Science and Morals and Other EssaysWindle, Bertram Coghill Alan, Sir
Religion
Science and Morals and Other Essays
Windle, Bertram Coghill Alan, Sir
Essays; Religion and science; Science
On the whole, then, we may perhaps conclude that the natural bias of
mankind is towards kindness to his neighbour, however much the brute in
him may sometimes impel him to uncharitable words or actions. And
certainly this natural bias is intensified and made into a binding law
by the teachings of Christ. But there is the other point of view set
forward in the philosophy of Nietzsche--if indeed such writings are
worthy of the name philosophy. "The world is for the superman. Dominancy
within the human kind must be secured at all costs. As for the old
values, they are all wrong. Christian humility is a slavish virtue; so
is Christian charity. Such values have become 'denaturalised.' They are
the by-product of certain primitive activities, which were intended by
Nature to subserve strictly biological ends, but have somehow escaped
from Nature's control and run riot on their own account."
The prophets of this group of ideals, or some such group of ideals, have
no hesitation in telling us how they would direct the affairs of
humanity if they were entrusted with their conduct. It will not be
without interest to consider their plans and to endeavour to form some
sort of an idea of what kind of place the world would be if they had
their way. We can then form our own opinion as to whether a world
conducted on such lines would be in any way a tolerable place for human
existence.
First of all we may dwell briefly on Natural Selection as a rule of
life, since it has been put forward as such by quite a number of
persons. Never, let it at once be said, by the great and gentle-hearted
originator of that theory, who during his life had to protest as to the
ignorant and exaggerated ideas which were expressed about it and who,
were he now alive, would certainly be shocked at the teachings which are
supposed to follow from his theory and the dire results which they have
produced.[18]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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