208 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



form, endowed this and that God with diflferent quali- 

 ties. But there is another part which he has not 

 created, which he can only perceive, mould, clothe. 

 The raw material of Divinity and its elemental attri- 

 butes are given — man can but take it or leave it; 

 and, what is more, it is difficult for him to leave it. 

 It is given as the raw material and elemental attri- 

 butes of life are given, and the evolutionary process 

 can but take them. Man moulds and forms; but 

 evolution has no more created living matter than he 

 Divinity. 



4i iii ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 



I propose, then, to lay down as my main point that 

 the idea of God is an inevitable product of biological 

 evolution, arising when the human type of mind first 

 came into being, and taking shape and form as a 

 definite God or Gods. That the Gods who thus 

 arise, although of course they play a role in the affairs 

 of the human species only, have a definite biological 

 function. That the term God can still be properly 

 and profitably employed to denote a certain complex 

 of phenomena, with a certain function in human evo- 

 lution. 



What, then, do we mean by saying that the idea of 

 God arises inevitably with the appearance of man 

 upon the evolutionary scene? How can the appear- 

 ance of man account for such a curious phenomenon? 



With man, for the first time in the history of life 

 upon the earth, an organism appeared capable of gen- 

 eralizing, of framing concepts, and of communicat- 



