RELIGION AS ADJUSTMENT 



latter. For the current anthropomorphism, in 

 this as in other points betraying its kinship to 

 primeval fetishism, asserts that by repentance 

 and prayer the evil effects of sin may be avoided. 

 The anthropomorphic theist sees in his Deity a 

 being so nearly like himself as to be willing ta 

 interfere with the ordinary course of things and 

 dissociate the act of wrong-doing from its legiti- 

 mate penalty. As the father puts forth his arm 

 and saves his falling child from the natural con- 

 sequences of a false step, so it is supposed that 

 God will, in certain cases, turn aside the blow 

 which nature has in store for human misdeeds. 

 Science knows of no such interference with the 

 law that pain is consequent upon maladjust- 

 ment. The deed once done will work its full 

 effects, save in so far as checked by counter- 

 actions. He who has swallowed arsenic will be 

 saved, not by prayer, but by an emetic. He 

 who has yielded to temptation may indeed, by 

 the repentant feeling of which prayer is the ex- 

 pression, secure himself from future yielding ; 

 but the tendency toward loss of self-control, 

 initiated by the first surrender, cannot be ren- 

 dered non-existent by any ex post facto act of 

 contrition, though its operation may be counter- 

 acted. And if the misdeed, as usually happens, 

 has involved others than the agent, its evil con- 

 sequences must endure and ramify, until they 

 at last disappear through some natural process 



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