744 Causes and Course of Organic Evolution 



a result was attained a real reign of i)eace, righteousness, happi- 

 ness, and i:)rogTess would be inaugurated, and this not in some 

 dim uncertain extramundane region, but actually here on 

 earth. For no unbiased reader of Christ's fundamental utter- 

 ances can deny this. So the writer would entirely reecho 

 Romanes' opinion: "Of the religious consciousness Christi- 

 anity is uncjuestionably the highest product" {pb: 164). 



But it must freely be confessed that to attain this Christ 

 clearly foresaw and foretold that relentless wars in homes, 

 in cities, and between nations would thus ensue. For, in 

 reaching the higher good, the lower degrading condition has 

 ever to be overcome. During the past 200 years groups of 

 mankind have proenvironed and have fought out these wars, 

 often under the name and guise of Christianity and the Prince 

 of Peace, while running contrary to his most cherished doc- 

 trines. These religio-selfish and religio-deceptive ones have 

 been a large though decreasing majority, who have filled the 

 world with malice, rapine, and carnage. 



The emperors, the kings, the popes, the politicians, the 

 priests, the preachers of mythical dogmas, have all striven to 

 impose on aspiring man tenets that in some cases helped him 

 to higher platforms, because derived from the teachings of 

 earnest souls, who looked out on the forces of this world and 

 of the universe with wistful and rcA^erent eye. But often 

 for their own selfish aggrandisement, or for that of their re- 

 ligious party, they have invented and forced on humanity 

 "burdens grievous to be borne" and as impious as they were 

 grievous. "The divine right of Kings," "the infallibility of 

 l)0])es," "the true and only Catholic Church," "submission 

 to those in authority," even when these were tyrants, liber- 

 tines, or murderers, have all been foisted on staggering but 

 aspiring humanity by unscrupulous and hired pseudo-religion- 

 ists. The day has come when man is rejecting such burdens 

 utterly, and is reaching to a clear and sober estimate of his 

 relation to and union with the all-energizing Guide and Good- 

 ness of this world and of the universe. 



Think of all that can truthfully and worthily be laid at 

 the door of the jjopes and prelates of one church alone! And 



