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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria University College, Wellington N.Z. Vol. 21, No. 3. April 1, 1958
Rationalism Defended
Rationalism Defended
The second editorial in the first issue of "Salient" titled "Rationalism On The Decline" deserves comment on a number of grounds. Firstly, I believe that it must be conceded to the editor that there has been a serious decline in the numbers of those who record themselves on the census returns in one or other of the "non-religious" categories. The editor seems to imply that this trend has somehow or other been caused by the light shed by "modern archaeological discoveries", and the findings of historians. This I find difficult to accept and would be pleased to know what evidence he relies on for making it it seems to me that a not inconsiderable body of academic opinion has found in the Dead Sea Scrolls more support for a non-supernatural account of happenings in Judea two thousand years ago than for the record in the New Testament
Whatever can be concluded from these investigations it seems to me that the decline in "Rationalism" can be attributed with sounder reason to other factors. I propose to mention one only. In an era of fearful insecurity economically, militarily and politically mankind desperately seeks some form of comfort and assurance and it cannot be doubted that religion in all its forms, both Christian and non-Christian does this. Its function in this regard seems analagous to a pharmaceutical prescription which allays physical pain without curing the basic malfunctioning in the body. Lest I offend many of my friends who are, unlike myself, religions, let me hasten to add that I think this is not the only or indeed the paramount factor motivating religious people, but it does, I think, explain the swing back to religion in our times.
This leads me to another point made by the editor. He says, "These figures of religious affiliation must give considerable satisfaction to those New Zealanders who are Catholics like myself". Does the editor really mean this? In a New Zealand with 36 per cent decline in "Rationalism" and a corresponding increase in religious profession, summary convictions in the Magistrates' Courts in criminal matters has risen from 28.32 per thousand of the mean population in 1951 to 36.37 per thousand in 1955. In the same period there has been the same increase in Children's Courts convictions against juveniles; in 1951 1.96 per mean thousand of the population and in 1955 2.67 per thousand. I certainly do not wish to argue the case that the increase in religious profession has caused the increase but I think it reasonable to infer that greater professed religiosity has been powerless to prevent an increase in actual criminality.
In case anyone thinks that this tendency is confined to New Zealand the trend in the U.S.A. provides a much more striking example of the same thing. The 1958 year book of the National Council of Churches claimed an over-all increase in membership against an estimated' increase in total population of 1.7 per cent. The Council claimed that 62 per cent of Americans of all ages were members of a church as contrasted with 20 per, cent, a century ago. In the last 30 years church membership had doubled, while the total national population had increased by only 40 per cent. In September of 1957 Mr. William Parker, speaking at an International Congress of Police Chiefs, stated that the U.S.A. was losing the war against crime, he stated that the crime rate in U.S.A. was increasing at about three times that of the population as a whole. Mr. Edgar Hoover, director of the F.B.I., pointed out that from 1953 to 1956 sex crimes had increased in urban areas from 38.5 per 100,000 to 47.5 per 100,000 in 1956.
Perhaps one can say that the good are getting better and the bad worse but the general conclusion remains that the great religious revival of our times has done nothing to stop an increase in crime in the world of today, however many souls are saved in the next.
Hector MacNeill, Assistant Editor.