Religion and Science
8. The Atheistic Interpretation of Religion
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8. THE ATHEISTIC INTERPRETATION
OF RELIGION
Modern thinkers are not willing to admit any such
source of knowledge as is established through the
intervention of God. Atheism holds the demands of
religion that people should believe in something
beyond their perception to be not only illogical but
indicative of the non-reality of its premises. Were
this not so, human access to it would be a
possibility. Since religion and its followers have
always existed in history—in spite of Auguste
Comte’s (1798-1851) prediction that with the spread
of science they would disappear — atheists are
forced to find an explanation for this phenomenon.
To be convincing, they have to allude to events,
which have certain elements in common with
religious happenings, this being more easily
understandable by the common man. Poetry, with
its resounding metaphors, is one of the richest
sources of such parallels, and, having cited them,
they proceed to pronounce religion to be nothing
more than a kind of neutral mental activity.
According to Toynbee there are two ways of
