ises.
Inevitably, therefore, the first attempt of man to deal with nature
takes the form of assuming the operation of a number of personal
intelligences. Natural objects are alive, and everything that happens to
man, from the cradle to the grave, is thought of as being either alive
or controlled by living beings. The world is filled with a crowd of
ghostly beings exercising more or less discordant functions. Against
this riot of gods the conception of natural law developes but slowly.
Quite apart from the natural inertia of the human mind, the fact of
questioning the power of these assumed beings involves to the primitive
mind an element of grave danger. All sorts of things may happen if the
gods are offended, and in self-defence the tribe feels bound to suppress
the critic of religion and of religious ideas. But once the step is
taken, the area over which the gods rule is to that extent restricted,
and with that step Atheism may be said to be born.

What Lange said in the opening sentences of his classic "History of
Materialism," that "Materialism is as old as philosophy, but not older,"
may be said with equal truth of Atheism. That, too, is as old as
philosophy, since it begins with man's attempts to break away from that
primitive interpretation of nature which sees in all phenomena the
action of personal intelligences. It is of no importance in which branch
of knowledge the departure was made, whichever department one takes the
process can be seen at work. Astronomy appears to have been the branch
of knowledge in which the powers of the gods were earliest restricted,
although it was not until the discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo,
Newton, and Laplace were given to the world that "God" vanished
altogether from that region. Geology follows with the teaching that
chemical, thermal, and other known forces leave nothing for the gods to
accomplish. Biology and sociology, dealing with more complex forces, are
much later in the field, but they tread the same path. They provide a
refuge for "God" for awhile, but it is evident that their complete
dispossession is no more than a question of time. And even though the
very complex character of the forces working in these latter departments
should prevent us ever acquiring the same degree of prevision that
exists in other classes, no difference will be made to the general
result. The principle will be fairly established and our ignorance of
details will no longer be made the grou