pope to dissolve that Jesuit order which had so devotedly supported the
popes. The Church stooped to fraud, as with pious legends, bogus relics,
and dubious miracles; for centuries it profited from a mythical “Donation
of Constantine” [Constantine I the Great, Emperor of Rome (r. 306?-337)]
that had allegedly bequeathed Western Europe to Pope Sylvester I (r. 314-
35), and from “False Decretals” (c. 842) that forged a series of documents
to give a sacred antiquity to papal omnipotence.
hierarchy spent its energies in promoting orthodoxy rather than morality,
and the Inquisition almost fatally disgraced the Church. Even while
preaching peace the Church fomented religious wars in sixteenth-century
France and the Thirty Years’ War in seventeenth-century Germany. It
played only a modest part in the outstanding advance of modern morality–
the abolition of slavery. It allowed the philosophers to take the lead in the
humanitarian movements that have alleviated the evils of our time.
History has justified the Church in the belief that the masses of mankind
desire a religion rich in miracle, mystery, and myth. Some minor
modifications have been allowed in ritual, in ecclesiastical costume, and in
episcopal authority; but the Church dares not alter the doctrines that reason
smiles at, for such changes would offend and disillusion the millions whose
hopes have been tied to inspiring and consolatory imaginations. No
reconciliation is possible between religion and philosophy except through
the philosophers’ recognition that they have found no substitute for the
moral function of the Church, and the ecclesiastical recognition of religious
and intellectual freedom.
Does history support a belief in God? If by God we mean not the creative
vitality of nature but a supreme being intelligent and benevolent, the
answer must be a reluctant negative. Like other departments of biology,
history remains at bottom a natural selection of the fittest individuals and
groups in a struggle wherein goodness receives no favors, misfortunes
abound, and the final test is the ability to survive. Add to the crimes, wars,
and cruelties of man the earthquakes, storms, tornadoes, pestilences, tidal
