THE RIGHT RELATION OF REASON TO RELIGION
On the question, What is the real relation between
reason and religion, the range in contrast of views
is of course very great. And this is true, whether
we consider the views as merely conceivable or as
actually presented in the course of history.
It is evident, first, that the view might conceivably
be taken, that reason and religion are incompatible.
This incompatibility might moreover be construed
in behoof of religion as against reason. It might
be said, that, granting the reality of religion, the
recognition of superhuman Power, the active presence
of the Power must be accepted as simply an
awful Fact — inexplicable, incomprehensible,
inscrutable, yet unquestionable — before which, terrible
and indeed resistless and overwhelming, reason must
prostrate itself, keep silence, and slink away into
undiscoverable hiding. And this view is not merely
conceivable, but is actual and historical; nay, it is
the eldest view; and if hoary antiquity or multitude
of adherents were taken as the true measure of value
and authority, it would be the weightiest view. Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/279 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/280 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/281 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/282 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/283 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/284 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/285 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/286 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/287 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/288 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/289 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/290 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/291 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/292 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/293 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/294 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/295 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/296 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/297 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/298 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/299 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/300 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/301 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/302 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/303 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/304 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/305 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/306 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/307 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/308 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/309 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/310 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/311 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/312 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/313 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/314 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/315 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/316 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/317 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/318 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/319 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/320 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/321 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/322 this objection would enforce it, too, by recalling our attention to the fact, that, in the very beginnings of this issue, we confronted the assertion—maintained by one great religious school—that reason is intrinsically incompetent to religion, because its judgments, however conclusive and infallible in its own field, are limited to that field, which is the world of sense-experience only, and not in the least the world of supersensible and spiritual reality. Our vindication of Rationalism will accordingly not be complete till we have grappled with this contention common to the religious dogmatist and the agnostic, and made an end of it by showing not only that the opposite is true, but that its truth is implied in this contention itself.
I am not the least disposed to evade this indication of a needed completion to our argument. Rather, I willingly grant the point as correctly made, and I cordially take up the task which I accepted at the outset as part of this hour's duty, namely, to show that reason is not confined in its judgments to the things of sense, but extends also to the things invisible,—to all the things of the spirit, the things of religion.
In entering upon this final stage in our discussion, it is only fair to take the preparatory advantage of noticing that the very parties which discredit reason and maintain the cause of authorPage:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/324 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/325 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/326 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/327 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/328 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/329 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/330 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/331 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/332 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/333 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/334 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/335 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/336 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/337 Page:The Limits of Evolution (1904).djvu/338 therefore suitable and pertinent. Let those who would impugn it, assail the value of the method of inductive science, if they will. But those who value that method — and who in these days does not? — must in consistency with its tacit logic conclude that the voice of reason is for God, the God of Christ and of Christianity; and that as reason is essentially religious, so true religion is essentially rational.