The Gospel According To Darwin

Originally published in 1898. (241 pages)

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Contents:

The Fifth Gospel----The Omnipotence of Good----The Holiness of Instict----The Beauty of Death----Life Eternal----Love as a Factor in Evolution----Courage the First Virtue----The Strength of Beauty----The Benefits of Over-Population----The Duty and Glory of Reproduction and Economics of Prostitution----The Value of Pain----Lebenslust

Preface:

.....THE purpose of a preface is twofold. First, to disarm, in advance, the criticism of the reader not to mention the reviewer. Second, to explain what the author would have done ----- if he could.

.....To the former end I wish simply to say that it is in no sense the purpose of this little volume to furnish a system of ethical or religious thought, or the germ of a new religion, as perhaps its title might lead some to infer, least of all to enunciate truths which are original with, or peculiar to its author. It is merely an attempt to get a birds eye view of a few of the influences affecting human hope and human happiness from the standpoint of that view of and attitude to wards the universe which is best expressed by the term Darwinism.

.....This term is not used of course in the narrow-sense of the personal views of Charles Darwin in contrast with those of other evolutionists, be they his predecessors or his successors, but simply as typifying the evolutionary movement and its wonderful consequences by the name of its greatest thinker and ablest champion, who first made the theory of evolution credible or even think able.

.....Its effort is to show that this attitude possesses a broad and secure basis for courage and happiness in the present and hope for the future. In other words, that its faith is as steadfast, its "consolations" as great, and its spirit of worship as profound and as powerful as those of revealed religion. That the message of the gospel according to Darwin, is in truth "good news," " glad tidings; that the natural is as wonderful, as beautiful, as divine, as the supernatural.

.....It is no longer necessary to limit our worship to the mysterious. No conception of Heaven, which has ever been formed, represents as great an improvement upon the existing state of affairs as has occurred every two thousand years in the actual history of the race. A triumphal, upward march, unbroken for fifty million of years, and which still continues, in which we are keeping step, every day, is at least as worthy of our gratitude, our worship, our trust, as anything super-naturalism has to offer.

.....Far from destroying or antagonizing the religious instinct, the spirit of worship, Darwinism broadens and quickens it. But while recognizing its wonderful value, and according it a high rank in the parliament of instincts, it absolutely declines to recognize it as perpetual dictator.

.....Religion is but one of several great influences which make up human life and determine human conduct. Like any other instinct, indulged in the proper place, it is beneficent, ennobling in its results ; but carried into spheres where it has no authority, it becomes injurious and degrading. Darwinism has no quarrel with religion, only with its excesses.

University Of Buffalo, April, 1898.

Excerpts:

....."Every revelation granted to man is at the outset denounced as atheistic and sacrilegious."

....."This is peculiarly true of that great burst of eternal truth which broke upon the world chiefly through the work and genius of Charles Darwin. Its dawning was heralded by a shudder and a shriek from every pew and pulpit, and "Darwinism" became a synonym for blasphemy. Its truth was vehemently denied, its logic mercilessly ridiculed, its "debasing tendencies" furiously denounced. It was to be given no quarter, for if tolerated for a moment it would utterly destroy every vestige, not only of religion, but of the religious spirit, and yet I venture to herald it today as the long-missing, "Fifth Evangel," The Gospel according to Darwin." Instead of destroying the religious spirit, it reanimates it, and places it upon stronger foundations than ever before."

....."This may seem an extravagant and extraordinary statement, but it can be shown to be far from unfounded. In the first place, it restores the grand unity of the Universe, and proves the fundamental harmony of its conflicting forces."

....."The wrath of the "natural man" is fully appeased by killing his enemy, or at most scalping him afterwards, but that of the "holy father" or "shepard of the flock" cannot rest at merely burning the heretic, but must damn his soul through all eternity as well."