TRUE RELIGION
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—May I ask what we are to understand when your con- tributor, Mr. R. H. S. Crossman, writes that true religion " means the denial that the human world is progressing by the inevit- ability of its own evolution" and that "it means the condemna- tion of the morality of th6se Who trust in that evolution" ? Are we who base our conception of the universe upon evolution
to understand that in his Opinion we are incapable of true religion ? Or is there some special meaning in the words "its own evolution" in relation to "the human world" ? We may believe that man can guide his own evolution towards the higher things, but does this free him from the inevitability of evolution as his means of ; progress ? If that is WInit-Mr. Crossman means there must be Many who arc prepared to he called irreligious by him.
What again is the meaning of the first of the triad of Mr. Crossman's criteria of a true religion ? Does it mean that true religion is totally dissOciated from daily' life ? Has religion indeed nothing to do with the attempt to give men a higher standard of living ? Is it in the sense that we shalt do nothing to alleviate their 'suffering that we ale to inteipret'the saying that we have the poor always with us ? In giving them comfort the standard of living of some of us will have to cone down and we see today that this will not only apply to those of great wealth but also to us who are usually called the middle class. May it not be a part of religion to recognize that those of us who are successful must bear upon our shoulders the care of those who are not, and to whom nature or the world has dealt unkind blows to which we should have succumbed had it been our lot to receive them ? Can we not interpret thus the instruction that we should distribute our goods to the poor ?
And is it really true that " whether a man wants a war or not isnot usually a religious question " ? It may.be that with those who want war it is usually a question of self-interest or national prejudice ; but with those who do not want it and have determined that it 'shall cease it is. always a religious question, and religion will dictate the way.—Yours, &c.,
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