Extracted text
L. E. Borden.
THE SAME OBJECT viewed from two different points of sight, differs both in aspect and position. Much depends upon whether it is seen from the center of the universe or from its circumference—from the position of knowledge or from that of ignorance. Parallax which is an important factor in astronomical calculations, enters into all the moral relations. In terms of astronomy, parallax is change of direction. When a person changes his place, objects about him appear in different directions from him. If he moves north, an object which was directly west of him, is moved by parallax toward the southwest; and an object which was east, now appears in the southeast quarter.
"By the true place of a heavenly body, is meant that which it would seem to occupy, if viewed from the center of the earth." This is what the Copernican astronomers say. In the Cellular Cosmogony, the earth is a great stationary egg and the sun is at the center; we live upon the inside of the shell. Hence the true place of a body must be determined from the sun; when it is seen from the circumference it appears displaced from its true position. We must get into the sun in order to see things as they are. While we remain upon the circumference, things are not exactly what they seem, nor where they seem. Judgment must be suspended so long as we do not enjoy a central outlook. The injunction, "Judge no man" has a scientific basis.
The moral effect of parallax, or a circumferential view, like the physical effect, is to cause a body to appear lower than it really is when seen from the standpoint of righteousness—not that vice is palliated at the center, but particular instances are obscured by the general principles which they subserve. The cycle of necessity is there seen to culminate in freedom, and origin and destiny are plainly identical.
There is a story of Professor Hayden, of the United States Geological Survey, which illustrates judgment from the circumference, or the standpoint of ignorance. One day upon the plains he became separated from his party, and, seeing some men on horseback, rode toward them only to discover that they were hostile Indians. He turned his horse and tried to escape, but his saddle bags and pockets were filled with specimens of various kinds of minerals. Thus laden, he made poor headway and was soon overtaken. The Indians ordered him by signs to dismount, and then began to examine his possessions. Dipping into his pockets, they brought out handfuls of rocks. Again and again they did this until pockets, pouch, and saddle-bags were emptied. As the pile of stones increased, the Indians burst into laughter. Then they spied the tin box stuffed with bugs and insects, which hung at his side and, looking curiously at one another and then at Prof. Hayden, they touched their foreheads, showing that they thought the poor man was not in his right mind. Now the Indians were always kind to the insane, fearing that some evil would befall them if they injured such unfortunates. So they gave back all the Professor's minerals, putting them carefully into his saddle-bags and pockets, and let him mount his horse and go on. From their standpoint, a man who went around collecting stones and bugs must be insane. The scientific point of view was utterly beyond their conception.
Some persons look at the Koreshan System in the same way. They decide at once, with a great burst of laughter, that a man who teaches that we live inside the earth, as well as those who believe him, must have lost their minds. Ridicule is a cheap argument. It does not appeal to the reason.
The Koreshan System starts from a demonstrated premise,—that a straight line extended at right angles to a perpendicular erected at any point on the earth's surface, forms the chord of an arc, not a tangent. This premise has been proved by actual experiment on the Gulf coast of Florida. It leads to the logical inference that the earth's surface is concave instead of convex. All the details of the System in every relation have been worked out from this premise.
The Copernican theory of the universe goes counter to one of the primal laws of research maintained by the old scientists themselves, in positing conditions wholly foreign to experience. Everything that has form has limitation. If the universe is illimitable, it has no form. An illimitable universe is a logical impossibility, contrary to all the facts of experience. Every known object, and consequently every mental concept of an object, has both form and limitation. The Copernican theory advocates a universe that has a center without a circumference—another logical impossibility, for the center implies the circumference.
The atomic theory is another case in point, when one of the fundamental concepts of physical science is founded upon a figment of the imagination. The indestructible atom of science was long supposed to be absolutely solid and absolutely impenetrable; yet there are no absolutely solid and absolutely impenetrable bodies in nature.
The theory of molecular vibrations also shines conspicuously in the list of unthinkable concepts. Almost every molecule (each molecule containing at least two atoms) is supposed to collide with its neighbors seventeen thousand million times every second, while the collisions of an oxygen molecule are seven thousand million per second. What miracle of theology requires of its devotees such an act of faith?
Besides its mathematical premise, demonstrated by means of the extension of an air-line in Florida, an experiment which the advocates of Koreshan Science are eager to repeat along the shore of Lake Michigan, the Cellular Cosmogony may be proved by analogy. Continuity is evidently the expression of the divine veracity in nature. All life develops in the egg or cell; hence it is more reasonable to conclude that human life develops inside rather than outside the great cosmic cell.
Taking the fact of the earth's concavity, thus demonstrated, as a basis, and reasoning from natural phenomena to spiritual phenomena on the principle that a law in one domain must have its correspondent in every other, the whole fabric of Koreshan theology, psychology, and sociology has been wrought out.
The relation of the physical center and circumference involves the relation of God and man. A study of the solar, lunar, and planetary systems involves the science of government and the adjustment of social relations.
All the arguments of the system are clear, simple, and reasonable.
"A prophet is not without honor save in his own country." The first public recognition from an exponent of the old science has come to the Founder of Koreshan Science, from France. Camille Flammarion very courteously sent him a card of invitation to become an honorary member in the Royal Astronomical Society of France. Koreshan work is, however, gaining ground very rapidly in this country; witness the fact that crowds varying from two to fifteen hundred persons listen nightly with earnest attention to Koreshan speakers in Chicago.
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The Flaming Sword · Vol. 14, No. 38 · Aug 10, 1900 · PDF pp. 6–7
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The Flaming Sword · Vol. 14, No. 38 · Aug 10, 1900 · PDF pp. 6-7