374 Science Religion and Reality 



the beliefs and practices of savages. The difficulty is not less 

 among civilised peoples. Religious beliefs always impinge upon 

 natural science. They may at first have been myth, symbol, or 

 poetry, since primitive man does not distinguish clearly between 

 these and the field of strict science ; or they may once have seemed 

 probable explanations of phenomena j but it is far more difficult for 

 religion to correct its mistakes than it is for science. A doctrine 

 which has acquired a mysterious or sacramental value is too precious 

 to be sacrificed ; its place cannot be taken by a new symbol manu- 

 factured for the purpose. Pieces of obsolete science, imprisoned 

 like a fly in amber in the solid mass of a religious creed, may have 

 become the casket in which thf^ soul keeps her most valued treasures. 

 They are defended fiercely by believers, not because as brute facts 

 they have much value for religion, but because they have become 

 charged by association with spiritual values which " must be given 

 through something." Religion clings like a climbing plant to 

 extraneous supports of many different kinds ; the supports may 

 become rickety, but the vine has grown round them and entangled 

 itself with them. 



There is so much even in the highest religion that seems archaic 

 and obstructive, that some thinkers, like Comte in the last century 

 and Croce at the present day, can make out a case for treating 

 religion as half-baked philosophy, and predicting its disappearance. 

 There are, however, no signs that this is likely to happen ; and if 

 we examine religion as we know it, not only in its first beginnings 

 bit in its fullest maturity, we shall understand why neither 

 philosophy nor science can take its place. 



Religion for most of us, I think, is born in the antithetic con- 

 sciousness of alienation from, and of communion with, the unseen 

 power which surrounds us. The sense of alienation begins with 

 the mere feeling of impotence in face of an indifferent or friendly 

 world. Then our dissatisfaction turns inward, and becomes a 

 sense of guilt. We realise that it is our self-centredness which 

 puts us at enmity with our surroundings, and in the sacrifice of 

 self-will we find our peace. The sense of communion with God 

 is equally important as an element in all religion. It finds ritual 

 expression in most religions, but its own language is prayer, which 

 is the pulsation of the heart of religion. We need not trace the 

 evolution of prayer from a half-magical incantation to the sublima- 

 tion of petition in " Thy will be done," and the " prayer of union " 



