What is religion? and other new articles and letters

Contents

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What is Religion? (1902). Translated by V. T. and A. C. F. 1 On Religious Tolerance (1902) " " " " " 49

Thou Shalt Not Kill (1900). Translated by Mrs. Maude . 114 How Shall We Escape ? (1898). Translated by Mrs. N.

Chapter I

ALWAYS in all human societies, at a certain period of their existence a time comes when their religion begins to diverge from its fundamental meaning, then diverges more and more, loses this fundamental meaning, and finally crystallizes into permanently established forms ; — when its influence upon the life of men grows weaker and weaker.

At such periods, the educated minority, though no longer believing in the existing religious teaching, still pretend to believe, finding this religion necessary for holding the masses in the established order of life; whilst the masses, although adhering by the force of inertia to the established religion, are no longer guided in their lives by religious demands, but only by popular customs and state laws.

So it has been, many times, in many human communities. But what is now taking place in our Christian Society has never before occurred. It has never occurred before that the ruling and more educated minority, which has the chief influence on the masses, not only disbelieved in the existing religion, but was certain that in its time religion was no longer necessary at all, and that it taught those who doubted the truth of the accepted faith not some other, more rational and comprehensible religion than that existing, but even persuaded them that religion in general had outlived its time, and had become not only a useless but even a harmful organ of social life, something like the appendix of the caecum in the human organism.

Religion is studied by this class of men not as something which we know through our inner experience, but as an external phenomenon, a disease as it were to which some people are subject, and which we can understand only in its external symptoms.

Religion, according to some of these men, has sprung from the spiritualization of all the phenomena of nature (animism). According to others, from the idea of the possibility of communicating with departed ancestors. According to others again, from the fear of the powers of nature. And as science has proved — the scientists of our day further argue — that trees and stone cannot be animated, and deceased ancestors are no longer conscious of what the living do, and the phenomena of nature are explicable by natural causes, — therefore the necessity for religion and for all those restraints which people impose upon themselves as the result of religious beliefs has disappeared. In the opinion of scientists there once existed a period of unenlightenment — the religious period. This was outlived by mankind long ago, but occasional atavistic symptoms remain. Then there came the metaphysical period, which also has been outlived. And now, we, the enlightened generations, live in the scientific period, — of positive science, — which replaces religion and leads mankind to a lofty degree of development which it could never have attained whilst it submitted to superstitious religious teaching.

At the beginning of 1901 the celebrated French scientist Berthelot uttered a speech {Revue de Paris, January, 1 901), in which he communicated to his audience the idea that the age of religion had passed, and that it must now be replaced by science. I cite this speech because it is the first to my hand and because it was uttered in the capital of the cultured world by a universally recognized scientist. But the same idea has been expressed continually and everywhere from philosophical treatises down to newspaper articles.

Mons. Berthelot says in this speech that there were formerly two principles which moved mankind, Force and Religion. These motive powers have become unnecessary now, because their place has been taken by science. By science Mons. Berthelot evidently implies (as all men who believe in it do) a science which embraces the whole sphere of human knowledge, each branch classified according to the degree of its importance, and the whole harmoniously bound together. A science possessing such methods that all the data it discovers present one unquestionable truth. But such a science does not exist, as a matter of fact. What is called science to-day consists of a haphazard heap of information, united by nothing, often utterly unnecessary, and not only failing to present one unquestionable truth, but as often as not containing the grossest errors to-day put forward as truths, and to-morrow overthrown. It is evident, therefore, that the very thing which in Mons. Berthelot' s opinion is to replace religion, does not exist. And therefore the assertion of Mons. Berthelot and those who agree with him, that science will replace religion, is entirely arbitrary, and is founded upon an unjustifiable belief in an Infallible Science, exactly resembling the belief in an Infallible Church.

And yet people who call themselves and are regarded as scientists are quite certain that already there exists a science which must and can replace religion, and even has replaced it.

" Religion has outlived its day ; to believe in anything except science is ignorance. Science will arrange all that is necessary, and one should be guided in life by science alone." So think and say both the scientists themselves and the crowd, which, although very far from being scientific, yet believes the scientists and together with them asserts that religion is an outlived superstition and that our life should be guided only by science, — that is, in reality, by nothing, because science, according to its own acknowledged definition as the investigation of everything that exists, cannot furnish any guidance for man's life.

Chapter II

The scientists of our times have decided that religion is unnecessary and that science will replace or already has replaced it ; and yet, now as before, no human society or rational man ever has lived or can live without religion. (I say " rational " man, because an irrational man can live as an animal, without religion.) A rational man cannot live without religion, because religion alone gives the rational man the necessary guidance as to what he should do, and what he should do first and what next. A rational man cannot live without religion precisely because reason is an element of his nature. Every animal is guided in its actions — except those to which it is attracted by the direct demands of its desires — by consideration about the immediate results of its actions. Having considered these results by the aid of those means of comprehension which it possesses, the animal conforms its actions to the results, and always acts under the influence of these considerations in one and the same way, without wavering. Thus, for instance, a bee flies in search of honey and brings it home into its hive because in winter it will require the food it has collected for itself and the young ; and beyond these considerations it knows nothing and is unable to know anything. A bird acts in the same way when it makes its nest, or migrates from the north to the south and vice versa. And so also does every animal when it commits any act, not from a direct immediate necessity, but under the influence of considerations about expected results.

But it is not so with man. The difference between a man and an animal consists in this, that the perceptive faculties in the animal are limited by what we call instinct, whereas reason is the essential perceptive faculty of man.

A bee collecting its food can have no doubts about the Tightness or wrongness of what it is doing. But a man gathering in the harvest cannot but reflect whether he is destroying for the future the growth of the wheat or fruit, and whether by thus gathering he is not depriving his neighbor of his food. He also cannot but think of the future of the children whom he feeds ; and of many other things. The most important questions of conduct in life cannot be solved definitely by a rational man, precisely because of the multitude of results which he cannot help seeing. Every rational man feels, if he does not know, that in the most important affairs of life he cannot be guided either by the impulse of personal feelings or by considerations of the immediate results of his activity, because he sees too many different results, and often contradictory ones ; results, that is, which with equal probability can be either beneficent or harmful, both to himself and to others.

There is a legend about an angel who descended to earth into a God-fearing family and killed a child in its cradle; when asked why he had done this, he replied that the child would have become a great malefactor and would have brought misery to its family.

But not only in the question, Which human life is useful, useless, or harmful ? — not one of the most important questions of life can be solved, for a rational man, by considerations about immediate relations and results. A rational man cannot be content with the considerations which direct the actions of animals. Man may regard himself as an animal amongst animals, living from day to day ; he may regard himself as a member of a family or of a society or of a nation living from century to century ; he may, and even necessarily must (because his reason irresistibly attracts him to this), regard himself as a part of the whole Infinite Universe existing infinitely. And therefore a rational man is obliged to and always does do, in relation to the infinitely small circumstances of life which influence his actions, what in mathematics is called integration, that is, besides his relations to his immediate circumstances, he must establish his relation to the whole universe, infinite in time and space, and conceived as a whole. And such an establishment by man of his relation to that whole of which he feels himself a part and from which he obtains guidance for his actions, is precisely what was and is called Religion. And therefore religion always has been and cannot cease to be an indispensable and permanent condition of the life of a rational man and of rational humanity.

Chapter III

And it was in this way that the men who were not bereft of the capacity of the higher (that is, the religious) consciousness, which distinguishes man from the animal, always understood religion. The oldest and most common definition of religion, from which the word itself is derived {religio — religare, to bind back), is that religion is a connection between man and God. " Les obligations de Vhomme envers Dieu, voila la religion " (" Man's obligations toward God ; that is religion "), says Vovenargue. A similar meaning is attached to religion by Schleiermacher and Fehrbach, who recognize as the foundation of religion man's consciousness of his dependence on God. "La religion est une affaire entre chaque homme et Dieu." — Beile. (" Religion is a matter between every man and God.") "La religion est le re'sultat des besoins de Vdme et des effects de V intelligence?' — B. Constant. (" Religion is the result of the needs of the soul and the effects of the reason.") "Religion is a certain method by which man realizes his relation to the superhuman and mysterious powers from whom he regards himself dependent." — Goblet d'Alviella. "Religion is the definition of man's life by the connection of the human with that mysterious spirit} the power of which over the universe and himself he recognizes , and with which he feels himself united." — A. Reville.

So that the essence of religion was always and is still understood by men who are not bereft of the highest human capacity, as the establishment by man of his relation to the Infinite Being or Beings whose power he feels over himself. And however different this relation has been for different peoples at different times, it has always determined for man his destination in the world, from which naturally followed the guidance of his actions also. A Jew understood his relation to the Infinite as that of a member of a people chosen by God in preference to all other peoples, and who must therefore keep the Covenant concluded between God and this people. A Greek understood his relation as that of a being dependent upon the representatives of infinity, the gods, and who must therefore do what was pleasing to the gods. A Brahman understood his relation to the Infinite Brahma by considering himself a manifestation of this Brahma, and that it was his duty to strive to unite with this highest being, by the renunciation of life. A Buddhist understood and understands his relation to the Infinite as that of one who, passing from one form of life into another, inevitably suffers, and that as these sufferings proceed from passions and desires, therefore one should strive to destroy all passions and desires and so pass into Nirvana.

Every religion is an establishment by man of his relation to the Infinite Existence of which he feels himself a part, and from which relation he obtains the guidance for his conduct. And therefore any religion which does not establish the relation of man to the Infinite, as, for instance, Idolatry, or Magic, is not a religion, but only a corruption. And if a religion, although establishing a relation of man to God yet establishes it by assertions which disagree with reason and the modern knowledge of man so that man cannot believe such assertions, then this also is not religion, but an imitation. If a religion does not connect the life of man with the Infinite Existence, this also is not religion ; and demands of faith in propositions from which no definite direction of man's actions follows, are also not religion.

True religion is the establishment by man of such a relation to the Infinite Life around him, as, while connecting his life with this Infinitude and directing his conduct, is also in agreement with his reason and with human knowledge,

Chapter IV

The modern scientists, notwithstanding that never and at no time have people lived, nor do they now live, without religion, say, like Moliere's involuntary doctor who asserted that the liver is on the left side : " * We have changed all that,' and one can and should live without religion." But religion remains as it always was, the chief motive power, the heart of the life of human societies, and without it, as without the heart, there can be no rational life. There have been, and there are, many different religions, because the expression of the relation of man to the Infinite, to God, or the gods, is different at different times, according to the different degrees of development of different nations; but no society of men since men have become rational beings could ever live and therefore never did live and cannot live without religion.

It is true that there have been (and still occur) periods in the life of nations when the existing religion was so distorted and so far behind life that it no longer guided man. But this cessation of the influence of religion, which has occurred at certain moments with every religion, has been only temporary. Religion, like everything vital, has the capacity of being born, developing, growing old, and dying, of reviving again, and reviving always in a more perfect form than before. After the period of the highest development of religion there always follows a period of weakness and lifelessness, after which again there generally follows a period of regeneration and of the establishment of a religious teaching more clear and rational than before. Such periods of development, decline, and regeneration have occurred in all religions : in the profound Brahman religion, in which the moment it began to grow old and to crystallize in coarse, permanently established forms deviated from its fundamental conception, there appeared on the one hand the revival of Brahmanism itself, and on the other the lofty teaching of Buddhism, which advanced mankind's understanding of its relation to the Infinite. A similar decline occurred in the Greek and Roman religion, and here also, after the decline had reached its lowest point, Christianity appeared. The same occurred with Church Christianity, which degener

whM,1?' Byzantlum lnt<? idolatry and polytheism, at which t me, as a counterbalance to this perverted Chris- 'an!£ thf?re aPPeared on the one side Paulicianism, and on the other, m opposition to the teaching of Trinity and Maryolatry, the severe Mohammedanism, with its fundamental dogma of One God. The same thing hap!

caeileed S?w? %e /apal Medi6VaI Christianity, Ihfch called forth the Reformation. So that periods of the decline of religious influence upon the majority of men present a necessary condition of the life and devekfp

ZTtZll reIlglT t6aChingS- This Proceeds from the fact that every religious teaching in its true meaning however crude it may be, always establishes the relation of man to the Infinite, identical for all men. Every religion recognizes man as equally insignificant in rela tion to Infinity; -and therefore every reliSon alwavt contains the idea of the equality of all W* before thar which it regards as God, whether that be lighting the wind a tree, an animal, a hero, a deceased or« live : king, as it was in Rome. So that the recoSution of the equality of men is necessarily an essemil? fea ture of every religion. But since in real k™ ever and nowhere has there existed, nor now exists an IqualSv between men, therefore the moment a new reS appeared, which always included the recognMon of the equality of men, then immediately those to whom ine quality was advantageous endeavored to conceaT tht essential feature, and distorted the teaching teeff And this was what occurred always and everywhere when a new religion appeared. ' ' a

scious^tut^6,'1, 1" thC maj°rity of cases- n°t consciously, but merely because men to whom inequality io WHAT IS RELIGION?

was advantageous (those in power, and the wealthy), in order to feel themselves in the right in the face of the accepted teaching without altering their position, tried by every means to attribute to the new religious teaching a meaning which would allow inequality to be possible. And this distortion of the teaching, which allowed those in power over others to consider themselves in the right, being naturally transmitted to the masses, convinced them also that their submission to those in power was a demand of the religion they professed.

Chapter V

Every human activity is called forth by three influences : Feeling, Reason, and Suggestion (the suggestion which medical men call Hypnotism). Sometimes man acts only under the influence of feeling, and strives to attain his desires. Sometimes he acts under the influence of reason alone, which indicates to him his duties. Sometimes, and most often, man acts because he himself or other men have suggested to him a certain activity and he unconsciously submits to the suggestion. In normal conditions of life all three influences participate in man's activity. Feeling draws man toward a certain activity ; reason verifies the agreement of this activity with the surrounding conditions, with the past, and with the anticipated future; and suggestion compels man to fulfil, without feeling, or thinking, the act elicited by feeling and approved by reason. If there were no feeling, man would undertake nothing ; if there were no reason, man would simultaneously yield himself to many contradictory feelings, harmful to himself and others ; if there were no capacity of submitting to one's own or other people's suggestion, man would have to experience that feeling which prompted him to a certain action, unceasingly, and continually to exert his reason in testing the expediency of his reason. And therefore all these three influences are indispensable to every human activity, however simple. If a man is moving

WHAT IS RELIGION?

ii m a certain direction it is because his feeling has prompted him to move from one place to another, his reason has approved of this intention, has indicated the means to realize it (in the given case, walking along a certain road), and the muscles of his body obey. And the man advances in the desired direction. While he is advancing, his feeling and reason become free for another activity, which could not occur if the capacity of submitting to suggestion did not exist. So it is with all human activities, and so also with the most important of all — the religious activity. Feeling calls forth the necessity of establishing the relation of man to God ■ reason defines this relation; and suggestion prompts man to the activity which follows from this relation Hut it takes place thus only while religion has not yet suffered distortion. As soon, however, as this distortion commences, suggestion becomes stronger and stronger and the activities of feeling and reason weaker and weaker. As to the methods of suggestion, they are everywhere and always the same. They consist in profiting by those conditions of man when he is most susceptible to suggestion (childhood, and during important events in life — deaths, births, marriages), to influence him by works of art: architecture, sculpture painting, music, dramatic performances, — and in this state of susceptibility, similar to that attained over separate individuals by hypnotic sleep, to incite him to that which is desired by the inciters.

This phenomenon is observable in all the old religious teachings: in the lofty teaching of Brahmanism, degenerated into a gross worship of innumerable images in various temples with singing and incense burning ; and in the ancient Hebrew religion as preached by the prophets, transformed into the worship of Jehovah in an imposing temple with solemn hymns and processions ; in transcendental Buddhism, degenerated, with its monasteries and images of Buddha, with its innumerable stately rites, into Occult Lamaism; and in Taoism, with its magic and exorcism.

Always, and in all religious teachings, when they begin to be distorted, their guardians, having brought men into a state of weakened mental activity, use all their efforts to instil into them what they think necessary. And in all religions it was necessary to instil the same three doctrines which serve as the foundation for all the distortions to which all degenerating religions are submitted. Firstly, that a certain class of men exist who alone can be the mediators between men and God or gods ; secondly, that miracles have occurred or are occurring which prove and corroborate the truth of that which is asserted by the mediators between men and God ; and thirdly, that there are certain words, repeated verbally or written in books, which express the unchangeable will of God or gods, and therefore are sacred and infallible. And as soon as these doctrines are accepted under hypnotic influence, then all which is asserted by the mediators between God and men is accepted as sacred truth, and the chief aim of the distortion of religion is attained ; — not only the concealment of the law of human equality, but also the establishment and confirmation of the greatest inequality, the division of men into castes, into men and Yogi, into Orthodox and heretics, saints and sinners. This has taken place and is taking place with Christianity : complete inequality has been recognized, and men are divided not only in the understanding of the teaching, into clergy and laity, but also in relation to social position, into those who have power and those who must submit to power ; and this is recognized as established by God Himself according to the teaching of Paul.

Chapter VI

The inequality of men, not only as clergy and laity, but also as rich and poor, master and slaves, has been established by the Christian Church-Religion in as definite and rigid a form as in other religions. And yet to judge by the data we have concerning the primitive condition of Christianity, and by the teaching expressed in the Gospels, it would seem that the chief methods of distortion used in other religions had been foreseen, and a distinct warning against them uttered. Against a caste of priests it was distinctly said that no one can be another's teacher (" Be not ye called Rabbi. . . . And call no man your father. . . . Neither be ye called masters"); against attributing a sacred meaning to books it was said that it is the spirit which is important and not the letter, and that men should not believe human traditions, and that all the law and the prophets, that is, all the books regarded as Holy Writ, are summed up in this saying, that one should act toward one's neighbors as one would wish them to act toward oneself. If nothing is said against the miracles, and if in the Gospel itself miracles are described as if performed by Jesus, nevertheless from the whole spirit of the teaching it is evident that Jesus bases the truth of his teaching not on miracles but on its own merits.

(" If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.") But above all, the equality of men has been proclaimed by Christianity no longer as a deduction from man's relation to the Infinite, but as the fundamental teaching of the brotherhood of men, all men having been recognized as sons of God.

It would seem, therefore, to have been impossible to so distort Christianity as to destroy the consciousness of the equality of all men. But the human mind is ingenious, and it invented, perhaps unconsciously, or half consciously, a new method or true} as the French say, to render the Gospel warnings and the clear declaration of the equality of men ineffectual. This " dodge " consisted in attributing infallibility not only to certain words but also to a certain body of men called The Church, which has the right to transmit this infallibility to other men elected by it. A little addition to the Gospel was also invented, — that Christ when leaving for heaven transmitted to certain men the exclusive right not only of teaching others the divine truth (according to the

1 Trick, cunning, dodge. — Tr.

i4 WHAT IS RELIGION?

letter of the Gospel, he transmitted also at the same time the power, not generally used, of being invulnerable to serpents, poisons, and fire), but also of making men saved or unsaved, and, above all, of transmitting this right to other men. And as soon as the idea of the Church was firmly established, then all the Gospel warnings for preventing the distortion of the religion became ineffectual. Reason was termed the source of error, and the Gospel was interpreted not as common sense demands, but as those who composed the Church desired.

And therefore all the three previous methods of distorting religions — Priesthood, Miracles, and the Infallibility of Writings — were also admitted into Christianity in their fullest power. The lawfulness of the existence of mediators between God and men was recognized, because the necessity and lawfulness of mediators was recognized by the Church ; the reality of miracles was recognized because the Infallible Church witnessed to them ; the Bible was recognized as sacred because the Church so recognized it.

And Christianity was distorted just as all the other religions were, but with this difference : that precisely because Christianity proclaimed with especial clearness its fundamental doctrine of the equality of men as the sons of God, it was necessary to distort the whole teaching with especial force in order to conceal this fundamental doctrine. And by the help of the idea of the Church, this was accomplished to an extent greater than in any other religion.

And as a result no religion ever proclaimed statements so obviously out of agreement with reason and contemporary human knowledge. Not to mention the absurdities of the Old Testament, such as the creation of light before the sun, the creation of the world six thousand years ago, the housing of all the species of animals in the ark, and various immoral abominations such as the direction to murder children and whole populations at the command of God ; not to mention also that absurd sacrament, about which Voltaire even used to say that though many different religions had existed and still existed, never before had there been one the principal religious act of which consisted of eating one's God — to pass these things by, what can be more senseless than the assertions that the mother of God was both a mother and a virgin — that the sky opened and a voice was heard issuing from it — that Jesus flew away into the skies and is now sitting somewhere there on the right hand of the Father — or that God is One and Three, and not three Gods like Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, but One, and at the same time Three ? And what can be more immoral than that awful theology according to which God is cruel and revengeful, punishes all men for the sin of Adam, and to save them sends His Son to the earth knowing beforehand that men will kill him and will be cursed for doing so ; and that the salvation of men from sin consists in being christened, or in believing that all this is actually true, that the Son of God was killed by men for the salvation of men, and that those who do not believe this will be punished by God with eternal torments ? So that leaving aside the additions, as some regard them, to the chief dogmas of this religion, such as the beliefs in the various relics and ikons, of the Virgin Mary, of petitionary prayers directed to various saints according to their specialities, — leaving aside also the Protestant doctrine of predestination, — the foundations of this religion, established by the Nicene Creed, and recognized by every one, are so absurd and immoral, and are developed to such a degree of contradiction to normal human feeling and reason, that men cannot believe them. Men may with their lips repeat certain words, but they cannot believe that which has no sense. One may say with one's lips : " I believe that the world was created six thousand years ago ; " or, " I believe that Jesus flew away into the skies and is sitting on the right hand of the Father ; " or, " God is One, and also Three ; " — but no one can believe it, because the words have no sense. And therefore the men of our modern world who profess distorted Christianity, in reality believe in nothing.