r the
newcomer an ancestry to which he can establish no valid claim. Nothing
would, indeed, surprise the ancestor more than to be brought face to
face with his descendant. He would not be more astonished than would the
ancient Eohippus on meeting with a modern dray-horse. In anthropology or
history the idea of God may fairly claim a place, but it has no place in
philosophy on any sensible meaning of the word.

The consequence of this transference of the idea of God to the sphere of
philosophy is the curious position that the God in which people believe
is not the God whose existence is made the product of an argument, and
the God of the argument is not the God of belief. The theory and the
fact have no more likeness to each other than a chestnut horse has to a
horse-chestnut. A fallacy is perpetuated by appealing to a fact, but the
fact immediately discredits the fallacy by disowning it in practice. The
grounds upon which the belief in God is supposed to rest, the reasoning
from which it springs, are seen to follow the belief instead of
preceding it. The roots are in the air, and on closer inspection are
seen to be artificial adornments, so many imitations that have been hung
there for the purpose of imposing on near-sighted or careless observers.

The purpose of the following pages is to make clear the nature of this
alliance and to expose the real character of what we are asked to
worship. There are, of course, many on whose ears any amount of
reasoning will fall without effect. To that class this book will not
appeal; it may be questioned whether many will even read it. They will
go on professing the belief they have always professed, and taking pride
in the fact that they have an intellect which is superior to proof, and
which disdains evidence when it runs contrary to "my belief." Others
will, I expect, complain that the treatment of so solemn a subject is
not "reverent" enough. But why _any_ subject should be treated
reverently, as a condition of examination, is more than I have ever been
able to discover. It is asking the inquirer to commence his
investigation with a half-promise to find something good in what he is
about to examine. Whether a thing is worthy of reverence or not is a
conclusion that must follow investigation, not precede it. And one does
not observe any particular reverence shown by the religious person
towards those beliefs in which he does not happen to believe.

But there are some who will r