This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 Excerpt: ... detail its various steps) is an intellectual belief dependent on intellectual laws. That this is the case, a moment's reflection should suffice to satisfy us. Why, for example, do we reject the religions of savages and the lower races? Evidently because they run counter to our knowledge of the world and of the human ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885 Excerpt: ... detail its various steps) is an intellectual belief dependent on intellectual laws. That this is the case, a moment's reflection should suffice to satisfy us. Why, for example, do we reject the religions of savages and the lower races? Evidently because they run counter to our knowledge of the world and of the human mind, that is to say, because they are not intellectually credible to us. Why do the savages themselves believe in them? Evidently because they do not run counter to their knowledge and culture, such as it is, that is to say, because they are intellectually credible to them. Again, why do so many of the cultured and enlightened classes in Europe at the present time reject the Christian Religion? The answer, as before, is that the various conceptions embodied in its creed run counter to beliefs founded on positive Science, and so can no longer be credited as they were before Science had reached its present stage of advancement. Indeed, so obvious is it to me that religious beliefs are accepted or rejected on precisely the same intellectual grounds as any other beliefs whatsoever, that I should have deemed it superfluous to insist on it so strongly, were it not that I am aware how profoundly the idea is discredited. Instead of being regarded as a matter of intellectual belief, of logical inference, Religion is regarded as a matter of faith, a mystery passing comprehension; an affair of sentiment and emotion, rather than of insight; a state of the heart, rather than of the head. Now, the prevalence of this view of Religion is due largely to the converging teaching of two great and representative bodies of men, viz., the Priesthood and the men of Physical Science. The reasons for this convergence between men not usually found in the same camp, besi...
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