Communism and Christianism: Analyzed and Contrasted from the Marxian and Darwinian Points of ViewBrown, William Montgomery
Religion
Communism and Christianism: Analyzed and Contrasted from the Marxian and Darwinian Points of View
Brown, William Montgomery
Christian socialism; Communism; Communism and Christianity
In every class of persons investigated, the number of believers in
God is less and in most classes very much less than the number of
non-believers, and that the number of believers in immortality is
somewhat larger than in a personal God; that among the more
distinguished, unbelief is very much more frequent than among the
less distinguished; and finally that not only the degree of
ability, but also the kind of knowledge possessed, is significantly
related to the rejection of these beliefs.
In another connection Prof. Leuba speaking of Christian dogmatism as a
whole says:
Christianity, as a system of belief, has utterly broken down, and
nothing definite, adequate, and convincing has taken its place.
There is no generally acknowledged authority; each one believes as
he can, and few seem disturbed at being unable to hold the tenets
of the churches. This sense of freedom is the glorious side of an
otherwise dangerous situation.
Your conception of the origin, sustenance and governance of the universe
is burdened, as are all interpretations of religion which are hinged
upon the existence of conscious, personal divinities, with two
difficulties: (1) its physical impossibility, and (2) its moral
impossibility.
1. Physical Impossibilities. The atomic and molecular movements required
for the thinking of a single man would be beyond the capacity of all the
gods of the supernaturalistic interpretations of religion together.
Some idea of the number of such motions which are taking place in every
human brain, will be derived from the conservative representations of
Hofmeister as exhibited in the following condensed form by McCabe in his
book, "The Evolution of Mind:"
We have reason to believe that there are in each molecule of
ordinary protoplasm at least 450 atoms of carbon, 720 atoms of
hydrogen, 116 of nitrogen, 6 of sulphur, and 140 of oxygen.
Nerve-plasm is still more complex.
Recent discoveries have only increased the wonder and potentiality
of the cortex. Each atom has proved to be a remarkable
constellation of electrons, a colossal reservoir of energy. The
atom of hydrogen contains about 1,000 electrons, the atom of carbon
12,000, the atom of nitrogen 14,000, the atom of oxygen 16,000, and
the atom of sulphur 32,000. These electrons circulate within the
infinitesimal space of the atom at a speed of from 10,000 to 90,000
miles a second. It would take 340,000 barrels of powder to impart
to a bullet the speed with which some of these particles dart out
of their groups. A gramme of hydrogen--a very tiny portion of the
simplest gas--contains energy enough to lift a million tons more
than a hundred yards.
Of these astounding arsenals of energy, the atoms, we have, on the
lowest computation, at least 600 million billion in the cortex of
the human brain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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