224 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



Now, the danger of symbols and symbolic thinking 

 comes when the symbols are accepted for real, and 

 taken as they stand for bases from which conclusions 

 shall be drawn. The Christian theologians did not 

 hesitate — why should they, in their position ? — to 

 use the personal nature of the Deity as one premiss 

 in a whole series of syllogisms, and to accept at their 

 full face value the conclusions which emerged from 

 these syllogisms. 



If a personal God was ruler of the universe, then 

 he must be omnipotent ; if truly divine, then omni- 

 scient ; if worthy of worship, then all-wise. He 

 must be capable of interfering with the course of 

 events by ' miracles,' of granting our prayers, of 

 communicating directly with us, of deciding our fate 

 in after-life. From these conclusions yet further 

 conclusions were drawn. If God revealed himself 

 in the Bible, then the Bible was ' true ' . . . with 

 all that this in its turn involved as to our beliefs con- 

 cerning natural causation, creation, our relations with 

 God, or personal immortality. The whole scheme was 

 self-consistent, and worked as well as many other human 

 schemes. But what if the whole premiss, of God as 

 a personal being, ruler and father and judge — what if 

 this were not in fact tenable ? Then, of course, the 

 whole edifice itself would come toppling down. That 

 is what is actually happening to-day. God, as personal 

 ruler, is being slowly driven out of the universe, but 

 returningas this organized idea of which we have spoken. 



