Modern spiritism; its science and religion - SpiritArchive.org

220 MODERN SPIRITISM
No Dogmas in
Science
The true reason, however, of the separation is
not the loss of these eminent savants, but the
persistent efforts of men like Sir A. Conan Doyle,
and even Sir Oliver Lodge, to propound dogmas and
doctrines, based on Spiritism, which are utterly
alien to, and destructive of, any remnant of the
true scientific spirit. Once Spiritism becomes really
limited, as Sir Wm. Barrett longs, to a department
of psychic research, and foreswears dogma of every
description, though
it would be no nearer Christianity,
it would not, at any rate, be stultified in the
eyes of scientists, as it is now. It seems to me that
Sir A. Conan Doyle's somewhat ambitious attempts
to play a leading part in founding a new religion
are already reacting disastrously on Spiritism,
and I much doubt that the watered Theosophy of
"Raymond" will commend it more. All truth is
sacred and is of God; and so long as scientists give
us facts and not theories, still less dogmas or doctrines,
so far are they working in a good cause.
Mrs. Miln, in her article, seems wholly unconscious
of the real trouble, which is that Sir A. Conan Doyle
says that "Spiritism is a religion; and Science has
nothing to do wich religions."
Theosophy
But to return: the Modern Spiritist doctrine of
continued progress from sphere to sphere is usually
derived, through Theosophy, from the old pagan
mysteries. This present life is no longer regarded,
as in Scripture, as a stadium in which one runs a race