rtainly be
vindictive if after having murdered religion it declined to live
peaceably with its corpse.

The distinction between science and religion is, in truth, neither
fundamental nor original. It is one that arises gradually in the history
of mental development. And, therefore, when a man such as Professor
Arthur Thomson describes religion as being concerned with the
recognition of the existence of an independent "spiritual reality," the
reply is that religion commences as just an explanation of nature in
terms of the then existing knowledge and culture. Religion is just a
crude form of science. The separation of the world into a religious and
a scientific sphere arises when the religious interpretation of natural
happenings gets discredited by advancing knowledge. If one takes such an
illustration as that of witchcraft the nature of the process is clear.
First we have the interpretation of certain forms of dementia and
delusion in terms of religion. Later we have the same facts interpreted
in terms of positive knowledge and the religious explanation is
rejected. And that, in a sentence is the whole history of religion, once
we have cleared away the verbiage with which the subject is surrounded.

The truth of what has just been said is often obscured by
unintelligible talk of growth in religion. It is claimed that we acquire
truer views of deity, and a process of growth is asserted analogous to
that which meets us in knowledge in general. Let us see what truth there
is in this.

In ordinary instances when we speak of growth we imply one of three
things. Either there is increase in size, or there is an enlargement of
function, or there is an increase in knowledge. So long as we keep to
these plain meanings of "growth" there can be no confusion. But none of
these meanings fit the case of religion. Certainly there has been no
increase in the size of religion--it does not, that is, cover a larger
area. On the contrary it is continually being warned off more and more
territory. It becomes more and more a negligible quantity. One need not
go back to primitive times to prove this, any country will supply
instances. The displacement of religious by other considerations is
observable on all sides.

There has certainly been no growth in the functions exercised by
religion. Its function as law-giver in the physical world is now
definitely abandoned, and all it asks is that science will let it alone.
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