Suppose a young man or woman, trained in this way, in school and
college, by books of science, magazine articles, newspapers and
discussions of one sort or another connected with modern progress, is
prompted one fine day to turn his attention to this question of religion
and undertake an enquiry into that? Sooner or later, this is very apt to
happen to any one, because the churches and ceremonies are all about;
and when an individual mind reaches a stage where it wants to think for
itself, it can hardly escape from arriving at some conclusion concerning
them.
A modern person so trained, is apt to perceive very quickly that many of
the statements and assumptions made in the name of any particular
religion are unscientific and inaccurate and not much more reasonable
than Aladdin and his wonderful lamp, or Jack and the Beanstalk. They
pre-suppose an amount of childlike credulity and ignorance on the part
of the worshipper, which can only be explained to his mind by the
primitive state of the people for whom they were originally intended.
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