RATIONALISM AND IDEA OF GOD 215 



This may be illustrated by a common fallacy — 

 the ascription of personality to God on the ground 

 that a purpose exists in the universe. Paley saw proof 

 of this purpose in adaptations among organisms. 

 Modern theologians, driven from this position by 

 Darwin, take refuge with Bergson in the fact of bio- 

 logical progress. But this, too, can be shown to be 

 as natural and inevitable a product of the struggle for 

 existence as is adaptation, and to be no more mys- 

 terious than, for instance, the increase in effectiveness 

 both of armour-piercing projectile and armour-plate 

 during the last century. The time has gone by when 

 a Paley could advance his ' carpenter ' view of God ; 

 when a Fellow of the Royal Society, like Dr. Prout 

 with his Bridgewater Treatise, could be sure of 

 general approval with a work entitled Chemistry, 

 Meteorology, and the Function of Digestion^ considered 

 with reference to Natural Theology \ or when a 

 distinguished geologist like Buckland (almost fore- 

 shadowing later writers of a certain type on labour 

 questions) could ascribe to a Beneficent Designer 

 the existence of Carnivora, as a means to the 

 increase of the ' Aggregate of Animal Enjoyment,' 

 and solemnly pen a sentence such as 'While each 

 suffering individual is soon relieved from pain, it 

 contributes its enfeebled carcass to its carnivorous 

 benefactor.' 



No — purpose is a psychological term ; and to 

 ascribe purpose to a process merely because its results 



