The Religious Sentiment

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Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison) Brinton. The Religious Sentiment

CHAPTER I. THE BEARING OF THE LAWS OF MIND ON RELIGION

CHAPTER II. THE EMOTIONAL ELEMENTS OF THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT

CHAPTER III. THE RATIONAL POSTULATES OF THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT

CHAPTER IV. THE PRAYER AND ITS ANSWER

CHAPTER V. THE MYTH AND THE MYTHICAL CYCLES

CHAPTER VI. THE CULT, ITS SYMBOLS AND RITES

CHAPTER VII. THE MOMENTA OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT

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The distinction between the Science and the Philosophy of religion. It is assumed (1) that religions are products of thought, (2) that they have a unity of kind and purpose. They can be studied by the methods of natural science applied to Mind.

Mind is co-extensive with organism. Sensation and Emotion are prominent marks of it. These are either pleasurable or painful; the latter diminish vital motions, the former increase them. This is a product of natural selection. A mis-reading of these facts is the fallacy of Buddhism and other pessimistic systems. Pleasure comes from continuous action. This is illustrated by the esthetic emotions, volition and consciousness.

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This he did by showing that the laws of correct thinking can be expressed in algebraic notation, and, thus expressed, will be subject to all the mathematical laws of an algebra whose symbols bear the uniform value of unity or nought (1 or 0) – a limitation required by the fact that pure logic deals in notions of quality only, not of quantity.

This mathematical form of logic was foreseen by Kant when he declared that all mathematical reasoning derives its validity from the logical laws; but no one before Professor Boole had succeeded in reaching the notation which subordinated these two divisions of abstract thought to the same formal types. His labors have not yet borne fruit in proportion to their value, and they are, I believe, comparatively little known. But in the future they will be regarded as epochal in the science of mind. They make us to see the same law governing mind and matter, thought and extension.

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