If Spiritism is just a belief, we ask you to prove it!

Some people, averse to the idea of the existence of the soul or the Spirit, say about Spiritism (without knowing it): it is just a belief, and nothing more! We urgently ask that these people prove what they say and, in addition, replace Spiritism, in its eventual collapse, with something better.

This article is linked to the previous article, on the lives by Daniel Gontijo which reflect many untruths about Spiritism.

Allan Kardec, in the Spiritist Magazine of September 1860, already spoke about this subject, with an elegance and property that would make anyone envious:

To combat it [the Spiritist Doctrine] effectively, he only has one way, which we are happy to recommend. You don't destroy a tree by cutting its branches, but its roots. It is necessary, therefore, to attack Spiritism at the root and not at the branches, which are reborn as they are cut. Now, the roots of Spiritism, of this nineteenth century madness, to use its expression, are the soul and its attributes. Let it prove, therefore, that the soul does not exist and cannot exist, because without souls there are no more Spirits. When this has been proven, Spiritism will no longer have a reason to exist and we will confess ourselves defeated. If your skepticism doesn't go that far, prove it, not by a simple denial, but by a mathematical, physical, chemical, mechanical, physiological or any other demonstration:

1. ─ That the being who thinks during life no longer thinks after death;

2. ─ That, if you think, you should no longer want to communicate with those you loved;

3. ─ That, if it can be everywhere, it cannot be at our side;

4. ─ That, if he is next to us, he cannot communicate with us;

5. ─ Which, due to its fluidic envelope, cannot act on inert matter;

6. ─ That, if it can act on inert matter, it cannot act on an animated being;

7. ─ That, if you can act on an animated being, you cannot direct your hand to write;

8. ─ That, although you can make him write, you cannot answer his questions and convey his thoughts to him.

When the opponents of Spiritism have demonstrated to us that this is impossible, based on reasons as obvious as those by which Galileo demonstrated that it is not the Sun that revolves around the Earth, then we will be able to say that their doubts are founded. Unfortunately, to this day, all their arguments boil down to this: I don't believe it; therefore, it is impossible. They will no doubt say that it is up to us to prove the reality of the demonstrations; we prove them by facts and reasoning. If they admit neither one nor the other and deny what they see, it is up to them to prove that our reasoning is false and that the facts are impossible.

We therefore repeat the same recommendations as Kardec and ask that you be able to prove, peremptorily, that the Spirit does not exist and cannot exist or, on the contrary, that it exists, but cannot relate to us. Until then (we have been waiting for this proof for more than 150 years), we will be left with the lucid, logical, rational principles and, above all, of unassailable elevation and moral consequences, that Spiritism gives us – with the benefit, also, of knowing that This was not born as a result of anyone's preconceived ideas.

I add Kardec's words in Heaven and hell (original, unadulterated version):

Pela crença no nada, o homem inevitavelmente concentra seu pensamento na vida presente. Não haveria, com efeito, por que se preocupar com um futuro do qual nada se espera. Essa preocupação exclusiva com o presente o leva naturalmente a pensar em si antes de tudo; é, portanto, o mais poderoso estímulo ao egoísmo. O incrédulo é coerente quando chega à conclusão: “Desfrutemos enquanto aqui estamos, desfrutemos o máximo possível, pois, depois de nós, tudo estará acabado; gozemos depressa, porque não sabemos quanto tempo durará”, assim como a esta outra, bem mais grave aliás para a sociedade: “Desfrutemos, não importa à custa de quem; cada um por si; a felicidade, cá embaixo, é do mais astuto”. Se o escrúpulo religioso restringe a ação de alguns, que freio terão aqueles que em nada creem? Para estes, a lei humana somente alcança os tolos, e por isso dedicam seu talento a maneiras de dela se esquivarem. Se há uma doutrina nociva e antissocial é certamente a do neantismo ((Neantismo (néantisme). Segundo essa ideia metafísica do nada, não haveria lei moral ou direito natural, nem existência após a morte, portanto nada a temer ou esperar. A escolha estaria ligada ao resultado e não à intenção de uma ação, consagrando a postura egoísta. Na época de Allan Kardec havia poucos partidários, mas desde o século 20, a comunidade científica e a cultural em geral adotaram esse relativismo moral ou incredulidade enquanto senso comum, sendo que as instituições sociais se estruturaram pelo individualismo. (N. do E.) )), porque rompe os verdadeiros laços de solidariedade e de fraternidade, alicerce das relações sociais.

KARDEC, Allan. Heaven and Hell, 3rd edition (original). FEAL Publisher

We ask, then, that, if you cannot prove that Spiritism is just a belief, you can at least produce something better in its place: something that makes human beings not focus all their energy on enjoying the present, to the detriment of others; that leads you to act in a charitable manner towards your fellow man, using your resources in the name of good and not accumulation; that makes the individual abandon the regrettable ideas of suicide, not for fear of punishment, but for the understanding of why we are here and for the way of seeing difficulties through different eyes. Furthermore, they can replace it with another belief (using the word they use), that gives the mother the consolation of knowing that her son, who died when he was still trying to overcome certain mistakes, is not lost, and that his efforts were not in vain. That, in fact, does not cause humanity to disbelieve in the effort to improve itself, something that materialist dogmatism has produced with great force. That ultimately makes human beings respect everyone, regardless of ethnicity, sex, color, age, social class, and that does not produce precisely the opposite of all of this, as materialism has produced, going so far as to give basis to regrettable ideas of genocide, like that carried out by Hitler.

We eagerly await to learn about this new doctrine.