Chapter X
In closing this discussion of the most vital subject that man has ever contemplated, it is my sincere desire to express, very frankly, that nothing has been written from any feeling of disrespect for the opinions of those numberless thousands who have been followers of the several systems of religion that have prevailed, at one time or another, since the dawn of history. And if there were systems prior to recorded history which are not known to us to-day—I would say all honor to those who worshiped at such shrines—All these were following the best light they had known. It would not only be unkind and out of place to criticize them harshly, it would be downright sinful. Their labors and experiences, all the way down through the various dynasties of mythologies or theologies, are the sign-posts to direct our compass. It is not trite to say they were our school-masters to point the way to the higher plain of our time. If someone to-day should claim that a special god made his home at the river’s source, and caused great floods when he was offended, but nice calm and clear water to flow when his wrath was appeased, we would not only criticize, we would adjudge him insane. Or if it were claimed that a whole colony of Gods were living in luxury and lasciviousness atop one of our beautiful mountains, whence they would influence the people according to their varying moods, no well-balanced minds would even turn to investigate. The idea would be frowned upon by small children, even. The human souls who did accept these, now ridiculous, ideas were honestly groping along in very dim light. Much later there was one God. While he still manifested himself first in the mountains, he represented a great improvement over all previous gods, but he was still created after the image and likeness of man. But in this God of Moses we can begin to see some of the grandeur and majesty that belong to the Supreme Spirit of the universe—a noble God in many respects. Much was attributed to Him, however, that was as puerile and unbelievably ridiculous as anything credited to His predecessors. This God is pretty fully described in our Old Testament, and with still some important embellishments he carries over into our New Theology—the greatest and best that has yet been promulgated among men. This same God, stripped of all the superstitions that have marred His majesty and perfection, evolves into the God that enlightened souls now accept as the Absolute—The God of power, love and justice, whose law is the life of all things, but who speaks to man only in natural language. In this we are able to trace the evolution of the human concept of the supreme power that has been reveled through the observation of nature’s manifestations, in so many wonderful ways, all about him, that first set man to thinking of some great power which was unfolding itself in such inexplicable splendor. An effort to portray man’s conception of this force, has given rise to all the mythologies and Theologies that have marked man’s progress. Imagine the fear and trembling that came to early man made such incomprehensible, and to him, supernatural occurrences as the lightning and thunder of a major electrical storm—the greatness and regularity of the Great lights, the sun and moon. After his curiosity became sufficiently aroused, follow him in his study of the stars—no wonder that he deified them, and that he would, almost naturally, turn the sun, which followed a fixed schedule across the heavens every day, into a golden chariot, exactly suited for a carriage in which the greatest of all personages might travel while he made his inspections of the earth and stars.
But he most enthralling of all the wonders of this world is the advancement of the high place that we humans occupy to-day. It is impossible to point out the spot upon the history record that marks the exact beginning of many of our greatest developments—it is easy to contrast the present with some particular date in the past, but the onward movement has been so gradual that it seems like it was regulated by some great supervisor—Indeed, that is just the explanation—The processes of evolution have been always operated under the supervision of the perfect law of God. It has brought us to this place where the average man is not satisfied with the explanation of important things, and happenings, that were given as final to our fathers. The old portrayals, however sacred they may once have been, are no longer accepted as truth. The modern mind will refuse to subscribe to miracles or dreams (and which, probably, never happened) as conclusive foundation for their most profound convictions. And, to-date, we have, in all our systems of popular theologies, no basis for the hope of immortality except which rests, solely upon such predicates.
Evolution, in its unremitting processes, has delivered the human family to this state of excellence, that it is now an opportune time to begin the establishment of a system of theology that will not offend the power of reason and analysis. Which will not be offensive even to the God of All Truth. What is sought here is not a return to Paganism, as critics will cry out, nor is it a materialism, but the very highest type of exaltation of the spiritual—a spiritual concept that comes from the universal and immutable laws of the Creator as they are interpreted in what He has made and set before us for our guidance. The world seems ripe for the reception of a perfectly rational system of religion. It is already impossible to hold the scientific mind to the old dogmas. This does not mean that they have withdrawn their support from the organized effort to uphold the best we have in moral and spiritual uplift, but it does mean that they are forced to reject the bases of our established faiths, and, it is too true that great numbers of our highest type of minds have actually scoffed at our best offerings of Theology. They have done so for the reason that there has been, hitherto, no rational set-up. Education has been greatly hampered, uncertainty is rampant, good men and, otherwise, useful men have tried to find solace in atheism, churches divided into modernists and fundamentalists, and a very general unrest—all these things, and much more that might be enumerated, because there has been so great a change in our ways of thought.
It would be an easy matter for the present generation to allow such things to pass into forgetful oblivion, but for the fact that all men are, inherently, religious. The Creator has so decreed it in the constitution of complex man. The embryonic spirit within man necessitates an environment that includes a reverence for, and devotion to, the idea of an existence of still greater excellence. Man can not dismiss this ideal. It is a part of his intellectual composition. And, as the human animal continues to evolve the ability to understand the cause of natural phenomena, he must, of a necessity, look for a religion that bears the mark of reason. One that will fit, without clash, into the universal picture. It, therefore, seems futile to continue the promulgation of out-worn theologies that retain, as their very foundation the unbelievable miracles, and the persecutions, tortures and ignominious executions of gods, even the one who created all things. It offends human reason to contend that a human child can be born without a human father—many of the deities of human creation had such beginnings. It is no less extravagant to claim that the God, creator of everything that was made, was also gestated within a virgin womb, and except for the absence of a human father, was born, grew to manhood as men do, with human appetites and general characteristics, and was persecuted and finally executed for heresy because he literally gave his life in an effort to improve the, then, orthodox theology. Similar fate has been meted out to many another who persisted in an effort to persuade men to change their orthodoxy to a higher and better system.
While I anticipate a certain kind of persecution following any publication of this effort of mine, it is not to be expected that I shall be literally crucified or burnt at the stake. The environment is very different now from any that has ever been in the past. We are about ready for the reign of Reason, in whose dynasty conclusions will be reached by logical deduction. We shall no more accept faith in immortality because we are told that in the remote history of man, human bodies were miraculously raised from the dead, but because we shall be able to see that immortality is a natural consequence—that the great drama of life would be incomplete without it. Our sacrifices, and anxieties consequent upon incentives and ambitions toward righteousness and purity would be futile and empty dreams, without hope of any goal, if there shall be no immortality.
The question will arise in the analytical mind—is this projection of evolution into the future demonstrable?—A perfectly legitimate interrogatory. I would reply that many logical deductions have lead to reasonable conclusions which extended into unexplored regions. Two of the planets in our solar system of worlds have been located in such, hitherto, unexplored regions, by the process of deduction, based on specific behavior of the known material (other planets). It is just as logical to locate a spiritual kingdom by logical deduction, beginning with the well-known behavior in the other kingdoms of nature. If the existence of another planet was assured because a known planet leaned toward it, when in certain positions of its known orbit, why not apply the same reasoning to the leanings of the highest type of life, known, toward another form of life whose twilight is but dimly visible, but whose attraction is felt and registered in the human aspirations? The human, with all its excellence over more primitive life, has evolved into a transitional sphere, where, now, it is more than a portion of the animal kingdom—it is the connecting link between the animal and the spiritual—Man is living in the mingling glow of two twilights, neither, nor even both of which, furnishes sufficient illumination to make everything clearly visible. When such glorified light is reached, there will remain no need for further deductions. There will be no place for further research and analysis—we can see, by that eternal light, the details of a brand new environment. When man first felt the urge to press on to greater light, he started his journey toward a life that was far superior to the animal, and in him was begotten a new creature, which by its own cravings has assisted in steering his craft over this uncharted sea of the human cycle.
Man, in the purely scientific field, has deduced the staggering picture of the structure of the atom. In one atom, he concludes, to the satisfaction of all, are many bodies, moving at least as fast as light and electricity can travel (more than seven times around the earth in a second), and each keeping its own orbit, which is as far from the orbits of its neighboring bodies, according to size, as the distance separating the planets in our own solar system,--All this by projection of the known into the realm of the unknown. The scientists who announced this marvel of nature, had never magnified the atom, itself, to the point of visibility, much less to see the galaxy of worlds that were spinning around within its interior, and, yet, this is accepted as demonstrable.
It is easier to observe the deflections of our compass, caused by the pull of the spiritual world upon the human world, than it was to catch the deviations in the behavior if a solar planet by the pull of an undiscovered planet. It is, likewise, easier to, definitely, chart the activities of an unborn soul with the human incubator, than to portray the internal operations of that infinitesimal atomic universe.
Yes, the spirit-kingdom is a demonstrable reality, and the persistence of evolution is the instrument, employed by the Architect of the Universe in its creation, after the fashion of the creation of all the other institutions of nature—The same, unchangeable laws and plans projected from life to life, and from Kingdom to Kingdom.
It has been my purpose, in the foregoing discussion, to portray, to the utmost of my ability as an artist, a basis for the ever-present hope of immortality which shall be freed from every vestige of superstition, and from any coloring by the injection of the miraculous or supernatural, which have encumbered this beautiful outlook of the human soul since its first annunciation. I believe I have succeeded in leaving a rough sketch of the picture, with enough outlines that it is comprehensible to the average mentality. If so, it sets up a foundation for a more perfect theology. When we reach the answer to the possibility of eternal life, we have, at once, the climax of all theologies. There is left no place for cavil over the dead or dying dogmas of the past. The all-important thing, now, is to inform ourselves as to nature’s code to be invoked for the best accomplishments in nurturing and directing the spiritual embryo--spiritual eugenics—that it may be better born—strong enough to live in its newly-acquired environment. No small task. The high-pressure potentialities of all our pulpil orators may be useful in the propagation of new emphasis upon righteousness—not sanctimoniousness—action, intelligent and effective living—Not how to die happy—that will be too late—but how to live through this twilight zone, for the gestation of a better soul. This topic, by its very nature must, interest itself in every human activity. It must permeate business and governments. Every human being, whether of his own wish or otherwise, is big brother to a soul which depends upon him for a good home. It being already able to help, materially, in the life-long job, by crying out, as it were, for a life of prudence and justice—temperance and tranquility.
I invite careful consideration and constructive criticism, but I shall continue to hope that no one shall call me an atheist nor denounce me as a pagan. I am sincere in my acknowledgement of the Supreme God, without whom there is complete oblivion—the stillness of nothingness—a state, wholly impossible in human imagination—I am not paganistic (however, this word is flexible enough that anybody may splash it into the face of everybody else who disagrees with his pet theory)
If I have arrested the attention of young folks enough to inspire them to drop the anticipation of late reformation,, with the idea that it is “just as good,” and, thereby, impress upon them the supreme importance of “faithful continuance in well-doing.” I shall be very happy indeed. There is, probably, little hope in changing the tenure of those who have grown old, and are fortified, in what “was good enough for Paul and Silas, and it’s good enough for me” idea.
I would contend that immortality by the natural process of evolution constitutes an important contribution to science, since, without a definite destination, science, hitherto, has lacked that inspiring interest which is dependent upon some desirable goal—A climax which fixes more values to research than has heretofore existed. Until the recognition of what we are pleased to call spontaneous evolution of life, science was short at both ends. And it remains deficient, in having no desirable destination, unless and until it is extended into another and more sublime kingdom, which is as natural and logical as the baser kingdoms of the vegetable and the animal. It should not be difficult for the scientific mind to accept this new idea, for it must reflect beautiful illumination upon the motives and operations of evolution in the innumerable mutations, already demonstrated, and which must, of necessity, have pointed to something more valuable than merely a better animal, or a more brilliant coloring of the rose. Furthermore, it will beget no embarrassment for the scientist, but, rather, will set the seal of complete approval upon the great accomplishment he has consummated in his research after the intricacies of nature’s well-laid plans. Without just such untiring investigations of scientific minds, we should remain impotent in the establishment of any system of religious philosophy superior to those which have depended, for their support, upon superstition and unreasonable claims of miraculous personal experiences, which are now outlawed in the logical conception of the great God of the Universe.
And, too, I am sincere in my conviction that we have a very real contribution to Theology. Or if the term theology is objectionable in this connection, we may refer to the same picture as “a system of religion. It obviates the necessity of linking the faiths and hopes of the religionist to a crude and poorly-established series of miraculous and unbelievable happenings in some remote and badly disconnected history, the earliest records of which were made a good many years after they are claimed to have transpired. Even, them, the authenticity of the records is seriously questioned by those friendly to the product. A reasonable doubt, continues, as to whether any of the four canonical records of the great awakening in Judea and Galilee, ushered in with many thrilling miracles, was recorded by eye-witnesses or by understudies who had heard the stories from their principles—years before.
I freely agree with the highly intelligent pronouncements of modern ministers, who, to a considerable degree, minimize the original settings of the Christian system, contending that the virgin birth and the death of God may be deleted and still have a great religion. But the fact remains that with these deletions they have nothing to tie to more than a beautiful system of morals with no promise of immortality. The Christian system cannot dismiss the atonement made by the dying God, and maintain the hope of a life after this earthly existence fails, unless something is adopted to bridge this chasm. If the evolutional bridge, herein proposed, is accepted it would fit nicely into the modern scheme, except that it would displace, not only the miracles of the Judean period, more crowded with the supernatural than any other generation, but it would automatically remove, for all time, every link in the theological chain which supports the orthodox contentions. The reason for saying it would fit the modern sermon is that the modern preachment is so nearly nothing but a moral lecture on righteousness. And that same moral teaching would, logically, become the proper exhortation in the evolutional conception. The very definite differences seen in the modern sermon in Christendom, when compared to what most of us elders can remember, is a beautiful exhibition of the work of evolution—the changes wrought in religious thought since science came into her own, has evolved an environment which is, soon, to compel a general revision of the religious set-up. Until very recently religionists bitterly opposed every scientific advance which, by its very nature, cast any shadow of doubt upon the bulwarks of orthodoxy—Science has won every struggle, and the highest type of practice by the, once, orthodox has been to make some shift in position toward a more intelligent exposition—This is as it should be, and the noble moves on the part of religious leaders, have made it possible now to contemplate, together, a more perfect system, exactly in accord with the advance in scientific thinking. And, also, so clean and pure, in that it is limited only by the unchangeable laws of God, rather than made to fit any bewildering claims of folk-lore manufacture.
I submit this picture of “Immortality by Evolution” for the consideration of all who are interested in this, the consummate goal of human hopes and anticipations—the pearl of transcendent beauty.—The end to be sought above every other human ambition, in the sincerest hope that it may meet with favorable reception. And with the further hope that any faults or short-comings in this brief sketch may be corrected, and the beauties of its adaptation be amplified to the fullest, by sincere minds of more and wider information that I profess. And I should like to emphasize my highest tribute to all those who during nineteen centuries have had part in the evolution of the crowning system among the religions of the past—Christianity. Because I am of the opinion that it should now be supplanted by something better, just as it supplanted its own predecessors, is not to be interpreted to mean that I would shrink from its praise—It has been the best that man has ever devised throughout all time down to the present. Everything created by the process of evolution, fill their mission, become outmoded and decline to be followed by something else which is more adaptable to the changed environment.
So, for the present, at least, I give you this little volume as my contribution to science, with a final exhortation to all to be watchful of every step in life, as we pass this way but once. Therefore we shall remain unable to return, even one step, to erase a blunder.
(ed. Note: The tablet pages end here with page 76, i.e.: 76 pages of written manuscript, not the previous typed pages. This would appear to be the end of the manuscript itself but for two more pages, numbered themselves 1 and 2 on smaller paper, which give a more generalized conclusion. As these pages are somewhat repetitive of earlier material, I am not altogether certain which is the “real” end here. The next two pages may be an after-thought or an alternative ending. It is impossible to tell by the numbering scheme.)
By this conception of the completeness and continuity of God’s creation by the operation of Nature’s plan of Evolution in all things—kingdom after kingdom, from the chaotic cosmos to the glorified spiritual—we are enabled to dismiss forever the powerful rule and reign of Mythology, which, while robed in ancient and medieval magnificence, has served, not too well, but too long as the director of humanity’s highest hopes. It assures a logical and dependable foundation for our further advancement, and removes the unbelievable and uncertain support of sporadic miracles as a basis for faith.
Come, let us reason together. Let us acquit ourselves like men. Let us inaugurate a new era of religious thought, in which god remains unchangeable, and his laws immutable. Let us read his will in that which we know He has revealed in what He has created and set before our eyes. Let us contemplate the naturalness of the spiritual, and observe the continuous application of the same motif through it all. Let us, also, rejoice in the reasonableness of immortality as a natural goal, and let us render reverential thanks to Almighty God for the wisdom and the beauty displayed in all his revelations to us through nature’s manifestations.—Then, there shall remain no place for the many hundreds of religious sects, each supporting its schismic dogmas by its own favorite mythical pronouncements of the supernatural and miraculous revelations, in some remote past, to a favored few, but all may read the same “Word of God” in the things which he has made, and all can agree that all human creatures are members of the same family, worshiping the same God. Why not experience that fond hope of the soul: “Peace on earth, good will among men” which must become more easily accessible when the source of the most irreconcilable of all differences shall have been entombed along with the dying gods of superstition and credulity?