676 Causes and Course of Organic Evolution 



(5) Some of the highest, if not the highest, phases of civili- 

 zation have advanced markedly while allied to, or sheltering 

 under, phases of the religious attitude. 



(6) While humanity has enormously advanced tlirough 

 purely cooperative mental and moral effort, many features 

 that can only be classed as religious have given an immense 

 impetus to his forward progress, and to his repression or sup- 

 pression of disintegrating tendencies. 



(7) Individuals have often been willing to sacrifice some 

 of the most cherished selfish ambitions in order to extend 

 religious principles. 



(8) Man's mind, following the great law of proenviron- 

 ment, seeks after, desires, and appreciates explanations of 

 or aspirations after natural phenomena that are beyond his 

 full knowledge and capacity to understand at any one time. 



Such are a few of the facts that all are conversant with in 

 the connection of man with the religious attitude. Now, 

 even though all such movements might by some be classed 

 as vagaries, aberrations, diseases of the human mind, they 

 even on this low platform of acceptance constitute a so strik- 

 ing, widespread, important, and ever-expanding set of phe- 

 nomena that Science utterly fails in its true functions, if it 

 does not take cognizance of them and try to explain them 

 on a proper basis. For it must be acknowledged that the 

 works of Draper and ^Vhite lay bare flagrant defects or weak- 

 nesses of many religious groups, but they do not attempt 

 to explain scientifically why a continuous procession of re- 

 ligious systems advances with the evolving civilization of 

 man. Similarly, in Westermarck's able work on "The Origin 

 and Development of the Moral Ideas," his frequent effort 

 to reduce all the human emotions and aspirations to the level 

 of morality, and his failure to estimate aright the powerful 

 influence which high religious aspiration has had in elevating 

 man, detract not a little from a correct scientific appreciation 

 of human evolution. His attitude throughout is well summed 

 up in his concluding words (203, 2: 746): "In its relation 

 to morality, religion will be increasingly restricted to empha- 



