--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Bennion, Milton collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 33 number: 4 published: 1930-02 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Milton Bennion, “A Spiritual Philosophy of Life,” *Improvement Era* 33, no. 4 (February 1930): 252–254." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3304unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera3304unse start_page: 252 end_page: 254 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1930-02) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3304unse publication_year: 1930 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1930, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # A Spiritual Philosophy of Life A Spiritual Philosophy of Life By MILTON BENNION Dean of the School of Education, University of Utah IV Philosophic Grounds for Belief in Personal Immortality THE most eminent philos- Does Mind Survive after Dissolution ophers, both ancient and of the Body? modern, have either as- jf so, Does the Individual Mind Re- sumed to prove the immortality tain Its Personal Identity; or Is It Ab- of mind, spirit, or soul; or they sorbed in a Universal Mind? have offered rational grounds for Assuming Personal Immortality to faith in immortality. Among Be a Fact, What of Its Nature and Sig~ these philosophers Plato is espe- nificance? daily notable. He held that the moral order of the universe, which must be grounded in God. The reality of the highest good and the demands of the moral conscious- immortality of the soul includes its pre-existence as well as its survival after death. A variety of argu- ments or proofs were offered in support of this, one among them tibility of matter and the con- servation of energy, both con- cepts that have, until very re- cently, been regarded in physical science as thoroughly estab- lished. Reasoning by analogy, it is contended that mind also may be equally imperishable, that death is merely a transfor- mation in which no essential ele- ment of mind can be lost. One form of presentation of this argu- ment is to be found in John Fiske's Life Everlasting.2 It should be ness together, Kant held, called for noted that whil an argument from being based upon trie unity and personal immortality as a necessary anaiogv mav su ' r a fruitful hv substantiality of the soul as mdi- condition of realizing these de- anaJ°g7 ma^ su^t a fruitful riy- cated by its control or rule of the ^ands reallzmg ^ese de pothesis,or may be a ground of body. This argument played a Af\, ,. ftU u'f faith it is not regarded m logic as Another line of thought for proving anything. A stronger ar- which Kant laid the foundations, gument as a basis of faith in inl- and one that has been given much mortality may be developed di- weight by some eminent recent rectly from the fact and the need philosophers, relates to the unreal- ity of time. Kant held that time is a form of intuition, not an in- significant part in later philosoph- ical systems. A RISTOTLE also held that the -*■*■ "active reason" is imperish- able, as it is also without begin- ning. The great emphasis which dependently existing reality such Aristotle placed upon reason, which is quite generally character- istic of Greek thought, doubtless led him to single out this aspect of mind for survival after death. This is somewhat in contrast with the Christian idea of the impor- tance of personal relations with its corresponding emphasis upon love and service, rather than upon the purely intellectual life. The arguments for immortality brought forward by the earlier philosophers came to be accepted as proofs coordinate with the phil- osophical proofs of the existence of God and of the fact of human free- dom; hence it has often been said that philosophy gave us God, free- dom, and immortality. IT' ANT rejected all of these proofs ■*^* as such and offered in their stead grounds for rational faith. His argument was based upon the demands of ethics, which required the reality of the highest good, a as mind itself was conceived to be. of the conservation of spiritual resources conjoined with faith in God or in the ultimate good of the world. That there is some meas- ure of conservation of spiritual val- Both Royce and Munsterberg held ues is an indisputable fact; that that time is relative to action only, that it is, therefore, no part of ul- timate reality and cannot, there- fore, be a factor in terminating the existence of mind. '"TO the common sense way of there is generally recognized need of such conservation is also a fact. What has need to do with the facts of real existence? In human life, at least, very much. The greatest values in civilization, both phys- ical and spiritual, have been real- thinking this argument may ized in response to human needs. seem to be wholly untenable. It should be noted, however, that a variation of the same thought ap- pears in the field of theology quite independently of philosophy. In This is a dynamic world, a world of perpetual creative activity, with mind as the most ultimate and most fundamental creative force. The reasons for this assertion have the Apocalypse, for instance, is a already been given and will not be phrase, "that there should be time no more;"1 while in some modern theological discourse reference is made to time and eternity, with the implication that time belongs to this mundane experience only. An argument for immortality that is more closely allied with modern science is based upon the indestruc- repeated here. It is a fact of com- mon experience that as life devel- ops new needs arise, and that new values arise in response to these needs. Spiritual values are, in large measure, preserved as social values in the race by means of ed- ucation, in the broadest sense of iRev. 10:6. 2Page 68, Boston. Houghton Mifflin 8 Co., The Improvement Era for February, 1930 253 that term. The greatest of all spiritual values, however, is that of personal character itself. Does this perish with death, or do we have reasonable grounds for belief that it is conserved by means of personal immortality? A COMMON sense objection to ■*■ *• this belief is grounded in the fact that we have no idea how sur- vival of the mind without the liv- ing body can be possible. In reply but not as proof it may be said that such existence is not inconceivable nor is its possibility more wonder- ful than is the fact of conception and growth of the individual in this life. Were this not a matter of experience, its possibility would be equally open to question. We cannot, therefore, regard this as a valid objection to belief in immor- tality. The scientific arguments against belief in personal immortality are commonly based upon the seeming dependence of consciousness upon the functioning of the brain. In response to this objection some re- cent philosophers, among them William James, have suggested that the function of the brain is trans- missive, not productive; that death, therefore, means that the brain ceases to transmit mental action rather than that mind ceases to exist. This argument carries the implication that mind does not come into existence with the advent of the brain or other associated bodily organs, but that, in some form, it pre-exists as well as that it survives the death of the body. If mind belongs to eternity, and is a primary cause in the processes of creation, it may well be assumed that the brain itself is a creation of mind as its instrument in this physical world and that the sur- vival of the creative power is not dependent upon survival of its own product. PHILOSOPHERS, however, dif- ■*■ fer as to whether mind survives in personal form, the form here ex- perienced, or whether it is absorbed in an absolute or infinite mind in which all separate selves are lost. A somewhat indefinite stand on this question, yet strong for the immortality of mind, is indicated in the following passages from Bergson. Referring to conscious- ness he says: "On flows the current, running through human generations, subdividing itself into individuals. This subdivision was vague- ly indicated in it, but could not have been made clear without matter. Thus souls are continually being created, which, nevertheless, in a certain sense pre-existed. * * * although it must undergo its vicis- situdes. * * * The destiny of conscious- ness is not bound up * * * with the destiny of cerebral matter. * * * "As the smallest grain of dust is bound up with our entire solar system, * * * so all organized beings, from the humblest to the highest, from the first origins of life to the time in which we are, and in all places as in all times, do but evidence a single impulse, the inverse of the move- ment of matter, and in itself indivisible. All the living hold together, and all yield to the same tremendous push. The ani- mal takes its stand on the plant, man be- strides animality, and the whole of hu- manity, in space and in time, is one im- mense army galloping beside and before and behind each of us in an overwhelming charge, able to beat down every resistance and clear the most formidable obstacles, perhaps even death."3 Royce is more definitely com- mitted to the thought that the in- dividual is absorbed in the Abso- lute Spirit. Howison regards this as resulting inevitably in loss of personal identity and, therefore, in loss of personal immortality. TN opposition to Royce's view as * to the nature of the immortal life Howison holds that the most- ultimate reality is not one abso- lute mind but a society of minds, no one out of all relations to the rest, as the term society implies, but each having, nevertheless, a de- gree of independence, of self-activ- ity, and of personal identity, mani- fested in self-knowledge and self- control. Howison holds further that this personal identity, which is part of our everyday experience, 3Creative Evolution, pp. 269-71, Hen- ry Holt S Co., New York. T ■X HERE is, I know not how, in the minds of men, a certain presage, as it were, of a future existence; and thts takes the deepest root and is most discoverable, in the greatest geniuses and most exalted souls. — Cicero. Our birth is but a sleep and a for- getting, The soul that rises in us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar; Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home. — Wordsworth, "Ode on Intima- tions of Immortality," is a fundamental aspect of reality, one that cannot, therefore, be lost in eternity. This is the meaning of personal immortality in contrast with that theory which identifies immortality with the life of the one infinite and absolute spirit. Howison's point of view is in op- position to the theory that identi- fies immortality wholly with life here and now in that any life is imperishable as an historic fact and is on this account immortal. Howison's theory is also in op- position to the view that such im- mortality as there may be is in the life of the race only, not in the in- dividual. What May Personal Immor- tality Do For Us? Howison answers: "It provides for ourselves, for each of them (us) individually, a place in the world not merely of consequences and mediate effects, but of primary and un- mediated causes. Hence it gives us assur- ance that death no more than any other event in experience is our end and close, but that we survive it, ourselves the springs that organize experience. It shows us pos- sessed, intrinsically, of the very roots and1 sources of perception, not merely of its: experienced fact, and so presents us as; possessed of power to rise beyond the- grave — yes, in and through the very act of death — into new worlds of perception. "Accordingly, it matches the Christian improvement upon the older conception of the future existence — the ascent to the doctrine of 'resurrection' * * * the sup- plementing of immortality by the exalta- tion of the 'body,' or sense perceptive life. As ourselves the causal sources of the perceived world and its cosmic order, we are not destined to any colorless life of bare ideas, to 'some spectral woof of im- palpable abstractions or unearthly ballet of bloodless categories,' but are to go per- ceptively onward in perpetuum, exercising forever our inherent power of framing ex- perience, of begetting worlds of sense-col- ored variety and definiteness, in their long career surely of higher and higher sub- tlety, refinement, beauty, and goodness."4 Speaking further of the nature of the immortal life, J. A. Leigh- ton says: "A self may inhabit, after death, a finer, ethereal body. I may add, merely as a personal statement, that I am unable to form any image or clear con- ception of the nature and conditions .oi existence of a purely disembodied spirit.. * * T "The persistence and continued func- tioning of the spirit core of selfhood is a matter of rationally justified faith. The degree and character of continued personal, identity must remain, from the stand- point of philosophy, a matter of con- jecture."5 4The Limits of Evolution and Other Essays, pp. 302-3. The MacMillan Co., New York. 254 The Improvement Era for February, 1930 What, If Anything, Has the Life Here and Now to Do With Eternal Life? Dr. Leighton answers: "This is eternal life here and now — to know and live for the higher values of the spirit."6 TN other words, as has been said, -*■ this life is a moment in eternity; it is therefore an opportunity to enter upon that type of life which is worthy of eternal perpetuation. A great thought, coming to us from the Master of all teachers, al- though from the theological angle, seems to have like import: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."7 "D ROM these points of view eter- •*- nal life may be regarded, not merely as a life of endless duration, which may be, in some instances, a very miserable life, but rather as an enduring type of life of a very high spiritual quality; a type of life that should, normally, be in progress here and now in the per- sons of each of us. While such a life offers opportunity for unlimit- ed progress in intelligence and knowledge, with equal or even greater significance it offers oppor- tunities for creation of additional values, for growth in love, and ap- preciation, for increase in the joys of existence and extension of these joys to an ever increasing commu- nity of immortal souls. TN conclusion, mind may with ■*■ good reason be conceived as the vital and final cause of all that is; the physical organism, as the crea- tion of the life or mind of which it is the natural and temporal manifestation. In man, then, the brain may be regarded as the organ of mind, probably because it is best suited to the nature of the world of which man is now a part. Thus conceived it is reasonable to sup- pose that under other conditions this same mind may have or may create other means of manifesting and expressing itself, means suit- able to these other conditions and to its new social connections. These means, not being adapted to the world of our present expe- rience, would naturally be a bar- rier against communications be- tween the "world of the departed spirits" and the world of our present experience. It is this bar- rier that psychic research is seek- ing to overcome by scientific means. Believers in divine revelation, how- ever, hold that under certain condi- tions of religious faith this barrier is, in some degree, surmounted. 5Man and the Cosmos, p. 463. Appleton & Co., New York. 6lbid. p. 464. 'St. John 17:3. D. ■L N time there is no present, In eternity no future, In eternity no past. — Tennyson, "The How Why, St. 1. and A Bit of Forgotten History By HUGH J. CANNON TJROM a personal letter written •*■ by Pres. Joseph Wilford Booth not long before his death, t which occurred in Aleppo, Syria, Dec. 5, 1928, the following excerpts are taken : "Very few of the readers of the Era will remember the visit of Pres. Geo. A. Smith, Lorenzo Snow, Eliza R. Snow, et al., to Palestine in 1873, when the sec- ond dedicatory prayer was offered on the Mount of Olives, in prepar- ation for the long predicted 'home- coming' of the scattered Children of Israel. "Recently we met a fine old gentleman here in Haifa who told us an interesting bit of -news of fifty-five years ago. Dr. Nasif Kiwar, a graduate of the American University of Beirut, is now sixty- six years old, and though blind is one of the best informed men in Haifa. We had a delightful visit with him. He was extremely kind and affable, and related to us, with much emotion, thefollowing expe- rience : When he was a small boy, about eleven years of age, a 'Mor- mon' apostle, with others, called at his father's houseiand paid them a visit which he has never forgot- ten. Dr. Kiwar said the visitors left a Book of Mormon with the family, and one of the men, whose name was George A. Smith, also gave his photo to the boy's moth- er, because said he, 'Mr. Smith looked so much like my mother's brother who had died without ever having had a picture taken. On this account she very much appre- ciated that photo of Geo. A. Smith.' "After all these years, and to' our great surprise, the doctor pro- duced the old photograph taken in Egypt; I think in Cairo. On the back of the picture was written the following: 'George A. Smith. First Counselor to President B. Young of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.' "It is hardly necessary to say that the worthy doctor prizes this picture very highly. The fact that it has been so carefully preserved during all these years attests that fact." Reference to the Church Chro- nology indicates that President Geo. A. Smith's party left Salt Lake City, Sept. 15, 1872, and, after visiting many important cities en route, arrived in Jerusalem Feb- ruary 25, 1873. On Sunday, March 2, they held solemn wor- ship on the historic Mount of Olives. Subsequently they visited many of the places made memorable be- cause of their association with the earthly ministry of our Lord. President Booth continues: "We have just had a delightful visit from Miss Maud May Babcock and the four young ladies who are traveling with her. They are the Misses Phyllis Stohl, Lethe Cole- man, Lois Fairbanks, and Oleta Jex." Dr. Kiwar was present at the re- cital given by Miss Maud May Babcock at Haifa, Nov. 1, and warmly complimented the reader after her presentation of "Mary Magdalene." He is father-in-law to secretary Taylor of the office of district commissioner, Coleville, at Haifa. "While our Utah guests, Miss Babcock and party, were here, Mr. Taylor did all in his power to make their visit a pleasant one. "Sister Mary R. Booth and the writer had the pleasure of touring Palestine in a big '8 passsenger' car. We listened again with much pleasure to our wonderful reader, at the Y. M. C. A. in Jerusalem, as she gave to a spell -bound audi- ence 'Caesar and Cleopatra' by Bernard Shaw. "On Sunday, Nov. 11, we met in an upper room at the Majestic hotel in Jerusalem, and there for the first time in Palestine we held a sacrament meeting, at which all present, bore a faithful testimony."