III
You say that you want to cure your century of the naïveté that threatens to overrun the world. Would you prefer to see the world plagued by the skepticism that you seek to spread? Doesn’t the absence of beliefs cause both the relaxing of family ties and the majority of the ailments that are undermining society today? By demonstrating the existence and immortality of the soul, Spiritism revives faith in the future, raises the spirits of the discouraged and enables us to bear the adversities of life with resignation. Do you call this inequity? Two theories are offered, one denies the existence of a future life, while the other proclaims and proves it. One explains nothing, while the other explains everything and appeals to our reason. One justifies selfishness, while the other provides a firm basis for justice, charity and the love of one’s fellow human beings. One offers only the present and destroys every shred of hope, while the other consoles us by showing the vast horizon of the future. Now, which is the more malevolent of the two?
Some, among the most skeptical of our challengers, portray themselves as apostles of brotherhood and progress, but brotherhood implies objectivity and the rejection of personality. In true fraternity, pride is a flaw. By what right do you impose such a sacrifice on people when you tell them that death is the end for them, and that maybe even tomorrow they will be reduced to an out of order machine, thrown to the curb as trash? Why should people impose any sort of deprivation on themselves? Is it more natural for them to strive to live as comfortably as possible during the few brief seconds you grant to them? The desire to possess as much as possible, and to enjoy the greatest amount of pleasure arises from this. Hence, this desire naturally gives birth to jealousy of those who possess more. From this jealousy, all it takes is one further step to become covetous of what they possess. What holds them back from doing this? The law? However, the law does not cover every case. Is it the conscience or a sense of duty that governs one’s choices? What is the sense of duty based on? Does that sense have any purpose if everything ends with our present life? One proverb perfectly sums up this belief, “Every man for himself.” According to this belief, brotherhood, conscience, duty, humanity and even progress are empty words. Those who proclaim such a doctrine have no idea of how much harm they do to society, or how many crimes they are responsible for! But why do I speak of responsibility at all? For skeptics it is irrelevant, since they only worship matter.
