180 BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN PROBLEMS 



future life by an intelligent rationalistic conception 

 of conduct based on natural laws is a change which 

 appears to me inevitable and greatly to be desired. 

 In the present state of science it would be an error 

 to teach that a future life is impossible, but I cannot 

 see that it would be a mistake to teach that such an 

 idea is without support in biological experience. 



I should like to observe the effects of teaching 

 intelligent children, susceptible to culture, that a 

 belief in personal immortality appears unreasonable 

 and unnecessary in the light of science, and that 

 such a belief is not improbably a refined and wholly 

 natural form of egotism based on the insistent obtru- 

 siveness of the instinct of self-preservation. For I 

 am disposed to believe that this teaching, which 

 cuts off the prospect of heavenly rewards and hellish 

 punishments, would lead to a greater considerateness 

 in all human relations by forcing people to under- 

 stand and accept the natural, instead of pursuing the 

 supernatural. For example, it is a notorious fact 

 that parents neglect their children in a great variety 

 of ways at the same time that they are greatly pained 

 at the thought that death may permanently sepa- 

 rate them from their children. Would not the 

 practical results be better if, being taught to feel that 

 a permanent separation is natural and inevitable, 

 they should drop sentiment founded on a dubious 

 belief, and seriously give themselves to the task of 

 helping their offspring, with the utmost earnestness 

 and, if necessary, with self -sacrificial efforts? I 



