RELIGION AS ADJUSTMENT 



and as by that time they will necessarily have 

 come to appear quite substantial and practical, 

 there appears to be but little weight in the ob- 

 jection referred to. 



Indeed, as the next chapter will plainly show, 

 nothing can be farther from the intentions of 

 the scientific thinker than the demand that con- 

 temporary society shall give up any of the re- 

 ligious doctrines with which it is able to rest 

 contented, in exchange for doctrines which to 

 all minds save those sufficiently instructed in 

 science are likely to seem shadowy and over- 

 subtle. Far from proposing to institute a new 

 religion which, like Islam, is to overrun the 

 world and wrench all men suddenly from their 

 idols, our aim is simply to point out some of 

 the more important modifications which current 

 religious doctrines seem destined to undergo in 

 becoming accepted and assimilated by thinkers 

 whose theories of things are based wholly upon 

 irrefragable scientific truths. That the Doctrine 

 of Evolution, which is now the possession of a 

 few disciplined minds, will eventually become 

 the common property of the whole civilized 

 portion of the human race, is, to say the least, 

 very highly probable. In view of this probabil- 

 ity, it seems to me a worthy end for our philo- 

 sophic inquiry, if we can ascertain that, in spite 

 of the total change in the symbols by which re- 

 ligious faith finds its expression, nevertheless 

 3^9 



