A NEW PHASE OF AN OLD CONFLICT 545 



more primitive substructure of civilization had been secured by the 

 fixative power of religion, conflict arose between the practical require- 

 ment of self-preservation, on the one hand, and, on the other, the dis- 

 tinctively human thirst for betterment and progress. Furthermore, 

 those classes or individuals which enjoy special privileges or advantages 

 turn to the church as the preserver of the status quo. In fact, the 

 church can so act, but only temporarily, until the disproportion between 

 reward and merit has become so glaring that the unprivileged classes will 

 endure it no longer. Eetardation of progress leads to revolution. To 

 that extent the church is as naturally the source of revolutions as sci- 

 ence is of peaceful development. The church is unable to prevent prog- 

 ress, but can and does suppress the symptoms of progress. This is 

 tantamount to screwing down the safety valve on a steam engine and 

 hiding the steam gauge. 



Eecent history affords many instances in Eoman catholic lands. It 

 is noteworthy that in the protestant countries of northern Europe, the 

 monarchy remains unthreatened, whereas in most of the catholic lands 

 republics have, by revolutionary methods, supplanted the monarchs, 

 Eecently in Norway, as the free choice between monarchy and republic 

 was presented to the people, they chose the former. 



The foregoing considerations make clear a certain relation between 

 science and religion. The further we go back in civilization, the more 

 valuable we find religion to be. The further we rise in it, the more 

 does religion retire into the background, giving place to science. 



Can religion ever become superfluous ? 



Ostwald's answer to this query is, that one stratum of the people after 

 another raises itself out of the ocean of religious conceptions, and that 

 the movement toward the superfluity of religions is a gradual one, of 

 which it is impossible to predict the date of completion, inasmuch as 

 considerable portions of the human race are on so low a level of cultural 

 capacity as to make it doubtful whether they will ever reach the highest 

 plane. These will surely have a need for religions and will cherish them. 

 In this sense are to be understood the words of Goethe: 



He who has science and art 

 Has religion also, 

 He who has neither of these, 

 Let him have religion. 



All religions maintain that the contents of their scripts and tenets 

 constitute the truth, and that no mere human or mundane knowledge 

 can claim this designation, since it is, at best, artificial and confessedly 

 imperfect. On the other hand, the various religions contradict one an- 

 other, each claiming for itself absolute truth as its exclusive possession 

 in many and important points. Hence follows the conclusion that the 

 claims of the several religions to the possession of the absolute truth 

 neutralize one another and become invalid. 



