Is Life Worth Living?

by W. H. Mallock

It is not contended that the prospect just described will, as a fact, ever be realised	[183]
But only that it will be realised if certain other prospects are realised	[185]
Which prospects may or may not be visionary	[186]
But the progress towards which is already begun	[187]
And also the other results, that have been described already	[187]
Positive principles have already produced a moral deterioration, even in places where we should least imagine it	[187]
As we shall see if we pierce beneath the surface	[189]
In the curious condition of men who have lost faith, but have retained the love of virtue	[189]
The struggle was hard, when they had all the helps of religion	[190]
It is harder now	[190]
Conscience still survives, but it has lost its restraining power	[191]
Temptation almost inevitably dethrones it	[192]
And its full prestige can never be recovered	[193]
It can do nothing but deplore; it cannot remedy	[194]
In such cases the mind's decadence has begun; and its symptoms are	[194]
Self-reproach	[195]
Life-weariness	[195]
And indifference	[195]
The class of men to whom this applies is increasing, and they are the true representatives of the work of positive thought	[196]
It is hard to realise this ominous fact	[197]
But by looking steadily and dispassionately at the characteristics of the present epoch we may learn to do so	[198]
We shall see that the opinions now forming will have a weight and power that no opinions ever had before	[199]
And their tendency, as yet latent, towards pessimism is therefore most momentous	[200]
If it is to be cured, it must be faced	[200]
It takes the form of a suppressed longing for the religious faith that is lost	[200]
And this longing is wide-spread, though only expressed indirectly	[201]
It is felt even by men of science	[202]
But the longing seems fruitless	[203]
This dejection is in fact shared by the believers	[203]
And is even authoritatively recognised by Catholicism	[204]
The great question for the world now, and the one on which its whole future depends, is, will the lost faith ever be recovered?	[205]
The answer to this will probably have to be decisive, one way or the other	[206]

[CHAPTER IX.]
THE LOGIC OF SCIENTIFIC NEGATION.

What gives the denials of positivism their general weight, is the impression that they represent reason	[208]
They are supported by three kinds of arguments: physical, moral, and historical	[209]
The two first bear upon all religion; the latter only on special revelations	[210]
Natural religion is the belief in God, immortality, and the possibility of miracles generally	[210]
Physical science prefers to destroy natural religion by its connection of mind with matter	[210]
1st. Making conscious life a function of the brain. 2nd. Evolving the living organisms from lifeless matter. 3rd. Making this material evolution automatic	[210]
Thus all external proofs of God are destroyed	[212]
And also of the soul's immortality	[213]
External proof is declared to be the test of reality	[213]
And therefore all religion is set down as a dream	[215]
But we believe that proof is the test of reality, not because it is proved to be so, but because of the authority of those who tell us so	[215]
But it will be found that these men do not understand their own principle	[216]
And, that in what they consider their most important conclusions they emphatically disregard it	[217]
One or other, therefore, of their opinions is worthless—their denial of religion or their affirmation of morality	[219]
But we shall see this more clearly in considering the question of consciousness and will	[220]
We shall see that, as far as science can inform us, man is nothing but an automaton	[220]
But the positive school are afraid to admit this	[221]
And not daring to meet the question, they make a desperate effort to confuse it	[222]
Two problems are involved in the matter: 1st. How is brain action connected with consciousness	[223]
2nd. Is the consciousness that is connected with it something separable from, and independent of it	[223]
The first of these problems has no bearing at all on any moral or religious question. It is insoluble. It leaves us not in doubt but in ignorance	[224]
The doubt, and the religious question is connected solely with the second problem	[228]
To which there are two alternative solutions	[228]
And modern science is so confused that it will accept neither	[228]
As Dr. Tyndall's treatment of the subject very forcibly shows us	[230]
And Dr. Tyndall in this way is a perfect representative of the whole modern positive school	[231]
Let us compare the molecules of the brain to the six moving billiard-balls	[231]
The question is, are these movements due to the stroke of one cue or of two	[233]
The positive school profess to answer this question both ways	[234]
But this profession is nonsense	[236]
What they really mean is, 1st. That the connection of consciousness with matter is a mystery; as to that they can give no answer. 2nd. That as to whether consciousness is wholly a material thing or no, they will give no answer	[237]
But why are they in this state of suspense?	[238]
Though their system does not in the least require the hypothesis of an immaterial element in consciousness	[239]
They see that the moral value of life does	[239]
The same reasons that will warrant their saying it may exist, will constrain them to say it must	[240]
Physical science, with its proofs, can say nothing in the matter, either as to will, immortality, or God	[242]
But, on the other hand, it will force us, if we believe in will, to admit the reality of miracles	[243]
So far as science goes, morality and religion are both on the same footing	[243]

[CHAPTER X.]
MORALITY AND NATURAL THEISM.

Supposing science not to be inconsistent with theism, may not theism be inconsistent with morality?	[247]
It seems to be so; but it is no more so than is morality with itself. Two difficulties common to both:—1st. The existence of evil; 2nd. Man's free will and God's free will	[248]
James Mill's statement of the case represents the popular anti-religious arguments	[249]
But his way of putting the case is full of distortion and exaggeration	[250]
Though certain of the difficulties he pointed out were real	[251]
And those we cannot explain away; but if we are to believe in our moral being at all, we must one and all accept	[252]
We can escape from them by none of the rationalistic substitutes for religion	[252]
A similar difficulty is the freedom of the will	[257]
This belief is an intellectual impossibility	[258]
But at the same time a moral necessity	[260]
It is typical of all the difficulties attendant on an assent to our own moral nature	[260]
The vaguer difficulties that appeal to the moral imagination we must meet in the same way	[261]

[CHAPTER XI.]
THE HUMAN RACE AND REVELATION.

Should the intellect of the world return to theism, will it ever again acknowledge a special revelation?	[264]
We can see that this is an urgent question	[265]
By many general considerations	[265]
Especially the career of Protestantism	[267]
Which is visibly evaporating into a mere natural theism	[268]
And, as such, is losing all restraining power in the world	[271]
Where then shall we look for a revelation? Not in any of the Eastern creeds	[275]
The claims of the Roman Church are the only ones worth considering	[276]
Her position is absolutely distinct from that of Protestantism, and she is not involved in its fall	[277]
In theory she is all that the enlightened world could require	[279]
The only question is, is she so in practice? This brings us to difficulties	[282]
1st. The partial success of her revelation; and her supposed condemnation of the virtues of unbelievers. But her partial success is simply the old mystery of evil	[282]
And through her infinite charity, she does nothing to increase that difficulty	[283]
The value of orthodoxy is analogous to the value of true physical science	[285]
All should try to learn the truth who can; but we do not condemn others who cannot	[286]
Even amongst Catholics generally no recondite theological knowledge is required	[287]
The facts of the Catholic religion are simple. Theology is the complex scientific explanation of them	[288]
Catholicism is misunderstood because the outside world confuses with its religion—1st. The complex explanations of it	[289]
2nd. Matters of discipline, and practical rules	[290]
3rd. The pious opinions, or the scientific errors of private persons, or particular epochs	[291]
None of which really are any integral part of the Church	[293]
Neither are the peculiar exaggerations of moral feeling that have been prevalent at different times	[293]
The Church theoretically is a living, growing, self-adapting organism	[295]
She is, in fact, the growing, moral sense of mankind organised and developed under a supernatural tutelage	[295]

[CHAPTER XII.]
UNIVERSAL HISTORY AND THE CLAIMS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

We must now consider the Church in relation to history and external historical criticism	[297]
1st. The history of Christianity; 2nd. The history of other religions	[298]
Criticism has robbed the Bible of nearly all the supposed internal evidences of its supernatural character	[298]
It has traced the chief Christian dogmas to non-Christian sources	[300]
It has shown that the histories of other religions are strangely analogous to the history of Christianity	[300]
And to Protestantism these discoveries are fatal	[302]
But they are not fatal to Catholicism, whose attitude to history is made utterly different by the doctrine of the perpetual infallibility of the Church	[305]
The Catholic Church teaches us to believe the Bible for her sake, not her for the Bible's	[305]
And even though her dogmas may have existed in some form elsewhere, they become new revelations to us, by her supernatural selection of them	[306]
The Church is a living organism, for ever selecting and assimilating fresh nutriment	[307]
Even from amongst the wisdom of her bitterest enemies	[309]
All false revelations, in so far as they have professed to be infallible, are, from the Catholic standpoint, abortive Catholicisms	[311]
Catholicism has succeeded in the same attempt in which they have failed	[313]

[CHAPTER XIII.]
BELIEF AND WILL.