Religion as a Factor in Human Evolution 679 



promotion of embittered human strife. This also, as every 

 one knows, has been true of sects, of churches, and of church- 

 members. In such an inquiry therefore as the present, the 

 writer can scarcely hope that his views will be examined quietly, 

 impartially, and candidly by every reader. But he would 

 remind all that only such methods will in the end 'prevail^ if man- 

 kind is to multiply and is to cultivate highest qualities. 



In 1888 F. Max Miiller said: "If the science of religion is 

 to be treated as one of the natural sciences, it is clear that we 

 must begin with a careful collection of facts, illustrating the 

 origin, the growth, and the decay of religion. 



" But we shall find it impossible to do so, unless we first enter 

 on a preliminary and, I must add, a somewhat diflScult inquiry, 

 namely: What is meant by religion.'^ Unless we can come to 

 clear understanding on that point, we shall find it impossible 

 to determine what facts to include and what facts to exclude 

 in collecting our evidence for study of religion." 



It may therefore conduce to a better understanding of the 

 present religious position if we give a few definitions of re- 

 ligion, as culled from different sources. In its origin the word 

 fundamentally has been considered by Max Miiller, following 

 Cicero, to signify "to care, to regard, to revere"; or again, 

 following Lactantius, it has stood for a binding, a tying, a 

 restraining, and "was applied by the Roman to all actions 

 in which men are guided, not by motives deducible from the 

 ordinary course of Nature, but by regard to some unseen poirer 

 or mysterious influence.'' 



This influence bound or restrained them from doing some 

 acts, and equally obligated them to the performances of others. 

 In other words, explain it as we may, the action of inhibitory 

 nerves was keenly realized as a factor in human life, though 

 the nerves themselves were unknown; and equally the func- 

 tion of sensory-motor nerves in antagonistic action was ac- 

 cepted. 



Such a view has largely permeated all religious systems, 

 since the time of the Sumerians and the Iranians, that is since 

 about 5000 to 100 B. C. This principle it is also which has 



