33 8 Social Evolution 



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rational religion. Apparently all that Mr. Kidd 

 demands on this point is that it shall be what he calls 

 ultra-rational, a word which he prefers to irrational. 

 In other words, he casts aside as irrelevant all dis- 

 cussion as to a creed's truth. 



Mr. Kidd then defines religion as being "a form 

 of belief providing an ultra-rational sanction for 

 that large class of conduct in the individual where 

 his interests and the interests of the social organism 

 are antagonistic, and by which the former are ren- 

 dered subordinate to the latter in the general interest 

 of the evolution which the race is undergoing," and 

 says that we have here the principle at the base of all 

 religions. Of course this is simply not true. All 

 those religions which busy themselves exclusively 

 with the future life, and which even Mr. Kidd could 

 hardly deny to be religions, do not have this prin- 

 ciple at their base at all. They have nothing to do 

 with the general interests of the evolution which the 

 race is undergoing on this earth. They have to do 

 only with the soul of the individual in the future 

 life. They are not concerned with this world, 

 they are concerned with the world to come. All 

 religions, and all forms of religions, in which the 

 principle of asceticism receives any marked de- 

 velopment are positively antagonistic to the devel- 

 opment of the social organism. They are against 

 its interests. They do not tend in the least to sub- 

 ordinate the interests of the individual to the inter- 

 ests of the organism "in the general interest of the 

 evolution which the race is undergoing." A religion 



