p. 1 | THE SOUL'S IMMORTALITY by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 16, 1879

THE SOUL'S IMMORTALITY.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

The Belief of Various Nations Concerning It.

BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.

AFRICAN RACES.

The Damaras, one author says, “have no expectation of a future state.” Another author says, “Though the Damaras do not profess absolutely to believe in a life hereafter, they have a confused notion of a future state.” The reader will see that there is no countenance for the immortal-soul doctrine here.

Mr. Moffat, speaking of the Bechuanas, says, “Man’s immortality was never heard of among that people.” The East Africans have “no notion of a soul, or spirit.”

“The Bulloms and Timmanus have no fixed opinion respecting a future state; for, though they speak of future rewards and punishments, their ideas on this head are vague and fluctuating. They do not believe that the spirits of their deceased friends return to visit their former abodes, nor have they any word in their language to express a spirit, or apparition.”

The faith of the inland negroes is shown by the following:—

“The negresses of Matamba throw the corpses of their husbands into the water, in order that along with the body they may drown the soul, by which they would otherwise be troubled.” “The Wanikas of East Africa ‘have neither god, nor devil, nor heaven, nor hell, nor soul, nor idol.’”

Of the people of Madagascar, Mr. Ellis says:—

“Still more vague and indefinite are the ideas they entertain respecting the human soul and its future existence. They have no knowledge of the doctrine of the soul as a separate, immaterial, immortal principle in man, nor has their language any word to express such an idea. They speak of the saina, but mean by this the intellectual powers. They speak also of the fanaky, the nearest term found to express spirit, but it seems in their use of it to imply principally the moral qualities or dispositions. . . . The next question is, What becomes of the saina, or mind, when a person dies? To which the Malagasy replies, It is a part of the body. But does it return to dust with the body in the grave? No; the body returns to dust and the saina becomes leizona, i. e., vanished, invisible. And the aina, or life, becomes rivota,—air, or wind, not retaining its individuality; but absorbed and lost in mere aura—a mere breeze—a breath in the general mass of air floating around.”

TRIBES OF THE WESTERN CONTINENT.

As we have seen, the Chibchas of Central America expect a future life through a resurrection. The Peruvians hold the same doctrine. “With respect to the soul, the barbarians of Mexico, as they tell us, believed that it died together with the body.”

The inhabitants of Guatemala “were persuaded that to die by any other than a natural death was to forfeit all hope of life hereafter; and therefore left the bodies of the slain to the beasts and vultures.” They had no idea of the immortality of the soul; for they believed that some utterly perish, and that those who do obtain a future life gain it by a resurrection of the body.

The people of Nicaragua being asked what about the future state replied, “We only know that infants who die before they have tasted maize, or are weaned, will be raised again, and return to their father’s house; and their fathers will recognize and provide for them. Old people who die will not return nor be raised again.” Being asked where Indians go when they die, they replied that they go beneath the earth, where “they are buried; and all is over.” A few just and brave warriors are exceptions, as they ascend, to live somewhere else.

THE ESQUIMAUX OF ALASKA.

Some important facts with regard to these tribes are stated in the following quotation. Mr. Dall has traveled among them extensively, and hence is well prepared to state their belief. He says: “Many Indians, in fact all the Timneh that I have conversed with who have not been taught by the English or Russian missionaries, do not believe in the immortality of man. Of those who have a dim notion of the kind, none have any idea whatever of a future reward and punishment, of any Supreme Deity or power, of good and evil in a moral sense, or of anything which can be called a religion. Assertions to the contrary proceed from the ignorance or poetic license of the author, or from intercourse with the tribes that have derived their ideas from the missionaries.”

Yes; many of the assertions so confidently made concerning the faith of different barbarous tribes and nations in the immortality of the soul, proceed, as Mr. Dall remarks, from the ignorance or poetic license of the author, or from intercourse with those who have been taught by missionaries. No such doctrine was held among them when first found. Thus upon a little inquiry, we find that there are scores of barbarous tribes who have never dreamed that the soul is immortal.

THE INDIANS.

I know it is often asserted that the different Indian tribes of America all believe the soul immortal; but I have looked in vain for the proof. They have some vague ideas of a future life, but their ideas are all very gross and material indeed. They expect to be in the next world much as they are here,—to take their dog, and knife, and arrows with them, and use them there the same as here. This is far from indicating a belief in an immortal, immaterial soul. The least hint that they have any idea of a hereafter has been taken as positive proof that they believe the soul immortal. But this is an unwarranted assumption. There are no facts to sustain it.

CHRISTIANS.

From the days of the apostles to the present time, there have been more or less Christians who have rejected the dogma of the natural immortality of man. Of late their numbers are rapidly increasing. They are found in large numbers both in Europe and America. With a very few exceptions, the whole body of Adventists are of this faith; so also are thousands in other churches. They believe the Bible implicitly, and believe in future rewards and punishments, and eternal life for the saints; but they do not believe in the immortality of the soul nor in the conscious state of the dead. They hope for a future life through the resurrection.

Another class must be counted out, as non-believers in man’s immortality. We have traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Minnesota to Alabama, and preached the doctrine of the mortality of man. Wherever we go, we find a large class of persons who say that they were never satisfied about the immortality of the soul, and never could really believe it. We find these persons both in the churches and out of them; yet they are commonly counted as believers in that dogma. Again, there are many thousands of intelligent skeptics who do not believe the soul immortal.

SUMMARY.

We confidently believe that the facts we have presented fully explode the oft-repeated argument that the immortality of the soul has been universally believed. Facts are against it. But if it had been generally believed, so have other monstrous errors. The oldest idea of a future life was, that it is obtained through a resurrection. This view was held by the Egyptians, Persians, Arabians, Mohammedans, Jews, Christians, Peruvians, and even some barbarous tribes of all countries.

We have shown that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul was first taught by the Egyptians; that there is no trace of it in the early history of ancient nations; that it was denied by most men in the time of Socrates; that the masses did not believe it in the time of Polybius; that the contrary of the soul’s immortality was the prevailing opinion in the time of Cicero; that this disbelief was full as extensive in the first century; that nearly all the great schools of philosophy openly denied it; that even those who professed to believe it held it only on the principle of emanation and re-absorption, which virtually annihilates all individuality; that none of the ancients could possibly believe it, as they all held to a great periodical destruction of all things; that the Arabs were ignorant of the doctrine; that the Jews did not believe it; that the Hindoos and Buddhists, comprising fully one-third of the human race, implicitly hold to the annihilation of all men; that the Chinese do not believe it; that many of the Mohammedans believe in the sleep of the dead; that many of the natives of Asia, of Polynesia, of Africa, and of the Western Continent have no such doctrine among them; that it is not proved that the native Indians believe it; that there are many Christians who deny it; and that, finally, there are thousands of others who have no faith in this doctrine. These facts show that but a small portion of the race have ever believed in the immortality of soul.