Great Construction

Critiquing a Critique of Faiths

     When I happened to look at the new year edition of a certain magazine, I found an article consisting of a round-table discussion on fake religions, a critique of faiths, as mentioned in the title. The panel consisted of four persons, Dr. Junji Kaneko, a medical doctor [well known as a specialist in psychiatric medicine], Dr. Rikusaburo Shikiba [same], Meiji University Professor [of psychology and parapsychology] Toranosuke Oguma, and Mr. Masa’aki Ishikawa, head of the Japan Magic School. Upon reading, I found it to be mostly depreciating remarks, treating the spiritual phenomena, primarily of two organizations, that headed by Jikōson [née Nagako Nagaoka] and the “Dancing Religion” which has recently been making its presence felt in society. In response, the writer would like to offer his own critique, based on a fair and impartial viewpoint.
     As you all four say, rambunctious religions based on spiritual possession like that of Jikōsan and the Dancing Religion are disgusting even from our viewpoint. If anything we find it peculiar that there are even individuals who believe in and follow such religions. But, at the same time, disgusting is the superficial attitude of intellectuals and journalists which holds that as long as anything can be considered a new religion, it can indiscriminately be classified as fakery and a cult. Disgusting because there is probably no one who does not know that even the admirable religions that have come to command formidable authority at present were, at the time of their formation, considered fakery, treated poorly by society,  whose founders were exiled, imprisoned, some even losing their lives. Scholars and educators like Copernicus, Galileo, and Socrates had to accept tragic fates.
     New religions, new theories, and new discoveries are almost all considered heretical when they make their first appearance, a reality that has become standard whether in the East or in the West. Furthermore, the newer it is and the bigger it is, the greater the persecution. All will acknowledge that the greatest persecution of all was that of the son of God, Jesus Christ.  

unpublished, 1949
translated by cynndd