Category: Philosophy & Ethics
One of the largest facts in the history of man is religion. If it were otherwise the justification for writing the following pages, and for attempting the proof that, so far as man's history is concerned with religion, it is little better than a colossal blunder, would not be...
The outstanding feature of what may be called the natural history of associated life is the way in which biologic processes are gradually dominated by psychologic ones. Whatever...
17. CHAPTER XVII.Intolerance is one of the most general of what we may call the mental vices. It is so general that few people seem to look upon it as a fault, and not a few are prepared to defe...
18. CHAPTER XVIII.Books on the future of religion are numerous, and to one blessed with a sense of humour, full of entertainment. They are also not without instruction of a psychological kind. Re...
6. CHAPTER VI.It is no mere paradox to say that religion is most interesting to those who have ceased to believe in it. The reason for this is not far to seek. Religious beliefs play so large...
12. CHAPTER XII.The influence of the hypothesis of evolution on religion was not long in making itself felt. Professor Huxley explained the rapid success of Darwinism by saying that the scienti...
3. CHAPTER III.Freedom of thought and freedom of speech stand to each other as the two halves of a pair of scissors. Without freedom of speech freedom of thought is robbed of the better part o...
7. CHAPTER VII.The real nature of religion being as stated, it having originated in an utterly erroneous view of things, it would seem that nothing more can be needed to justify its rejection....
11. CHAPTER XI.Language, we have said above, is one of the prime conditions of human greatness and progress. It is the principal means by which man conserves his victories over the forces of h...
9. CHAPTER IX.In the early months of the European war a mortally wounded British soldier was picked up between the lines, after lying there unattended for two days. He died soon after he was...
16. CHAPTER XVI.The association of religion with morality is a very ancient one. This is not because the one is impossible without the other, we have already shown that this is not the case. Th...
15. CHAPTER XV.In the preceding chapter I have been concerned with providing the most meagre of skeleton outlines of the way in which our moral laws and our moral sense have come into existenc...
10. CHAPTER X.In the preceding chapter I have only discussed the fact of death in relation to a certain attitude of mind. The question of the survival of the human personality after death is...
5. CHAPTER V.If the truth of what has been said above be admitted, it follows that civilization has two fundamental aspects. On the one side there is the environment, made up--so far as civi...
8. CHAPTER VIII.Why do people believe in God? If one turns to the pleas of professional theologians there is no lack of answers to the question. These answers are both numerous and elaborate, a...
4. CHAPTER IV.Rebellion and reform are not exactly twins, but they are very closely related. For while all rebellion is not reform, yet in the widest sense of the word, there is no reform wit...
13. CHAPTER XIII.In the preceding chapters we have, without saying it in so many words, been emphasizing the modern as against the ancient point of view. The distinction may not at first glance...
14. CHAPTER XIV.The mystery-monger flourishes almost as well in ethics as he does in theology. Indeed, in some respects he seems to have forsaken one field of exercise only to find renewed scop...
1. CHAPTER I.One of the largest facts in the history of man is religion. If it were otherwise the justification for writing the following pages, and for attempting the proof that, so far as...
23. Chapter X.--Atheism and Agnosticism. Chapter XI.--The FrenchTHE RUINS. A Survey of the Revolutions of Empires. To which is added THE LAW OF NATURE. By C. F. VOLNEY. A New Edition, being a Revised Translation with Introduction by GEORGE U...
22. Chapter V.--Woman Under Christianity. Chapter VI.--Christianity andCONTENTS: Chapter I.--Modern Materialism. Chapter II.--Darwinian Evolution. Chapter III.--Auguste Comte and Positivism. Chapter IV.--Herbert Spencer and the Synthetic Philosophy...
20. Chapter XI.--What is Atheism? Chapter XII.--Spencer and theA Systematic and Comprehensive Survey of the relations between the sexual instinct and morbid and abnormal mental states and the sense of religious exaltation and illumination....
21. Chapter IV.--Some Alleged Consequences of Determinism. ChapterV.--Professor James on the "Dilemma of Determinism." Chapter VI.--The Nature and Implication of Responsibility. Chapter VII.--Determinism and Character. Chapter VIII.--A Problem...
19. Chapter V.--The Argument from Causation. Chapter VI.--The Argumentfrom Design. Chapter VII.--The Disharmonies of Nature. Chapter VIII.--God and Evolution. Chapter IX.--The Problem of Pain. PART II.--SUBSTITUTES FOR ATHEISM.--Chapter X.--A Ques...