312 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



mental construction is a human invention. Is the final cause 

 in some sense and degree a human creation ? 



If the absolute is experience, as Bradley holds,^ or if the cosmic 

 process is itself creative, as according to Ward and Bergson, then 

 man may have as his religious goal not simply conformity to the 

 will of God or to the unfolding of the cosmic order, but he may 

 even dare to make the cosmic order conform, in some small 

 degree, to his ideal and minister to his needs. Primitive man 

 endeavored to " manipulate " God or the gods by sacrifice, 

 incense, prayers, etc. The Christian of today seeks to win favor 

 and the supply of his needs by prayer, and in the thought of 

 many, by the kind of life that merits divine favor. Compara- 

 tively few have attained the thought of compelling divine favor 

 by living in conformity with divine (because cosmic) laws; — 

 and fewer still have gone so far, probably too far, as to believe that 

 there is no other divine law than just these laws we have been 

 and are discovering, formulating and controlling in the realms of 

 nature and mind. Are we warranted in taking the step, then, of 

 asserting that as the incarnation of creative intelligence, men as 

 creators are making cosmic laws, and in a sense making the God 

 they worship ? If so, we have a new and final form of adaptation 

 which might be called active religious adaptation, but as this 

 assumes that there is no higher form of consciousness, thought, 

 feeling or will than that possessed by man, we cannot give our 

 assent to this hypothesis. 



^ Appearance and Reality. 



