One Religion for All
One Religion for All is an article written by Arthur Conan Doyle published in the Reynolds's Illustrated News on 16 november 1924.
One Religion for All
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle one of the most earnest believers in the world in the gospel of Spiritualism.
The Ultimate Goal of Spiritualists.
In the following interview Sir Arthur Conan Doyle dwells upon the subject of Spiritualism, which is making rapid strides, not only in this country but throughout the world.
It is not correct to say that we are experiencing a revival of spiritualism. What is really happening is that more people are discovering our great religion — the best religion of comfort that has ever been known the world — and the movement is growing steadily. It has lasted seventy-six years, and it will outlast every movement on this earth.
It is the beginning of an enormous new revolution of mankind, sent by God, the centre of all truth, and it will continue to grow. There is plenty of time for it to develop; there is no hurry. Those who have ears let them hear; those who haven't, the worse for them.
Spiritualism brings untold happiness into your lives, and you lose all fear of death.
DEATH IS LESS BITTER.
It even mitigates the fear of the death of your own beloved ones. You learn to know you have not really lost them. If my son had lived he would have been attached to the Army Medical Department, and very likely he would have gone to foreign parts. I can get into touch with him much quicker now than I should had he been alive and away from home. So that death to a large extent is mitigated by Spiritualism; the bitterness of it is taken away.
On top of all that the most important thing is our knowledge of what religion is. We all either accept peacefully what is told us by those who really know no more than we ourselves, or else we worry ourselves continually over problems. That was my condition before I found out these things for myself. It is everybody's condition if they have got any soul
whatever. The man who does ... worry is the man without a ... you have a soul you worry ... to know what is to become ... soul. Once you get that solution ... do not worry any more. I do not worry. I do not think about these things, I know about them.
If my own mother comes back proves her identity to me, shows herself clearly, as she did on one occasion, and then tells me exactly what sort of a country she is in, what she is doing, what effect life here has on life there — is she tells me all this surely I do not want any information from the Hebrew prophets. I have got something much more certain much more up to date. That is where it is so enormously important in the religious realm. That has been a more and more recognised.
I noticed that the Bishops of London the other day spoke of us with a great deal more respect. I know also that some of the great Nonconformist leaders are getting deeply interested in the subject. Only the other day I had a letter from India showing how the Hindoos are getting hold of Spiritualism. It is working like leaven all over the world, in every country, but principally in the Anglo-Saxon countries. When it is established it will simplify religion to such an extent that it will do away with all dogma and at the same time will give all creeds an opportunity of having communion with the dead, but it will go very far to unite all mankind into one religion. The ... on which they differ will be so significant as compared to the ... with which they agree.
This, of course, is far off ... it is the ultimate goal towards where we are moving.
CHRISTIAN "CHARITY".
The early Spiritualists ... recruited from Methodists, Papists, and other Nonconformists .... Presently is was found that the ... sects, with that want of charity which is characteristics of organised Christianity, would have nothing to do with these people and drove them out of their communion, declaring that what they testified to was the work of the devil. The direct consequence of this was that the Spiritualists were compelled to form ... churches of their own; and the organised spiritual bodies are non unitarian. There are over 300 of these churches in Great Britain, and these number is rapidly growing.
Although they are unitarian, they look upon the Christ as a very high spirit and teacher, so that their position does not leave any great ... between them and the Christian community.
At the same time they would be ready to recognise Buddha, a Mahomet, or Moses as being also had spirits and teachers. So that then a room on the Spiritualist platform of men of every creed.
In a continuation of his interview which will appear in next Sunday's "Reynolds's Illustrated News. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle will deal with the question of mediums and the practice of fortune-telling.
