CHAPTER VIII

THE RESULTS OF ETHICAL INQUIRY ON AN EVOLUTIONAL BASIS

Criticism of Alexander's theory of the right as always absolute right and as the expression, on all planes of development, of an equal equilibrium--The Moral Evolution as one involving the whole of humanity and the whole earth--Gradual relaxation of the Struggle for Existence--The final limitation of the increase in density of population--The increase of vitality--The habituation to progress--The gradual coördination of individual with social welfare through (1) Spread and increase of sympathy with the individual on the part of society as a whole; (2) Growth of individual predilections in the direction of harmony with social requirements--Decrease of punishment through (1) Increase in general sympathy; (2) Increase of amenability of the individual to influence--Increase of pleasure in pleasure--The possible egoistic element in sympathy with pain--Criticism of Rolph on Want as necessary to induce action--The moral evolution and emotion--Criticism of Spencer on Altruism--Criticism of Wundt on Evolutional Ethics--The theory that Evolution adds nothing to Ethics--Criticism of Stephen on the impossibility of predicting the course of Evolution--The Moral Evolution as willed--The motives furnished by Evolutional Ethics--The theological doctrine of a "change of heart"--The doctrine of the Atonement--Divine forgiveness--Theology and social evils--The prominence of the idea of self-salvation in Christian doctrine--Human sacrifice among the Jews--Biblical authority for the killing of witches and heretics--The infliction of death for ceremonial offences among the Jews--The visiting of the sins of the fathers upon the children--Slave-holding, adultery, murder, etc., by God's chosen, bloodshed and cruelty of all sorts by God's express command--Animal sacrifice among the Jews--The original idea of Jehovah and of Heaven--The autocracy of the Jewish priesthood confirmed by Christ--Forced exegesis--The asceticism of Christianity--Slavery and the New Testament--Predestination, Hell, and the Justification of the Elect--The defence of Christianity as being a comforting belief 500-528