RELIGION AND SCIENCE 289 



degenerates into an evil thing. Religion seems to be 

 a natural activity and need of the average human 

 mind. But when its more primitive components are 

 allowed to dominate, when the instinctive and emo- 

 tional in it are unchecked by reflection and rational 

 thought, then, as history too clearly shows us, it be- 

 comes a cruel and obstructive power. To the fine 

 mind of Lucretius, the religion that he knew was 

 the greatest enemy: — 



"Quae caput a caeli regionibus ostendebat 

 Horribili super aspecta mortalibus instans," 



And he replies to the charge of impiety by pointing 

 to the foul deeds perpetrated by religion: 



" — Quod contra saepius ilia 

 Religio peparit scelerosa atque impia facta." 



Many another thinker and reformer has felt the same. 

 There are those who, like Jung, believe that re- 

 ligion is an illusion but also a necessity to the bulk 

 of mankind, and therefore should be encouraged. 

 But the broader and truer view, I believe, is the one 

 we have adopted. We have seen that, in man, evo- 

 lution has reached a new plane, on which not only 

 have new aims and values appeared, but the possi- 

 bility of new and better evolutionary methods has 

 arisen. These new methods are only possible, how- 

 ever, in so far as life, in man, uses her new gifts. 

 The progress of civilization is a constant conflict 

 between that part of man which he shares with the 

 beasts and that part which is his alone — between 

 man as no more than a new kind of animal and man 



