WILLIAM McDOUGALL 149 



Ilefs by many, perhaps all, races of mankind was inevi- 

 table. Many psychologists seem to hold that this, if 

 true, negatives all theistic belief, proves it to be illu- 

 sory, and some of them assert as much. This seems 

 to me a non-sequitur. I accept the premise, but can- 

 not see that the conclusion follows. If man's nature 

 were not such as to engender theistic belief, no such 

 beliefs would be held by men, the truth of Theism, if 

 it be true, would have remained undiscovered by man, 

 or would not have become widely held. In exactly 

 the same way, man's nature is such that he readily be- 

 lieves in ghosts; but this fact neither proves nor dis- 

 proves the reality of ghosts. The fact merely renders 

 it the more necessary to be very cautious and critical 

 in examining the evidence. 



Turning now directly to the question — Does psy- 

 chology yield any positive evidence in support of 

 Theism? — I consider two possible kinds of evidence. 

 First, is there any form or type of experience or of 

 mental activity that is in itself evidence in support of 

 Theism? Secondly, does man possess any one or more 

 capacities that cannot be regarded as having been 

 evolved in the race in essentially the same way as 

 other capacities (such as are shared in some degree 

 by the animals), and which, therefore, point to some 

 "supernatural" origin and constitute a special endow- 

 ment, giving him a position in the world of life of an 

 order quite other than that of the animals. 



The religious emotion par excellence is reverence. 

 But neither reverence nor mankind's capacity for rev- 

 erence seems to stand in any exceptional or peculiar 

 relation to the rest of his nature. They seem to be 



