The Necessity and Universality of Religion

a) The Necessity of Religion

We speak here of religion in general, and we say that there is an obligation incumbent upon man, as a rational creature, of professing and practising religion. Man knows by the natural light of reason that justice is to be done. Justice requires that everyone be given his due. Certainly, then, honor is due to excellence, obedience is due to just authority, love is due to that which is good and splendid and lovable, gratitude is due to the giver of great gifts. Now God, as we have seen, is infinite; hence He is perfect excellence, and honor is due Him; God is the supreme and perfect ruler of the world and of men, and therefore He is to be obeyed; God is all-perfect and therefore all-lovable, and love is His due; God is the giver of life and of all good gifts, and therefore He is to be thanked. Therefore, the highest honor, obedience, love, and gratitude are due to God; they are owed to God; justice requires that they be paid to God. But this is only saying that God is to be worshipped; or, in other words, that man has the duty of worshipping God. In a word, man must practise religion. Thus religion is a duty to be rendered to God; it rests upon man as an obligation of his nature. It is not merely something to satisfy tender sensibilities or emotions; nor is it a matter of utility to man, as contributing to his earthly peace, prosperity, security, and comfort. It is a matter of plain justice, and a man who will not accept, recognize, and practise religion, is a debtor who will not pay his debts. Religion is necessary to man, not only because reason requires it; it is necessary because the whole man requires it. The mind craves perfect truth; God is perfect truth, and man cannot attain to God without religion. The will wants to choose perfect goodness; God is perfect goodness, and man cannot achieve God without religion. The whole of human nature craves happiness in the possession of boundless good; God is the boundless good which cannot be possessed without religion. Religion is necessary if men are to regard one another as brothers, not in mere name or sentiment—as in the cant of the day, and in the gospel of certain shoulder-slapping organizations which tend to reduce brotherhood to mere boisterousness and protestation —but in sober truth. Without the clear recognition of a common Father men shall vainly talk of human brotherhood; but the common Father is not recog- nized truly and actively unless He be recognized in religion.—Again, religion is necessary if the onerous duties of family life are to be recognized and fulfilled by parents; only the firm faith in a God who will reward or punish for earthly conduct will sustain husband and wife in constant union and mutual love while they fulfil the tremendously burdensome duties of rearing children, loving them, educating them, laboring for them.—Further, without religion there is no basis for respect for law or for any civil authority. For the exercise of any authority is always a religious act. It is a tacit appeal to a higher (and ultimately to the highest) authority, who has set or approved the ruler in his place and will back him up in it. The idea of authority always involves the idea of God—yes, even the idea of the authority of tyrants. Religion is the necessary basis of morality. Morality consists in the relation which exists between free human activity, on the one hand, and the Eternal Law (i.e., Divine Reason and Will) or, in a word, God Himself, on the other. Hence, morality itself is religious ; its norm is the line within which man must keep to make his actions carry him toward his last end; and this last end is God. Take away God, and the duty man owes to God in religion, and the line or norm of morality is removed. Conscience alone does not suffice for the enduring of morality among men; for conscience has power only when its dictates are recognized as reflecting the law of the Supreme Lawgiver. Take away the recognition of this Lawgiver from the conscience of men, and you take away all authority from conscience; without religion there is no force or validity in the dictates of conscience. Religion, then, is necessary to men on the score of their rational nature. It is a requirement of individual man and of society. Religion being a necessary duty, it follows that it must have its proper expression. Now, the expression of religion takes the form of worship, or, more accurately, divine worship. This worship is defined as the sum of all the acts (interior and external) by which man shows to God the honor and homage that is His due. The chief acts of worship are: (a) Devotion, or readiness of will and affection to elicit acts that belong to the service and praise of God; (&) Prayer, or the elevation of the mind to God for the purpose of adoring and praising Him, asking His pardon for offences committed against Him, imploring His aid and His gifts, and thanking Him for favors bestowed; (c) External adoration, or the outer manifestation of man’s subjection to the divine excellence; (J) Sacrifice, or the external, ceremonious, and official offering to God of an object which is destroyed (really or equivalently) to manifest God’s supreme dominion over all creatures, and to express man’s recognition of his utter dependence upon God.

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Religion is necessary to man. But religion is a thing which requires internal and external expression, and it is incumbent upon men both as individuals and in society. Hence, subjective religion alone does not suffice; there must be objective religion. Now, objective religion is a system of truths, laws, and practices which regulate divine worship. Now, what if there be several or many systems of doctrine, regulations, and practices? Then, certainly, man requires that system which is indeed a system of truths, justly established laws, and authoritatively prescribed practices. In a word man requires the true religion. Our whole argument in this present Article is in evidence of the falsity of absolute indifferentism, which makes religion a matter of no importance (a matter of indifference) to man, and teaches that man need practise no religion at all. Our last remark was directed against the qualified indifferentism which admits that religion is necessary, but asserts the sufficiency of any form of religion whatever. For, even here, while speaking of religion in general, it is necessary for completeness to insert the evident statement that man is bound to discover and to practise the true religion. We must, however, defer detailed discussion and proof of this point to a later Chapter.

b) The Universality of Religion

In speaking of the universality of religion, or in calling religion universal, we mean that religion has existed among all men at all times. That is to say, religion of some kind—of some degree of perfection as the recognition of a power above the world, regulating the world and requiring the recognition of men —has always and everywhere existed. Even false religions, barbarous and monstrous religions, are a proof of this fact; for such religions are evidence that there was present in the minds and hearts of men some notion of divinity, some dim groping after the truth about God. The universality of religion is attested by history, and no historical fact is more certain. Plutarch truly testifies: “No one ever saw a city without gods and temples.” And Cicero declares that “Nature herself teacheth us that God is to be venerated, and of her law in this matter no man is free.” Some men (like Sir John Lubbock, Baron Avebury, 1834-1913) have tried to find evidence for the existence of tribes and peoples without the idea of divinity and the sense of obligation to practise religion. Their investigations have only proved the universality of religion; and instances adduced with all confidence to prove that there have been peoples without God or gods, have in every case been disproved, and often turned the other way about. Professor C. H. Toy of Harvard (cf. Introduction to the History of Religions> pp. 5 f) says: “As far as our present knowledge goes, religion appears to be universal among men. There is no community of which we can say with certainty that it is n8 without religion.” Professor Tiele in his History of Religion declares that no tribe or nation has yet been found without a belief in some divinity; and he adds that travellers who assert the existence of such peoples have later been refuted by facts. Truly has Cicero said: “No race is so uncultured, no nation so inane, as to have minds unimbued with the notion of divinity.” We may bring to the testimony of learned men the following facts in proof of our present point: (a) Philology, which traces the roots of languages, gives evidence that the most important groups of languages have not only a name fpr God, but the same name. And all languages have names expressing superior powers, divinity or divinities. (&) Archaeology, the science of antiquities, indicates the universal belief of man in a life to come, in a world superior to this, and in the company of beings superior to men, i.e., divinities. (c) Reason teaches us that religion is necessary to man, and that this necessity is founded in man’s nature as man. We have seen this in the first section of the present Article. Now, what is required by man’s nature is required by all men of all times; for human nature is not changing and variable, but remains ever the same.

Summary of the Article

In this Article we have shown that religion is necessary to man, is a matter of obligation rooted in man’s very nature. We have seen that religion is required by individual man to satisfy the craving of his heart, the tendency of his will, the requirements of his reason, the connatural bent of the whole man. Further, we have seen that religion is required by human society as the basis of true brotherhood, of justice among men, of respect for law and authority, of the integrity and sanctity of the family, and of all morality. We have briefly discussed the expression of religion in divine worship, and have indicated the obligation of men to express the true religion in their doctrine and worship. We have drawn attention to the falsity of religious indifferentism. We have made a short but direct study of the universality of religion, and have shown by historical authority, by philology, by archaeology, and by reason that religion is found among all men of all times.