This chapter is a case study showing how false experiences of religion and erroneous conceptions of God may result in agnosticism or atheism.
HOW SCIENCE SAVES RELIGION, OR MODERN KNOWLEDGE AND RELIGION 39
Introduction 39 1. What is God? 43 2. Who is God? 48 3. Where is God? 53 4. What does God do? 62 5. If the Ancients made their gods, how do we know that we are not making our God? 71 6. May we not be communing with a mere idea? 73
DOES MAN HAVE A SOUL, AND WHAT IS HIS PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE? 75
1. What is man? 75 2. Who is man? 77 3. Would the absence of man cripple God? 84 4. What could an infinite God care for such a little speck? 87 5. Is not socialism the best religion there is? 90
DOES GOD HAVE A BODY, AND COULD HE BECOME A MAN? 104
1. Introductory statement 104 2. The idea of the Trinity and how it came about 106 3. Was Jesus God or a good man only? 113 4. Can modern psychology any longer believe in the Deity of Jesus? 116 5. Where does Jesus belong in the religious, social and thought worlds? 132 6. Can God die? 135
A general statement 142 1. The contagion of doubt 144 2. The inability to make a religious use of modern knowledge 146 3. The loss of a satisfying conception of the future life 147 4. The growing habit of classifying the future with things unknown and unknowable 148 5. An inadequate conception of the kingdom of God 150 6. We automatically lose the assurance of the future when we lose the reality of the present 153
How shall we find the assurance of immortality? 157 1. We automatically find the assurance of the future when we find the reality of the present 157 Some reasons why the quest for reality is not more frequently and earnestly undertaken. a. The moral failure of Christians 158 b. Because the average Christian cannot answer technical questions 159 c. Antiquated forms irritating to sceptics 162 d. The provincialism of sceptics 164 2. Equal striving for spiritual and material things is necessary 166 3. The final step in the effort to know God 173 4. Conscious of the existence of God, we become certain of immortality 176
WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE WHETHER WE BELIEVE IN IMMORTALITY IF WE LIVE AS WE SHOULD IN THIS LIFE? 182
1. How can one live as he should? 182 2. The difference in social service 183 3. The difference in personal preparation 186