RATIONALISM AND THE IDEA OF GOD 223 



generally known as religious. The first is that of the 

 out-and-out sceptic — that they are all illusions, imag- 

 inations of the childhood of the race. This is an ex- 

 treme view which I do not feel called upon to discuss. 

 The second is the view of almost every existing re- 

 Hgious denomination in Europe — that God is a per- 

 sonal being. And the third is one, only just begin- 

 ning to take shape, which I have endeavoured, with 

 every consciousness of inadequacy, to outline — the 

 account made possible by a radically scientific view 

 of the universe. 



Those who adopt the third attitude believe that 

 the second is a purely symbolic and not very accurate 

 presentation of certain fundamental facts, of which 

 they are attempting to give what seems to them an 

 account which is closer to reality. Before the scien- 

 tific work of the last three or four centuries, it was im- 

 possible to attempt what we may call a realistic ac- 

 count of this nature, so that symbols were perforce 

 adopted. In Christian theology man formulated a 

 coherent scheme, which, however, was purely sym- 

 bolic, to account for the facts we have just been con- 

 sidering. The chief feature in any such scheme 

 must be the conception of the powers with which 

 man feels himself in relation; and in this particular 

 formulation his conception of these powers was that 

 of a God who was also a person. 



Now, the danger of symbols and symbolic think- 

 ing comes when the symbols are accepted for real, 

 and taken as they stand for bases from which conclu- 



