登陆注册
4614800000021

第21章

The deeper one pursues religious thought the more nearly it approximates to a search for escape from the self-centred life and over-individuation, and the more it diverges from Professor Metchnikoff's assertion of its aims. Salvation is indeed to lose one's self. But Professor Metchnikoff having roundly denied that this is so, is then left free to take the very essentials of the religious life as they are here conceived and present them as if they were the antithesis of the religious life. His book, when it is analysed, resolves itself into just that research for an escape from the painful accidents and chagrins of individuation, which is the ultimate of religion.

At times, indeed, he seems almost wilfully blind to the true solution round and about which his writing goes. He suggests as his most hopeful satisfaction for the cravings of the human heart, such a scientific prolongation of life that the instinct for self-preservation will be at last extinct. If that is not the very "resignation" he imputes to the Buddhist I do not know what it is.

He believes that an individual which has lived fully and completely may at last welcome death with the same instinctive readiness as, in the days of its strength, it shows for the embraces of its mate. We are to be glutted by living to six score and ten. We are to rise from the table at last as gladly as we sat down. We shall go to death as unresistingly as tired children go to bed. Men are to have a life far beyond the range of what is now considered their prime, and their last period (won by scientific self-control) will be a period of ripe wisdom (from seventy to eighty to a hundred and twenty or thereabouts) and public service!

(But why, one asks, public service? Why not book-collecting or the simple pleasure of reminiscence so dear to aged egotists?

Metchnikoff never faces that question. And again, what of the man who is challenged to die for right at the age of thirty? What does the prolongation of life do for him? And where are the consolations for accidental misfortune, for the tormenting disease or the lost limb?)But in his peroration Professor Metchnikoff lapses into pure religiosity. The prolongation of life gives place to sheer self-sacrifice as the fundamental "remedy." And indeed what other remedy has ever been conceived for the general evil of life?

"On the other hand," he writes, "the knowledge that the goal of human life can be attained only by the development of a high degree of solidarity amongst men will restrain actual egotism. The mere fact that the enjoyment of life according to the precepts of Solomon (Ecelesiastes ix. 7-10)* is opposed to the goal of human life, will lessen luxury and the evil that comes from luxury. Conviction that science alone is able to redress the disharmonies of the human constitution will lead directly to the improvement of education and to the solidarity of mankind.

* Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun. whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

"In progress towards the goal, nature will have to be consulted continuously. Already, in the case of the ephemerids, nature has produced a complete cycle of normal life ending in natural death.

In the problem of his own fate, man must not be content with the gifts of nature; he must direct them by his own efforts. Just as he has been able to modify the nature of animals and plants, man must attempt to modify his own constitution, so as to readjust its disharmonies. . . .

"To modify the human constitution, it will be necessary first, to frame the ideal, and thereafter to set to work with all the resources of science.

"If there can be formed an ideal able to unite men in a kind of religion of the future, this ideal must be founded on scientific principles. And if it be true, as has been asserted so often, that man can live by faith alone, the faith must be in the power of science."Now this, after all the flat repudiations that have preceded it of "religion" and "philosophy" as remedies for human ills, is nothing less than the fundamental proposition of the religious life translated into terms of materialistic science, the proposition that damnation is really over-individuation and that salvahon is escape from self into the larger being of life. . . .

What can this "religion of the future" be but that devotion to the racial adventure under the captaincy of God which we have already found, like gold in the bottom of the vessel, when we have washed away the confusions and impurities of dogmatic religion? By an inquiry setting out from a purely religious starting-point we have already reached conclusions identical with this ultimate refuge of an extreme materialist.

This altar to the Future of his, we can claim as an altar to our God--an altar rather indistinctly inscribed.

2. SACRIFICE IMPLIES GOD

Almost all Agnostic and Atheistical writings that show any fineness and generosity of spirit, have this tendency to become as it were the statement of an anonymous God. Everything is said that a religious writer would say--except that God is not named. Religious metaphors abound. It is as if they accepted the living body of religion but denied the bones that held it together--as they might deny the bones of a friend. It is true, they would admit, the body moves in a way that implies bones in its every movement, but --WEHAVE NEVER SEEN THOSE BONES.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 巨恶

    巨恶

    当夜降临,东边的天空呼啸起灭世神雷,山脉般的巨兽奔走,澎湃妖光中荒灵嘶嚎。高岚破碎,山峦倾毁,江海枯竭,天空中倒映下一片伟岸的阴影。
  • 人间风致十二景

    人间风致十二景

    在哈尔滨这座城市,要想吃老口味的馄饨,只有到道外区去。道外区至今还顽固地保持着几家地方风味的小馆子。说实话,虽然我在这座城市生活了几乎半个世纪,却极少到道外去。只是在处第一个女朋友的那段热恋期,几乎天天都去道外。女朋友的家在道外二十七道街上。当年,青年恋人囊中羞涩,又喜欢馄饨,只有去这种小馆子一乐。在“酱婶儿”的小馆吃馄饨的,自然都是一些小人物,工人、小干事、学生等等。这儿的馄饨搞得很纯粹,皮儿薄,馅儿嫩,个头不大不小,配有爽眼的清汤,且有蘑菇丁、干贝、紫菜、小海米、海菠菜、瘦肉丝儿和翠绿色的葱花、香菜一配合,再滴点儿香油,那叫一个香哟。
  • 美景多珍重

    美景多珍重

    岑美景一心仰慕作家蔚青城,终于有机会成为他的生活小助理,却发现这位作家好像和传说中的不太一样?传说他特别随和,特别喜欢笑,特别温柔,特别风趣。事实却是——面试天不断泼美景冷水,还各种命令她。美景一日三餐有菜有汤的好生伺候,他却无比嫌弃:“下次记得加辣椒,朝天椒,而且不要再让我看见绿色的东西,这种散发青草味道的食物有什么可吃的,你还不如直接啃饲料”。美景带他去交电费,忙前忙后,焦头烂额,叫他生活常识,他却放马后:“难道你不知道交电费可以用手机交吗?以前的助理都是这么交的”。真是天将降大任于斯人,必先扔给她岑美景一个蔚青城!"
  • 爷爷奶奶带孩子宝典

    爷爷奶奶带孩子宝典

    近年来,儿童教育专家们总结出了爷爷奶奶带孩子的两大误区:太感性和让孩子无所适从。然而,性格培养过于笼统慢热,跟不上孩子精神发展的脚步,又成为时下性格教育的盲区。爷爷奶奶们可曾想过:面对未来严峻的生存挑战,该怎样带好自己的孙辈?一个人养成好的习惯,一辈子都用不完它的利息:身体是革命的本钱,品质则是革命胜利的保证。要想全面开发孩子的智力,爷爷奶奶们不妨把自己的经验和现代教育的先进知识融合起来。关注孩子的学习,不单要关注孩子的成绩,更重要的是端正孩子的学习态度。千万别觉得“危机意识”太晦气,没有人希望这样那样的坏事情降临到自己头上,但逃避生活毕竟不是长久之计。
  • 李想的北宋

    李想的北宋

    这是最美好的时代,亲情,友情,爱情,事业,种种李想曾经奢望而不得的东西一一被他揽进怀中。这是最糟糕的时代,在不知何时会降临的灾难面前,李想拥有的所有一切都可能是镜花水月,转瞬即逝。在李想相信了这次穿越于他而言是一次美丽的旅途之后,他却蓦然惊觉,辉煌的时代,已到了穷途末路。距离灭亡,还有十年。李想,你该怎么做?
  • 名门盛爱:冷少的契约情人

    名门盛爱:冷少的契约情人

    生活在单亲家庭,有一个嗜赌成性的妈妈,每天被不同的人上门追债,这是顾婉言来到江家之前的人生,那样的日子,她也从来没有觉得自己低人一等,直到她捧着契约进入江家的一刻,她的人生观就这样瞬间崩塌,江夫人只是动了动她尖酸刻薄的嘴唇,她就立刻成为了只配匍匐在她脚下认错的下等人。手被那双温暖的大手包裹住的一刻,有那么一瞬间,顾婉言心中生出一抹幻想,她多么希望,眼前的这个男人,带她逃离的不只是一场难堪,而是她无法自拔的水深火热。然而...
  • 麦克劳林教你公开演讲

    麦克劳林教你公开演讲

    本书是全球畅销的公共沟通力培训手册,由国际知名的培训专家撰写,教会读者如何规划和准备不同类型的演讲,以及如何有效地进行演示。本书涵盖了所有重要的演讲类型,有助于读者更好地展示自己,更好地与他人沟通,更好地立足于自己的工作岗位。$$《麦克劳林教你公开演讲》一书将告诉你:$$如何快速准备一次演讲?$$如何有策略地在演讲中说服听众?$$如何克服演讲恐惧?$$如何在演讲、专家组讨论以及辩论时表现出自信?$$如何回答听众提问?$$如何发表强有力的演讲?
  • 思维的盛宴2

    思维的盛宴2

    从某种角度来说,全世界最聪明的人不是爱因斯坦,不是爱迪生,也不是达芬奇,而是福尔摩斯。一个现代人如果拥有了福尔摩斯那样的头脑,那就无往而不胜。如果你掌握了谋略思维,使你拥有了运筹帷幄的能力,那你就拥有了四分之一的福尔摩斯头脑。如果你掌握了逻辑思维,使你拥有了条分缕析能力,那你就拥有了四分之二的福尔摩斯头脑。如果你撑握了科学思维,使你拥有了现代技术能力,那你就拥有了四分之三的福尔摩斯头脑。如果你掌握了博物思维,使你拥有了洞察一切的能力,那你就拥有了四分之四的福尔摩斯头脑。一个侦探一个故事,一个故事一个推理,一次推理一次启迪,一次启迪一次健脑。
  • 30岁结婚

    30岁结婚

    北京版《爱与黑暗的故事》。故事在主人公【东方岩】【东方鹤】兄妹及他们的共同好友【忆良】及他们身边的同事、朋友、同学、亲人、爱人身上展开。东方岩是本分老实的“北漂”打工者,因为没房没车,30岁的他一次次被分手。东方岩的妹妹东方鹤品学兼优,考入北京大学后也遭遇一系列感情问题。北京承载了年轻人的梦想与辛酸。故事围绕几个人年轻人展开。将都市生活、学习、职场、校园、家庭等矛盾、纠结、温馨场景串联,就当下年轻人关注的爱情、成长、婚姻等问题展开探索。都市生活的压力与无奈,爱情的偶然与必然,婚姻与家庭对人的永恒吸引力,韶华与老去……这一切都在人与人之间流动,在心与心的交流中坚固。
  • 天幕神捕

    天幕神捕

    陆笙获得罚恶令,附身在衣锦还乡的士子身上。 绚丽江湖,谁主沉浮? 你说你一双铁掌打遍天下?来,接我一招降龙十八掌先。 剑仙剑神,决战金陵!怎么可以少了一剑西来天外飞仙?罚人间之恶,得我盖世绝学! 小李飞刀成绝响?一刀芳华震京华。入道之境无敌天下?那是没见过在下的战神图录吧?问我凭什么代天罚恶?老子代表月亮消灭你! 欢迎加入为谁陨落书友讨论群,群聊号码:820288982