THE SOCIAL ASPECT OF RELIGION 443 



permanent titles to aristocratic distinctions and arrogated privileges. 

 Racial superiority as inherent in the blood is, indeed, one of the 

 fetiches at whose shrine many of the children of this century burn 

 incense. If this superiority exist at all, it is to be energized in behalf 

 of the whole human family, and not, as it is, alas, currently believed, 

 to justify, in narrow bigotry of pride, as a title to the prerogative 

 to despise and humiliate the inferior races. Noblesse oblige is the 

 recurrent admonition of religion's interpretation of the differentiating 

 distinctions among men. 



The fundamental and original equality of all human beings is the 

 solemn message of religion. It is its profound contribution to the 

 science of society. The very opening chapter of Genesis, and 

 this is independent of our views concerning the date of its composi- 

 tion and the scientific accuracy of its contents, at the threshold 

 of religion's sanctuary, proclaims that all men are descended from 

 one pair; that, therefore, as the rabbis apply the conception, none 

 of the now living men and women has the right to arrogate to him- 

 self or herself superiority of racial composition. Contrast with this 

 the implications of the naturalistic dogma, which one tempted to 

 put in adaptation of a well-known Biblical query, as follows: " Have 

 we not all one ancestral monkey? Hath not one ape procreated us 

 all? Why, then, should one man carry his tail higher than another? " 

 The religious conception, which will not allow that men are predestined 

 to slavery to other men, makes for social peace. For whatever 

 congenital differences there be among men, and whatever accidental 

 variations in fortune and capacity there may obtain among them, 

 the religious outlook and uplook will present them in the light of 

 opportunities and obligations. Central to religion's preoccupation is 

 the individual man only in so far as he is an agent in the life of all 

 men, a factor in society. The non-religious conception regards society 

 as a stepping-stone for individual man. The religious inverts the 

 proposition. Man is individualized to enrich society. 



This solves the vexatious problem of how far altruism shall absorb 

 egotism a problem that has kept thinkers busy in our day as it 

 has distracted would-be saints in other days. Self-extinction and 

 self-elimination have been proposed as the highest. But every 

 self quenched and eliminated impoverishes society. On the other 

 hand, the aristocratic and anarchistic philosophy of Nietzsche and 

 others makes self-assertion but at the cost of others, the motif of 

 healthful action. But this will necessarily lead to the disintegra- 

 tion of society. Religion is a social force just for the reason that it 

 urges self-development to the furthest possible limit in order that 

 the developed individual may render all the larger and richer service 

 to society. 



In penetrating with its spirit certain social institutions, religion 



