nothing to teach her children if she is one of these wishy-washy women.

Maurice McIntyre: The Bible is a vicious circle. A materialist can do as he likes. There is nothing to stop me hitting you over the head with a hammer (interject: "You try). Spiritual…(interject, hopefully: "What's that about spirits?"). God does good for us (Australian interjection: "Conspicuous by his absence on our boat").

Mr. Neuberg: When Christianity was tried in the Middle Ages it was as near to the totalitarian Gestapo as anything, of the Inquisition. Christianity is the nearest route to Buchenwald.

Jackie Patrick: The affirmative say that personal redemption by God is necessary; that Christianity and ethics are identical. Ethics and religion are not synonymous. The goodwill claimed by Christianity is a myth. Christians fight like everybody else. The version of Christianity of any one man or church depends on the interpretation of the teachings of Christ. These differences make it impossible for Christianity to set out to make an ordered society.

Peter McKenzie: Christianity is the final end of society (interject: "Too right"). Christianity is the ultimate; material progress is subordinate; science serves the cause of Death.

Brenden O'Connor (in pulpit style): The peurile philosophies of today…Communism, Freudian Idealists, etc, and then Christianity. (Another running battle with interjectors ensued.) There is a law higher than man himself which he must obey. (Voice from audience: "I'm converted.")

Bill Newall: The only speaker who approached the subject, on the affirmative side, with practical as well as philosophical suggestions. Christian communal society…Social problems can be solved by active Christianity.

Alec. McLeod: Present day chaos will never be removed without adjusting material status. The only improvement has been brought about by the peurile philosophers reviled by Mr. O'Connor.

Roy Jack (summing up): Christianity apparently provides women with strength and men with inspiration (interjection: "Contradiction").

John Miller (ditto): criticised Roy Jack's remarks and said: "Man would be no longer responsible for his actions."

As a large body of the SCM was present, the motion was carried when put to the house.

Rev. J. M. Bates, who recently delivered a talk to the SCM on Modern Mass Society, was the Judge, and he placed the affirmative as the winning team. The following speakers were placed in this order: Jackie Patrick, Maurice McIntyre, Roy Jack, Kevin O'Brien, Nig. Taylor.