stitutions which
have either outgrown their utility, or are in need of serious
modification in the interests of the race. The opposition encountered in
any attempt to deal with marriage, divorce, or education, are examples
of the way in which religious ideas are permitted to interfere with
subjects that should be treated solely from the standpoint of social
utility. The course of human development has been such that religion has
hitherto occupied a commanding position in relation to social laws and
customs, with the result that it is often found difficult to improve
either until the obstructive influence of religious beliefs has been
dealt with.

It is not, then, because I believe the question of the existence of God
to be of intrinsic importance that an examination of its validity is
here undertaken. Its importance to-day is of a purely contingent
character. The valid ground for now discussing its truth is that it is
at present allowed to obstruct the practical conduct of life. And under
similar circumstances it would be important to investigate the
historical accuracy of Old Mother Hubbard or Jack and the Beanstalk. Any
belief, no matter what its nature, must be dealt with as a fact of some
social importance, so long as it is believed by large numbers to be
essential to the right ordering of life. Whether true or false, beliefs
are facts--mental and social facts, and the scheme of things which
leaves them out of account is making a blunder of the most serious kind.

Certainly, conditions were never before so favourable for the delivery
of a considered judgment on the question of the belief in God. On the
one side we have from natural science an account of the universe which
rules the operations of deity out of court. And on the other side we
have a knowledge of the mode of origin of the belief which should leave
us in no doubt as to its real value. We hope to show later that the
question of origin is really decisive; that in reaching conclusions
concerning the origin of the god-idea we are passing judgment as to its
value. That the masters of this form of investigation have not usually,
and in so many words, pushed their researches to their logical
conclusions is no reason why we should refrain from doing so. Facts are
in themselves of no great value. It is the conclusions to which they
point that are the important things.

If the conclusions to which we refer are sound, then the whole basis of
theism crumbles away