The Message of Science. 9 



As such and such only are the present outlines of a 

 greater gospel put forward : a provisional belief to be used 

 as a scientist uses an hypothesis ; probably true, better 

 certainly than the existent babel of doctrines. 



As regards Christianity, biological science now goes 

 far to substantiate and confirm the original scheme of life 

 and salvation, as conceived and taught by the Founder, 

 but will purge it and separate it from those adventitious 

 doctrines wliich Church Fathers, Bishops and Synods 

 engrafted upon the new religion during the first three 

 centuries of its existence. These doctrines were never 

 essentially Christian, nor even Jewish, but of the nature 

 of ingrowths from Persian, Greek, and Egyptian systems 

 of philosophy. 



Christianity, however, can hardly be said to be more 

 than one of the religious beliefs of America. Allah, 

 Brahma, Joss, and Mormon, as well as the Hebrew Jehovah, 

 are now worshiped among us. Asia and Africa, as well 

 as Europe, have contributed to the amazing melange of 

 tenets which stand for religion in the United States. 

 Never in the world's history has such diversity of belief 

 been exhibited in one country ; yet each of these hundred 

 and ten different cults is endeared to thousands of im- 

 migrant devotees by ancestral ties and traditions. 



If by some megaphOnic device we were able to hear, 

 at one time and in one place, the amazing outcry of 

 doctrines which goes up in thousands of churches, temples, 



