blowing, and why was the wind at that
very time blowing that way?" If you again answer, that the wind had
then sprung up because the sea had begun to be agitated the day
before, the weather having been previously calm, and that the man
had been invited by a friend, they will again insist: "But why was
the sea agitated, and why was the man invited at that time?" So
they will pursue their question from cause to cause, till at last
you take refuge in the will of God--in other words, the sanctuary
of ignorance. (Appendix to _Ethics_; pt. 1)

The sanctuary of ignorance "God" has always been, and the sanctuary of
ignorance it will remain to the end. It has no other function in life. A
consciousness of this is shown by the upholders of Theism in the
eagerness with which they welcome every supposed demonstration of the
impotence of science, and of the resistance everywhere offered to the
development of scientific advance.

So far, then, as the progress of life makes for the growth of knowledge,
so far may we safely claim that the development of thought makes for
Atheism, as we have just said, and to do the religious world justice it
has always been quick to realise this, and every great scientific
generalisation--as well as many smaller ones, has been resisted on the
ground that they were atheistic in character and tended to take the
control of the world out of God's hands. Present-day theists are apt to
condemn this attitude of their predecessors, but it can hardly be denied
that the logic lies with the earlier representatives. A God who does
nothing might, for all practical purposes, as well be non-existent. And
a God who is merely in the background of things, who may be responsible
for their origin, but having originated them surrenders all control over
their operations, is hardly more serviceable. The modern theist saves
his God only by leaving him a negligible quantity in a universe he is
supposed to sustain and govern.

And it cannot be too often emphasised that the whole basis of exact or
positive science is atheistic--that is, it is compelled to ignore even
the possibility of the existence of God. Every scientific generalisation
rests upon the constancy of natural forces. On no other basis is it
possible to give a scientific interpretation to what has gone before or
to anticipate what is to happen in the future. Every scientific
calculation assumes that in the world with which