The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-02-10
EVOLUTION IN RELIGION.


|
The lecturer in his opening remarks, assumed
the position that the religious element in man
is the result of intellectual development, and
not special endowment bestowed upon him
by his Creator, as is generally believed at the
present time.
| Having become cognizant of the physical
world, through the aid of his special senses
and perceptive faculties, he reasons out cause
| for it, and endows that cause with just such
| attributes as the phenomena suggest to his
reason, and thus, through the same logical pro-
| cesses by which he arrives at a belief in gravi
| tation or the facts of The solar system, he ar
rives at the idea of God and the qualities with
| which he endows Him. And since mans high
| er psychological powers can be accounted for
only through his possession of highly organ.
| lied brain; and since (if there be any truth in
| the doctrine of evolution) there must have
been period when this organ had not become
| sufficiently developed to furnish an impression
| of such complex ideas as are involved in what
| is generally understood as religion, there
must have been long lapse of time, in the
| early history of the race when he was totally
destitute of this element. The emotions which
are excited into such energetic activity and
stand out in such bold relief, are thought by
many apparently to constitute all there is in
| religion-"a thing of the heart" they say, too
subtle and too sacred to be profaned by the
| touch of unhallowed science. But remove the
| underlying ideas and beliefs, and this "thng
of the heart would go along with them, never
to return except through the same mental oper-
atoms that were the occasion of its existence
t. I'll I>o sIxy
that these emotions do not belong exclusively
to religion, for they as often find expression
through other elements, and are as often ex-
cited into activity through the stimulus of
other ideas, and are as necessary to the person
without religion as to the one who possesses it
in the highest degree. The elements, therefore,
W hich continue to constitute mans religion
cannot be viewed as special endowments pecu
liar to it, nor can he be deemed naturally relig-
ious only In so far as the amount of his intel
leciual powers render him SO. As proof of
these theoretical views. the lecturer made
prominent the fact that there are still existing
many barbarous tribes without religion-whose
language has no word for soul nor God. AS
suming the fact to be we'll authenticated and
these primitive people to be type of the race,
it becomes plainly evident that man has no re-
ligion in his primeval condition, and that this
is a later result of established evolution alone.
But having acquired a certain amount of intel
lectual advancement, tbs inevitable that he
should become religious. Having come to a
belief in God he readily arrives at belief in a
future state of existence, being assisted in this
| BY his intense love of life Dreams and frances
| readily come to his aid, as our own Divine
Revelations abundantly testify. But were any
other fact wanted to account for this, the his
tory of modern spritualism in this country
during the last twenty-five years would be am
ply sufficient.
Thus, step by step, tho speaker endeavored
to explain how, from very crude and puerIle
notions in the beginning. great religious sys-
TENS are finally evolved, and come to exert
such an overwhelming influence in the affairs
of the race. The blind beliefs in the dogmas,
traditions, and superstitious religion inculcates,
appeal principally to mans selfshness,
the overwhelming passion in the hu-
man or any other nature of which we
have any knowledge. Impressed by the con.
viction that not only his present but his future
happiness is dependent upon the character of
his religious beliefs and practices, they become
to man an all-controlling passion; imbued with
their inspiration, he coneelveS and accom-
plishes the most astonishing achievements
either for good or for evil-subjects himself to
long cOntin ued physical discOmforts and labors,
makes exter minating wars upon her unOffend-
ing and peaceful neghbOrs, sacks cities and
villages, puts innocent women and children to
the sword and invents the most dabolical in
struments of tortue of which it is possible for
the human mind to consider. 1t is inevitable,
then, that the system should be enduring, ibear
ing sway as 1t does over the bodies and souls of
men inevitable that those who are subjected
to its influence should become intensely relig-
ious, bow submissively to its behests and zeal
ously guard its interests on every side. For,
until recently, there has been no possible
agency by which the falsity OF the historical
events and phenomena on which the system
was founded, could be disproved, or any light
infused into the long and dreary n ght. AT
length science dawned upon the world, and at
the present time has dispelled, to some extent
the dense darkness that has hitherto enshrOud-
ed the race. 1t has brushed away nearly all
superstitions outside the sacred records, her.
aiding the approach of the time when, through
it's aid. the superstitions founded on these rec
ords shall also disappear. But the latter, on
account of their relationship to mans selfish
nature, are by no means SO readily shaken off.
Having existed for centuries, first in traditions
and then in written language, and having
come to be believed as the invaluable word OF
the Infinite Jehovah, whose wrath would de-
scend on the head of the unbeIieyer, it is evi-
dent that they must endure for a long and IN
definite period of time.
But science has already accomplished much
towards their extinction, and has plainly cast
much doubt upon the infallibity of the so
called sacred records Evangelical Christians
have, therefore, been for some time complain
ing of "a GOODNESS in Zion," and have seeming
" but with little effect, redoubled their efforts
in aid of the cause. The same is true in the
main, of the conservative portion OF the liberal
Christians, for they are now acting most ener-
getically in concert with the evangelcalS to ar
rest the sceptical tendencies of the times. New
ertheless the world seems to increase in unbe-
lief, and unless the tendency is arrested heresy
must abound more widely in the future than in
tho past Science has substituted in measure
the reign of Omnipotent law for that of
wrathful personal God. AS the former takes
no cognizance of either prayers, sacrifices or
ceremonies, but exacts universal conformity to
"a :,kok aIr1o co nn
need of religious demonstrations. God having
been banished to the realm of law, as he has
been by the more advanced thought of ages,
and it having been shown that the result OF his
overstepping the bounds of that realm would
be a return to chaos as complete as before the
dawn of creation, the character OF religious
rites must and will undergo such notifications
as will render them harmonious with this theo-
logical conception. In his future worship man
will have no occasion for prayer other than an
undemonstrative desire for spiritual good, for
he will clearly see the utter absurdity OF and
even impiety of any other. He will view with
Indifference if not contempt, all those nice met
aphysical subtleties and distinctions in belief
and modes of worship, and the fierce religious
uuarrels concerning them which have so long
disgraced and still continue TO disgrace, not
only the Christian name but humanity itself;
he will discard the present popular absurdity
of there being three Gods in one; OF holy
ghosts and satanic ghosts, and an idolatrous
man worship, which now do so much violence
to the common sense of the average intellect,
but be will embrace pure monotheism, and
worship God without variableness or shadow
of turning-the God of science and Of law, as
the only being worthy of divine honor.
Having passed through the various stages of
belief previously indicated, and having finally
arrived at that in which God is banished to the
realm of law, will ever restless and profane
man, with his more profane science and meta
physics leave Deity an above even here? In
other words, will religion exist in the future
through the continuous belief in the existence
of Supreme, conscious intelligent Being,
who, with design. has created the universe as
we see it to day? or will the race, through such
agencies as the future has in store, finally lose
its belief in God and come to be without re-
ligion, as it was in the beginning? The lect-
urer thought no answer which would totally
expel religion from the mind of man, would be
accepted BY the race, and wished it plainly un-
derstood that he did not believe such an answer
would be the true one, nor did he think it was
accepted by any considerable portion of scienc-
lists or philosophers. He did not believe it
probable that any future acquisitions of science
or metaphysics could dethrone Omnipotent
Wisdom and leave it wholly out of considera.
ton in accounting for facts of the universe.
He believed that science would eventually de-
monstrate, if it has not already done SO, the
existence Of Supreme Intelligent Cause, far
II .oso ctv ainh mi