ROBERT A. MILLIKAN 25 



purely subjective terms. The question of what actually 

 Is for the common good is the whole stupendous prob- 

 lem of science in the broad sense of that term, that is, 

 of knowledge, and has nothing to do with religion or 

 with morals as I am using these words. 



There are only two kinds of moral conduct. The 

 first is due to indifference, thoughtlessness, failure to 

 reflect upon what is for the common good, in other 

 words, careless, impulsive, unreflective living on the 

 part of people who know that they ought at least to 

 try to think things through. I suspect that ninety-nine 

 per cent of all immorality is of this type and that this 

 furnishes the chief reason for religious effort and the 

 chief field for religious activity. For both example 

 and precept unquestionably have the power to increase 

 the relatively small fraction of the population that at- 

 tempts to be reflectively moral. The second type of 

 Immorality is represented by "the unpardonable sin" 

 of which Jesus spoke : deliberate refusal, after reflec- 

 tion, to follow the light when seen. 



Thus far, I have been dealing only with what seem 

 to me to be obvious facts, mere platitudes, if you will, 

 for the sake of not being misunderstood when I speak 

 about the essentials of religion. I am not at this 

 moment concerned with how far the practice of re- 

 ligion has at times fallen short of the Ideals stated in 

 the foregoing essentials. I am now merely reaffirm- 

 ing the belief with which I began, and which I sus- 

 pect that, after the foregoing explanations, not many 

 will question, though I know there are some who will, 

 that the discovery of the foregoing ideals, and their 

 official adoption as the basis of the religion of the 



