Nay, even that which is regarded as the negation of all Religion -- evenpositive Atheism -- comes within the definition; for it, too, in assertingthe self-existence of Space, Matter and Motion, propounds a theory from whichit holds the facts to be deducible. Now every theory tacitly asserts twothings: first, that there is something to be explained; second, that suchand such is the explanation. Hence, however widely different speculatorsdisagree in the solutions they give of the same problem, yet by implicationthey agree that there is a problem to be solved. Here then is an elementwhich all creeds have in common. Religions diametrically opposed in theirovert dogmas, are perfectly at one in the tacit conviction that the existenceof the world with all it contains and all which surrounds it, is a mysterycalling for interpretation.
Thus we come within sight of that which we seek. In the last chapter,reasons were given for inferring that human beliefs in general, and especiallythe perennial ones, contain, under whatever disguises of error, some soulof truth; and here we have arrived at a truth underlying even the rudestbeliefs. We saw, further, that this soul of truth is most likely some constituentcommon to conflicting opinions of the same order; and here we have a constituentcontained by all religions. It was pointed out that this soul of truth wouldalmost certainly be more abstract than any of the creeds involving it; andthe truth above reached is one exceeding in abstractness the most abstractreligious doctrines. In every respect, therefore, our conclusion answersto the requirements.
That this is the vital element in all religions is further shown by thefact that it is the element which not only survives every change but growsmore distinct the more highly the religion is developed. Aboriginal creeds,pervaded by thoughts of personal agencies which are usually unseen, conceivethese agencies under perfectly concrete and ordinary forms-class them withthe visible agencies of men and animals; and so hide a vague perception ofmystery in disguises as unmysterious as possible. Polytheistic conceptionsin their advanced phases, represent the presiding personalities in idealizedshapes, working in subtle ways, and communicating with men by omens or throughinspired persons; that is, the ultimate causes of things are regarded asless familiar and comprehensible. The growth of a Monotheistic faith, accompaniedas it is by lapse of those beliefs in which the divine nature is assimilatedto the human in all its lower propensities, shows us a further step in thesame direction; and however imperfectly this higher faith is at first held,we yet see in altars "to the unknown and unknowable God," and inthe worship of a God who cannot by any searching be found out, that thereis a clearer recognition of the inscrutableness of creation. Further developmentsof theology, ending in such assertions as that "a God understood wouldbe no God at all," and "to think that God is, as we can think himto be, is blasphemy," exhibit this recognition still more distinctly.
It pervades all the cultivated theology of the present day. So that whileother elements of religious creeds one by one drop away, this remains andgrows ever more manifest, and thus is shown to be the essential element.
Here, then, is a truth in which religions in general agree with one another,and with a philosophy antagonistic to their special dogmas. If Religion andScience are to be reconciled, the basis of reconciliation must be this deepest,widest, and most certain of all facts-that the Power which the Universe manifeststo us is inscrutable.
