Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Salient: At Victoria University College, Wellington, N. Z. Vol. 24, No. 10. 1961.

No Rift!

No Rift!

Sir,—In Mr Dwyer's contribution to Salient No. 9, he claimed a fundamental conflict in Christianity arising from its claim that God is "omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent." He assumes that God in his infinite condition cannot include what Mr Dwyer separates as evil.

Why not? Surely the fact that evil exists "within" an omnipresent God is the obvious reason why He should concern Himself with us (we being evil).

Mr Dwyer makes a further assumption to the extent that a "Divine" morality, as presented by the Church on earth, is really Divine. It seems to me that the vagaries of the Church on earth (the inconsistencies that he mentions) cannot but prove that the Church on earth is not an executor of "Divine" morality.

He is straying, therefore, when he maintains that Christianity—the belief in a God—hinders "our intellectual development" and "tends to prevent Man from achieving a good society on this earth." I mean here, of course, true Christianity. For if he is criticising the Christian morality practised by the Church, he is criticising a human interpretation of "Divine" morality; an inadequate one.

My conclusion must be that his arguments are merely vague utterings, especially since he implies in his conclusion that Man will make worthwhile steps towards "the best society possible." This is typical of a common vague attitude that the body of men are willing to make sacrifices towards this goal.

D. Crun.