rs why Sir Oliver limits this inference to the
"worthy" attributes? Unworthy attributes are as real as worthy ones. If
honesty exists so does dishonesty. Kindness is as real as cruelty. And
if we must credit the deity with possessing all the good attributes, to
whom must we credit the bad ones? A little later Sir Oliver does admit
that we must credit the deity with the bad attributes also, but adds
that they are dying out. But as they are _part_ of the deity, their
decay must mean that the deity is also undergoing a process of change,
of education, and is as much subject to the law of growth as we are.
Surely that is not what people mean when they speak about God. A god who
is only a part of the cosmic process ceases to be a god in any
reasonable sense of the term.

Professor Mellone, in his "God and the World," says that the word God
"becomes a name for the infinite system of law regarded as a whole" (p.
122). If that were really all that was meant by the word the matter
would not be worth discussing. "God" as a symbol of a generalisation is
a mere name, and as such is as good as any other name. But, again, it is
plain that people mean more than that when they speak about God. If God
is a name for universal law, let any really religious man try the plan
of substituting in his prayers and in his thoughts the phrase "Universal
Law" for "God," and then see how long he will retain his religion. As
Mr. Balfour points out ("Theism and Humanism," p. 20), the god of
religion and the god of philosophy represent two distinct beings, and it
is hard to see how the two can be fused into one. The plain truth is
that it is impossible to now make the existence of the god of religion
reasonable, and the plan adopted is that of arguing for the existence of
something about which there is often no dispute, and then introducing as
the product of the argument something that has never been argued for at
all. It is the philosophic analogue of the hat and omelette trick.

In this connection some well considered words of Sir James Frazer are
well worth noting. He says:--

By a god I understand a superhuman and supernatural being, of a
spiritual and personal nature, who controls the world or some part
of it on the whole for good, and who is endowed with intellectual
faculties, moral feelings, and active powers, which we can only
conceive on the analogy of human faculties, feelings, and
activities, though we are