COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



taken for granted ; on the other hand, the Cos- 

 mic Philosophy, in announcing itself as the 

 most recent phase of a long development, re- 

 cognizes no break anywhere in the course of 

 that development. While Atheism scoffed at 

 religion, and denied that the religious sentiment 

 needed satisfaction ; while Positivism, leaving 

 no place in its scheme for religion to occupy, 

 was compelled by an afterthought to proclaim 

 that the religious sentiment finds its legitimate 

 satisfaction in the service of an idealized Hu- 

 manity ; Cosmism, on the contrary, assigns to 

 religion the same place which it has always oc- 

 cupied, and affirms that the religious sentiment 

 must find satisfaction in the future, as in the 

 past, in the recognition of a Power which is be- 

 yond Humanity, and upon which Humanity 

 depends. The existence of God — denied by 

 Atheism and ignored by Positivism — is the 

 fundamental postulate upon which Cosmism 

 bases its synthesis of scientific truths. The 

 infinite and absolute Power, which Anthropo- 

 morphism has in countless ways sought to define 

 and limit by metaphysical formulas, thereby ren- 

 dering it finite and relative, is the Power which 

 Cosmism refrains from defining and limiting by 

 metaphysical formulas, thereby acknowledging 

 — so far as the exigencies of human speak- 

 ing and thinking will allow — that it is infi- 

 nite and absolute. Thus in the progress from 

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