ertainly ought to
be repudiated under whatever name they may be presented to us.

CHAPTER XX

THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

76. RELIGION AND REFLECTION.--A man may be through and through ethical
in his thought and feeling, and yet know nothing of the science of
ethics. He may be possessed of the finest aesthetic taste, and yet may
know nothing of the science of aesthetics. It is one thing to be good,
and another to know clearly what goodness means; it is one thing to
love the beautiful, and another to know how to define it.

Just so a man may be thoroughly religious, and may, nevertheless, have
reflected very little upon his religious belief and the foundations
upon which it rests. This does not mean that his belief is without
foundation. It may have a firm basis or it may not. But whatever the
case may be, he is not in a position to say much about it. He _feels_
that he is right, but he cannot prove it. The man is, I think we must
admit, rather blind as to the full significance of his position, and he
is, in consequence, rather helpless.

Such a man is menaced by certain dangers. We have seen in the chapter
on ethics that men are by no means at one in their judgments as to the
rightness or wrongness of given actions. And it requires a very little
reflection to teach us that men are not at one in their religious
notions. God and His nature, the relation of God to man, what the
religious life should be, these things are the subject of much dispute;
and some men hold opinions regarded by others as not merely erroneous
but highly pernicious in their influence.

Shall a man simply assume that the opinions which he happens to hold
are correct, and that all who differ with him are in error? He has not
framed his opinions quite independently for himself. We are all
influenced by what we have inherited from the past, and what we inherit
may be partly erroneous, even if we be right in the main. Moreover, we
are all liable to prejudices, and he who has no means of distinguishing
such from sober truths may admit into his creed many errors. The
lesson of history is very instructive upon this point. The fact is
that a man's religious notions reflect the position which he occupies
in the development of civilization very much as do his ethical notions.

Again. Even supposing that a man has enlightened notions and is living
a religious life that the most instructed must approve; if he has never
reflected, an