The Profits of Religion: An Essay in Economic InterpretationSinclair, Upton
Religion
The Profits of Religion: An Essay in Economic Interpretation
Sinclair, Upton
Christianity -- Controversial literature
It is a conceivable thing that man may learn to create his food
from the elements without the slow processes of agriculture; it
is conceivable that he may master the bacteria which at present
prey upon his body, and so put an end to death. It is certain
that he will ascertain the laws of heredity, and create human
qualities as he has created the spurs of the fighting-cock and
the legs of the greyhound. He will find out what genius is, and
the laws of its being, and the tests whereby it may be
recognized. In the new science of psycho-analysis he has already
begun the work of bringing an infinity of subconsciousness into
the light of day; it may be that in the evidence of telepathy
which the psychic researchers are accumulating, he is beginning
to grope his way into a universal consciousness, which may come
to include the joys and griefs of the inhabitants of Mars, and of
the dark stars which the spectroscope and the telescope are
disclosing.
All these are fascinating possibilities. What stands in the way
of their realization? Ignorance and superstition, fear and
submission, the old habits of rapine and hatred which man has
brought with him from his animal past. These make him a slave, a
victim of himself and of others; to root them out of the garden
of the soul is the task of the modern thinker.
The new morality is thus a morality of freedom. It teaches that
man is the master, or shall become so; that there is no law, save
the law of his own being, no check upon his will save that which
he himself imposes.
The new morality is a morality of joy. It teaches that true
pleasure is the end of being, and the test of all righteousness.
The new morality is a morality of reason. It teaches that there
is no authority above reason; no possibility of such authority,
because if such were to appear, reason would have to judge it,
and accept or reject it.
The new morality is a morality of development. It teaches that
there can no more be an immutable law of conduct, than there can
be an immutable position for the steering-wheel of an aeroplane.
The business of the pilot of an aeroplane is to keep his machine
aloft amid shifting currents of wind. The business of a moralist
is to adjust life to a constantly changing environment. An action
which was suicide yesterday becomes heroism today, and futility
or hypocrisy tomorrow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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