CHAPTER XV 
THE SELECTIVE FUNCTION OF RELIGION 
“Tf 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 history 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 view, 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 
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