The New Gospel

Hence “the sight of another person enduring hunger, cold, fatigue, revives in us some recollection of these states, which are painful even in idea.”  We are thus impelled to relieve the sufferings of another in order that our own painful feelings may be at the same time relieved.

Why is thought, being a secretion of brain, more wonderful than gravity, a property of matter?  It is our arrogance, our admiration of ourselves [that prevents our accepting it].  

It may metaphorically be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, the slightest variations; rejecting those that are bad, preserving and adding up all that are good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life.  We see nothing of these slow changes in progress, until the hand of time has marked the lapse of ages.

If it could be demonstrated that any complex organism existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.  But I can find no such case. 

The horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy.  

Everyone will admit that man is a social being.  We see this in his dislike of solitude, and in his wish for society beyond that of his family.  Solitary confinement is one of the severest punishments which can be inflicted.

I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished.  And this is a damnable doctrine.

By further reflecting that the clearest evidence would be requisite to make any sane man believe in the miracles by which Christianity is supported, — that the more we know the fixed laws of nature the more incredible do miracles become, — that the men at that time were ignorant and credulous to a degree almost incomprehensible by us, — that the Gospels cannot be proved to have been written simultaneously with the events, — that they differ in many important details, far too important as it seemed to me to be admitted as the usual inaccuracies of eyewitnesses; — by such reflections such as these, which I give influenced me, I gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as a divine revelation.

Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions [rather by Natural Selection], to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there [as in Genesis (1:1-2)], may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the distant future … We must, however, acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which he feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system—with all these exalted powers—Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. 

When two tribes of primeval man, living in the same country, came into competition, if (other circumstances being equal) the one tribe included a great number of courageous, sympathetic, and faithful members, who were always ready to warn each other of danger, to aid and defend each other, this tribe would succeed better and conquer the other … A rich tribe in the above qualities would spread and be victorious over other tribes: and in the course of time it would, judging from all past history, be in its turn overcome by some other tribe still more highly endowed.  Thus the social and moral qualities would tend slowly to advance and be diffused throughout the world.

The following proposition seems to me in a high degree probable — namely, that any animal whatever, endowed with well-marked social instincts, the parental and filial affections being here included, would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience as soon as its intellectual powers had become as well, or nearly as well developed, as in man.  For, firstly, the social instincts lead an animal to take pleasure in the society of its fellows, to feel a certain amount of sympathy with them, and to perform various services for them … Thirdly, after the power of language had been acquired, and the wishes of the community could be expressed, the common opinion how each member ought to act for the public good would naturally become in a paramount degree the guide to action.

As man is a social animal, it is almost certain that he would inherit a tendency to be faithful to his comrades, and obedient to the leader of his tribe; for these qualities are common to most social animals … He would from an inherited tendency be willing to defend, in concert with others, his fellow-men; and would be ready to aid them in any way which did not too greatly interfere with his own welfare or his own strong desires.

It must not be forgotten that although a high standard of morality gives but a slight or no advantage to each individual man and his children over the other men of the same tribe, yet that an increase in the number of well-endowed men and an advancement in the standard morality will certainly give an immense advantage to one tribe over another.  A tribe including many members who, from possessing in a high degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy, were always ready to aid one another, and to sacrifice themselves for the common good, would be victorious over most other tribes; and this would be natural selection.