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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Basis of Religion; Being an Examination of "Natural Religion"

The Basis of Religion; Being an Examination of "Natural Religion"

Momerie, Alfred Williams

Paperback

General World History

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 1151697281
ISBN13: 9781151697288
Publisher: General Books
Pages: 28
Weight: 0.15
Height: 0.06 Width: 7.44 Depth: 9.69
Language: English
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1886 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. THE NEW FAITH. Our author has justly told us, as I pointed out in the previous chapter, that while superstition is depressing, religion is essentially inspiring. The object of our habitual contemplation, he says, should make life rich and bright for us.1 True religion, he observes again, must give the worshipper faith, and faith he defines as confidence that life is not irreconcilably opposed to our ideals.2 This confidence, he further points out, will become a stimulus to right-doing; the religious life being distinguished from the irreligious by the characteristic of unselfishness.3 So that, according to our author, the new religion, if it be a true one, must make us (1) happy, or at any rate hopeful, and (2) self-denying. We have now to inquire whether it will stand this test. Can it, or can it not, be called a faith? In attempting to prove that it can, he makes a 1 P. 141. 2 Pp. 61 etseq. 3 Pp. 235, 236. most unpromising start--for he tells us that any theory of the universe must be inspiring. In a single sentence, he uses the expressions--system, law, way of viewing the universe, and worship--as synonymous. As if all systems and laws were necessarily good! As if all ways of viewing the universe must necessarily lead to worship! He seems to forget that there is such a thing as pessimism, that there have been Schopenhauers and Hartmanns. He says: --Just as atheism does not consist in a bad theory of the universe, but in the want of any theory, so theism consists not in possessing a meritorious or true or consoling theory, but simply in possessing a theory of the universe. He who has such a theory acts with confidence and decision; he who has no such theory is paralysed. One of the rudest of all theories of the universe is that propounded by ...

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