The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I | Page 9

by any one, to
whatever school of thought he may belong; accordingly that method of
treatment need not occupy us further. Far otherwise is it with the
philosophic method which undertakes to enquire into the truth or
falsehood of the belief in a God: no method could be more appropriate
at a time like the present, when the opinions of educated and thoughtful
men on that profound topic are so unsettled, diverse, and conflicting. A
philosophical treatment of the subject might comprise a discussion of
such questions as whether a natural knowledge of God is possible to
man, and, if possible, by what means and through what faculties it is
attainable; what are the grounds for believing in the existence of a God;
and, if this belief is justified, what may be supposed to be his essential

nature and attributes, and what his relations to the world in general and
to man in particular. Now I desire to confess at once that an adequate
discussion of these and kindred questions would far exceed both my
capacity and my knowledge; for he who would do justice to so arduous
an enquiry should not only be endowed with a comprehensive and
penetrating genius, but should possess a wide and accurate
acquaintance with the best accredited results of philosophic speculation
and scientific research. To such qualifications I can lay no claim, and
accordingly I must regard myself as unfitted for a purely philosophic
treatment of natural theology. To speak plainly, the question of the
existence of a God is too deep for me. I dare neither affirm nor deny it.
I can only humbly confess my ignorance. Accordingly, if Lord Gifford
had required of his lecturers either a dogmatic or a philosophical
treatment of natural theology, I could not have undertaken to deliver
the lectures.
[Sidenote: The method followed in these lectures is the historical.]
But in his deed of foundation, as I understand it, Lord Gifford left his
lecturers free to follow the historical rather than the dogmatic or the
philosophical method of treatment. He says: "The lecturers shall be
under no restraint whatever in their treatment of their theme: for
example, they may freely discuss (and it may be well to do so) all
questions about man's conceptions of God or the Infinite, their origin,
nature, and truth." In making this provision the founder appears to have
allowed and indeed encouraged the lecturers not only to discuss, if they
chose to do so, the philosophical basis of a belief in God, but also to set
forth the various conceptions of the divine nature which have been held
by men in all ages and to trace them to their origin: in short, he
permitted and encouraged the lecturers to compose a history of natural
theology or of some part of it. Even when it is thus limited to its
historical aspect the theme is too vast to be mastered completely by any
one man: the most that a single enquirer can do is to take a general but
necessarily superficial survey of the whole and to devote himself
especially to the investigation of some particular branch or aspect of the
subject. This I have done more or less for many years, and accordingly
I think that without being presumptuous I may attempt, in compliance

with Lord Gifford's wishes and directions, to lay before my hearers a
portion of the history of religion to which I have paid particular
attention. That the historical study of religious beliefs, quite apart from
the question of their truth or falsehood, is both interesting and
instructive will hardly be disputed by any intelligent and thoughtful
enquirer. Whether they have been well or ill founded, these beliefs have
deeply influenced the conduct of human affairs; they have furnished
some of the most powerful, persistent, and far-reaching motives of
action; they have transformed nations and altered the face of the globe.
No one who would understand the general history of mankind can
afford to ignore the annals of religion. If he does so, he will inevitably
fall into the most serious misconceptions even in studying branches of
human activity which might seem, on a superficial view, to be quite
unaffected by religious considerations.
[Sidenote: An historical enquiry into the evolution of religion
prejudices neither the question of the ethical value of religious practice
nor the question of the truth or falsehood of religious belief.]
Therefore to trace theological and in general religious ideas to their
sources and to follow them through all the manifold influences which
they have exerted on the destinies of our race must always be an object
of prime importance to the historian, whatever view he may take of
their speculative truth or ethical value. Clearly we cannot estimate their
ethical value until we have learned the modes