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 little 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 gratifying 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. 
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Booth, M. Religious Belief as Affecting the Growth of Population. Hibbert 
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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 Konfessionszaihlung. Stimmen aus Maria Laach. 
1902, Heft 4; Konfessionsstatistik Deutschlands, Freiburg, 1904. See also 
Allg. 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, 1912. 
Webb, S. The Decline in the Birth-Rate. Fabian Tract, No. 131, London, 1907. 
