where civilisation is
lowest; it is called into the most serious question where civilisation
is most advanced. To-day the belief in God is only universal in the
sense that some representatives of it are to be found in all societies.
The majority may still profess to have it, but it has ceased to be
universal in the strict sense of the term. Nor will it be disputed that
the number of convinced disbelievers is everywhere on the increase. The
fact is everywhere lamented by the official exponents of religion. All
that we can say is that the belief in God is universal--with those who
believe in him. And even here universality of belief is only secured by
their refraining from discussing precisely what it is they mean by
"God," and what it is they believe in. There is agreement in obscurity,
each one dreading to see clearly the features of his assumed friend for
fear he should recognise the face of an enemy.

Finally, the suspicious feature must be pointed out that the belief in
God owes its existence, not to the trained and educated observation of
civilised times, but to the uncritical reflection of the primitive mind.
It has its origin there, and it would indeed be remarkable if, while in
almost every other direction the primitive mind showed itself to be
hopelessly wrong, in its interpretation of the world in this particular
respect it has proved itself to be altogether right. As a matter of
fact, this primitive assumption is going the way of the others, the only
difference being that it is passing through more phases than some. But
the decay is plain to all save those who refuse to see. The process of
refinement cannot go on for ever. In other matters knowledge passes from
a nebulous and indefinite stage to a precise and definite one. In the
case of theism it pursues an opposite course. From the very definite
god, or gods, of primitive mankind we advance to the vague and
indefinite god of the modern theist--a God who, apparently, means
nothing and does nothing, and at most stands as a symbol for our
irremovable ignorance. Clearly this process cannot go on for ever. The
work of attenuation must stop at some point. And one may safely predict
that just as the advance of scientific knowledge has taken over one
department after another that was formerly regarded as within the
province of religion, so one day it will be borne in upon all that an
hypothesis such as that of theism, which does nothing and explains
nothing, may be