Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1915 — WHAT IS RELIGION? [ARTICLE]

WHAT IS RELIGION?

Minister Traces Development Along Man’s Evolution in Ethics. The subject of religion Is so comprehensive and unlimited that It ie Impossible more than to make an introduction. It has been the theme of the world's greatest writers, preachers, philosophers, poets and musicians. If I were to confine myself to the Christian religion or any other specific system the task might be easier. But I am going to talk about religion in general. Ethics and religion are almost inseparably woven together. It is true that the gods men have created have invariably reflected the ethical standard of the creators. To derive a clear idea of the field of religion it is necessary for us to go back to man in the period of his early development. Ethics began with man’s first perception of the value of a right personal conduct. Back of this idea is that bugbear of all past theology and philosophy, “Where and how did evil originate?” The moment man first awakened to a realization of the fact that there was a blending of a good and an evil tendency in his consciousness just at that moment was the germ of a religious nature generated in his mind.

The evolution of religion thus has gone hand In hand with the evolution of ethics. The explanation that the philosophers have given to this origin of evil is much more valuable and I think nearer the truth than the cherished idea of the theologians. A God never swooped down into the hearts of men and In a flash of lightning or peal of thunder revealed to man the facts of good and evil. Learn by Own Evolution. Man learned them by his own evolution. He learned them with the same process that has taught him the science of human duty. In fact the three causes, the Kantian theory of the "categorical Imperative,” the utilitarian and the mechanistic theories that are usually attributed by thinkers as the explanation of man’s evolution in the realm of ethics can be used with the same degree of force and logic for his religious development as welL Man never had a religion, be it worshiping the sun or a Christ, until he had made some progress in his evolution of ethics. All nature is a living and irrefutable argument for evolution. Perfection is the ultimate alm of all life. Every flower that cheers the lonely and oppressed of life and sends Its fragrance into a sordid world develops into the most perfect flower it possibly can under the environment and opportunity given to it. So with man. As h e advanced in ethics, as the ages gave him a keener and clearer conscience, he kept on longing'and struggling for a higher plane. He started to look out of himself and out of his own immediate range for a still higher plane. The inherent idea of ultimate perfection was driving his thoughts out of himself into the world that he did not. know and never «oould see. The process kept working on. Soon he left his stone god for many gods more diversified and more wonderful. Then his many gods grew unsatisfactory and inadequate and he left his polytheism and became monotheistic.

Formulating a Religion. AU this time he has been formulating a religion. Not a religious system or eccleslasticism, but a religion. Ethics deal with human conduct, with man’s relationship with man, but religion attempts to approach the infinite. It goes on "after the purely ethical ground has been deserted. Man’s desire to live on forever has gradually reacted upon himself to such an extent that it has given this inherited predisposition toward a God find immortality to every heart The problem of religion is for man to find his relationship with God—a principle and a force. The revealed religions are unsatisfactory in this respect to the philosopher and the scientist Every man has a religion. The mere process of evolution and his desire for still greater and better -things are a religion. In the broader sense there is no unbelief. Men may question, and justly so, Jehovah and Zeus. The religion with a man-god will ultimately have a fatal attack. But the real religion of man, religion of the heart andukf love, of growth, expansion and evolution, all centered around a great cause in the original constitution of things, will bring peace and happiness to mankind everywhere. Then the songs of the poets, the conclusions of the philosophers, will all reveal to us and enable us to experience the joy of freedom contained in a verse from a very old book: ‘"Ye shall know the' truth and the truth shall make you free.” A man has given proof of the power of his religion when that religion teaches him tha art of living.—Rev, Preston Bradley.