The Bible and Spiritualism. Dr. Conan Doyle's Rejoinder

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

The Bible and Spiritualism is a letter written by Arthur Conan Doyle first published in The Cape Argus (Cape Town, South Africa) on 19 november 1928.


The Bible and Spiritualism

The Cape Argus (19 november 1928, p. 10)

Dr. Conan Doyle's Rejoinder.

To the Editor of The Argus.

Sir, — Your anonymous correspondent quotes the Old Testament on the subject of necromancers, who were probably in those old days more akin to one idea of medicine men and had nothing in common with a modern medium. The Old Testament is full of Mosaic laws as to bodily mutilation, the avoidance of certain foods, the wearing of certain cloth, the cutting of the beard in certain patterns. I do not know if your correspondent follows all these precepts. Unless he does so I cannot see why he should pick and choose. There is a Mosaic injunction, "Suffer not a witch to live." Acting upon this some 200,000 poor old women were burned to death. That should have taught mankind the danger of the literal acceptance of ancient texts.

The New Testament is full of psychic teaching from cover to cover, and no one can fully understand it who does not know something of psychic law. Nothing could be clearer than John's injunction, "Try the spirits whether they be of God." That is precisely what we do. There are, of course, every sort in the spirit world even as there are in this world. Our duty is to learn from the higher ones and, when we can, to teach and elevate the lower ones.

A. Conan Doyle