The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-10-13
Ernst HaeCkeI
on "LaSt Words
on Evolution"
Continued from previous issue)

Continued from previous issue)
When we look at the matter impair
TALLY in the light of pure reason. the
belief in Immortality is wholly neon
sistent with the facts of evolution and
OF physiology. The ontogenetic dog
ma of the older church, that the soul
is introduced into the soulless body
at a particular moment Of its en-
oryonic development, is just as alb
surd as the phylogenetic dogma of
the most modern Jesuits, that the
divine spirit was breathed into the
frame of an anthropoid ape at a Ger.
tain period lin the Tertiary period.
and SO converted it into an immortal
soul We may examine and test thi
belief as we will, we can find in
nothing but piece of mystic supeiE
stition. 1t is maintained solely bv
the great power Of tradition and the
support of conservative governments
the leaders of which have no per-
sonal belief in these revelations
but cling to the practical conviction
that throne and altar must support
each other. They unfortunately over
look the circumstance that the throne
is apt to become merely the footstool
to the altar, and that the church ex-
ploits the state for its own, not the
states, good.
We learn further, from the history
OF this dogma, that the belief in i'm
mortality did not find its way into
science until comparatively late
date. 1t is not found in the great
Mon1stic natural philosophers who.
six centuries before the time of
Christ, evinced profound insight into
the real nature Of the world. II is
not found in Democritus and Emne-
docles, in Seneca and Lucretius Carus.
II IS not found in the older oriental
religions, Buddhism, the ancient re-
iglon of the Chinese, or Confacian-
ism; IN fact, there is no question of
individual persistence after death in
the Pentateuch or the earlier hooks
Of the Old Testament (Which were
written before the Babylonian exile)
IL was Plato and his pupil, Aristotle.
that found place for it in their dual.
lstlc metaphysics; and its agreement
with the Christian and Mohammedan
teaching secured for it a very vide
spread acceptance.
another psychological dogma. the
belief in mans frse-wiu is eouaII-
inconsistent with the truth of evolu-
ton. Modern physiology shows
clearly that the will is never reaIl,,
Tree in man or in the animal hut
determined by the organization of the
brain; this in turn is its indiyidual
character by the laws of heredity and
the influence of the environment. II
IS only because the apparent freedom
Of the will has such great practical
significance in the province of re-
ligion, morality sociology. and law.
tnat 1t still forms the subject of the,
most contradictory claims. Theoreti-
cally, determinism. or the doctrine Of
the necessary character of our yol.
lions, was established long ago.
With the belief in the absolute free
dom OF the will and the personal i'm
mortality of the soul is associated IN
the minds Of many highly educated i
people, third article of faith tho
oel1ef in a personal God. It is well
known that this belief, often wrongly
represented as an Indispensable foun-
dalton OF religion, assumes the most
widely varied shapes. AS a r7tIa
however, it is an open or covert an.
thropomorphism. God is conceived &c
tne supreme being" but turns out.
on closer examination to be an ideal
lied man. According to the Mosaic
narrative, God made man to his own
image and likeness" but it is usually
the reverse: Man made God accord-
ing to his own image and likeness -
rms ldealized man becomes creator
and architect and produces the world.
forming the various species of plants
and animals like modeler. govern.
ing the world like a wise and all
powerful monarch, and, at the Cast
Judgment" rewarding the good and
the wicked like a rjgorous
Judge. The childish conceptions Of
this extramundane God, who is set
over against the world as an indie.
pendent being, the personal creator.
maintainer, and ruler of all things
are quite incompatible with the ad.
yanced science Of the nineteenth cen
fury, especially with its two greatest
trfumphs, the law of substance and
the law Of Monistic evolution.