20 MORAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



tin himself. This latter assumption I believe is 

 entirely unnecessary; but as I turn away from, 

 it, I turn away with equal decision from the whole 

 traditional intepretation of human nature's re- 

 lation to sin. 



One can not read the literature of the day 

 when the traditional doctrine of human depravity 

 arose without having the strong suspicion that 

 it all originated from the assumed sinfulness of 

 the act of human procreation. It grew up in the 

 same atmosphere which produced the celibate 

 clergy and the immaculateness of the virgin life- 

 two of the most prolific sources of the corruption 

 of Christianity, as well as being doctrines of un- 

 bounded offense against the spirit of modern 

 science. The purity of the race, or the excellence 

 of any one of the races, is now held to be identified 

 with the power of reproduction as with no other 

 one human element. Biologically, virginity is the 

 fundamental sin, and Nature has sought to pro- 

 tect living beings against it by her strongest pas- 

 sion. Eace senility accompanies the vices which 

 destroy this fundamental physical virtue. Race 

 suicide is the deepest, the most prolific, the far- 

 thest-reaching vice of a boasting civilization. 

 When religion strikes at the fundamental human 

 function of reproduction as in its very nature sin- 

 ful, it flies in the face of all modern thought and 

 conviction. We owe it to our faith to eradicate 

 this so fundamental error and offense, not only 

 from our creed, but the least suggestion of it 



