THE SELECTIVE FUNCTION OF RELIGION 363 



the probable issue of the mating of feeble-minded persons be 

 feeble-minded children the Church might advise abstention from 

 procreation, but there would be no rightful authority, either 

 within the Church or out of it, for preventing such couples from 

 disregarding this gentle advice, as they would be practically 

 certain to do. 



There is a strong tendency on the part of clerical teachers 

 to base their advice concerning marriage and the perpetuation of 

 life upon scriptual texts or traditions handed down from the 

 Church Fathers, without considering matters of heredity or racial 

 welfare. A standpoint determined by an appeal to authority is 

 apt to be httle affected by the advancement of knowledge: it 

 practically deprives knowledge of its most important function 

 which is the better guidance of conduct. It is especially unfortu- 

 nate that a religious organization which really has some influence 

 upon the birth rate of its adherents should so generally fail to 

 exert its power to promote the improvement of the inherited 

 qualities of mankind. It is gratif>dng to find, however, that 

 some of its more progressive leaders have here and there lifted up 

 their voices against the perpetuation of inferior strains of human- 

 ity, although they are as yet like voices crying in the wilderness. 



REFERENCES 



Booth, M. Religious Belief as Affecting the Growth of Population. Hibbert 



Jour. 13, 138-154, 1914- 

 Calkins, G. N. Fertility of Marriages According to the Religious Creeds of the 



Contracting Parties. Pubs. Am. Stat. Ass. 3, 244-247, 1892-93. 

 Forberger, J. Geburtenriickgang und Konfession. Berlin, 1914. 

 Galton, F. Hereditary Genius, London, 1869; Inquiries into Human Faculty, 



1883; Essays in Eugenics, London, 1909. 

 Krose, H. A. Die Ergebnisse der Konfessionszahlung. Stimmen aus Maria Laach. 



1902, Heft 4; Konfessionsstatistik Deutschlands, Freiburg, 1904. See also 



AUg. Stat. Archiv, 8, 267-292, 624-645, 1914. 

 Kidd, B. Social Evolution. Macmillan Co., London and N. Y., 1894. 

 Lecky, W. E. H. History of Rationalism in Europe, 2 vols., London, 1865. 

 Reichardt, E. N. The Significance of Ancient Religions in Relation to Human 



Evolution and Brain Development, London, 191 2. 

 Webb, S. The Decline in the Birth-Rate. Fabian Tract, No. 131, London, 1907. 



