240 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA 



of religion, we are told, " rises above all religions as 

 the culmination of all. If anything can be, it is, the 

 universal faith," and this because " it is based upon 

 verified science." 



Truth to tell, however, Haeckel's own views con- 

 cerning religion are as crude and as extravagant as 

 many of his expressed opinions respecting philoso- 

 phy and science. The monistic religion of nature, 

 he informs us, " which we should regard as the ver- 

 itable religion of the future, is not, as are all the 

 religions of the churches, in contradiction, but in 

 harmony with a rational knowledge of nature. 

 While the latter have no other source than illusions 

 and superstitions, the former reposes on truth and 

 science. Simple, natural religion, based on a per- 

 fect knowledge of nature and its inexhaustible 

 treasure of revelations, will, in the future, impress on 

 Evolution a seal of nobility, which the religious 

 dogmas of divers peoples have been incapable of 

 giving it. For these dogmas rest on a blind faith in 

 obscure mysteries, and in mythical revelations formu- 

 lated by priestly castes. Our epoch, which shall 

 have had the glory of achieving the most brilliant 

 result of human research, the doctrine of Evolution, 

 will be celebrated in coming ages as having inaugu- 

 rated a new and fecund era for the progress of 

 humanity; an era characterized by the triumph 

 of freedom of investigation over the domination of 

 authority, through the noble and puissant influence 

 of monistic philosophy." ' 



111 Schopfungsgeschichte,'' yth edition, p. 681. 



