CHAPTER XV 



THE SELECTIVE FUNCTION OF RELIGION 



''If we are right in believing that the religious instinct is the only 

 force strong enough to influence mankind, consciously or uncon- 

 sciously, to consider the race as distinct from the individual, it is clear 

 that the character of the national religion, the correctness of the 

 biological principles its teaching embodies, the devotion, fidelity and 

 number of its adherents, will be the real criterion of success or failure." 

 — W. C. D. and C. D. Whetham, Heredity and Society, p. 54. 



The part which religious beliefs and practices have played in 

 the evolution of mankind is undoubtedly one of no small im- 

 portance. Man is not only a political animal; he is also a religious 

 animal. From the remotest periods of histor>^ human behavior 

 has been subject to the guiding influence of belief in some kind of 

 supernatural agency. These beliefs often afford a powerful aid to 

 the maintenance of the solidarity of the group which is so im- 

 portant an aid in inter-tribal or inter-national struggles. In fact 

 many Darwinians attribute the development of the religious 

 impulses of man to their value in subordinating the egoistic 

 tendencies of human beings to the interests of their social group. 



One of the most prominent advocates of this \aew, Mr. Ben- 

 jamin Kidd, remarks: "In the religious beliefs of mankind we 

 have not simply a class of phenomena peculiar to the childhood of 

 the race. We have therein the characteristic feature of our social 

 evolution. These beliefs constitute, in short, the natural and 

 inevitable complement of our reason; and so far from being 

 threatened with eventual dissolution they are apparently destined 

 to continue to grow with the growth and to develop with the 

 development of society, while always preserving intact and 

 unchangeable the one essential feature they all provide for con- 

 duct. And lastly, as we understand how an ultra-rational sanc- 

 tion for the sacrifice of the interests of the individual to those 



3SS 



