God Arises
Review
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make is to study religion as an objective issue
(Julian Huxley,
Man in the Modern World
, p. 129).
That is, they collect indiscriminately all the
historical material that goes under the name of
religion, and then form an opinion about religion in
the light of whatever material has come their way.
Thus they take up a wrong position at the very
outset.
Miles’ summing up is that ‘religion’ like any other
subject, can be treated as an objective problem, and
studied by the method of science. The first step is to
make a list of the ideas and practices associated
with different religions—gods and demons,
sacrifice, prayer, belief in a future life, taboos and
moral rules in life. It is like making a collection of
animals and plants. Science always begins in this
way, but it cannot stop at this level; it inevitably
seeks to penetrate deeper to make an analysis.
This analysis may take two directions. It may seek a
further understanding of religion as it now exists, or
it may adopt the historical method and search for
an explanation of the present in the past.
