'Deism and Pantheism are both so irrational, so utterly inadequate to
explain the simplest facts of our moral and spiritual life that neither
of them can long hold mankind together. Positivism, which has made a
systematic and memorable attempt to fill the gap, itself bears witness
to the craving of human nature for some stronger bond than such systems
can supply; while its appreciation of the necessity of Religion gives
it an importance not possessed by mere Agnosticism. Yet it is
impossible to look at an encyclopaedic attempt to grasp all knowledge
and all history, such as that made by the founder of Positivism,
without a deep, oppressive sadness....
'Can men heap fact upon fact and connect science with science in a
splendid hierarchy and find no better end than this? Is such a review
to come to this, that we must worship either actual humanity with all
its meanness and wickedness, or ideal humanity which does not yet
exist, and, if this world is all in all, may never come into being? ...
For ideal humanity, however moral and enlightened, if unaided by God,
as the Posivitist holds, is still earth-bound and sense-bound.... We
are told that it is common sense to recognise that much is beyond us.
Perfectly true. But it is not common sense to worship an ignorant and
weak humanity which certainly made nothing, and has in itself no
assurance {241} of continuance in the future, nay rather, a very clear
probability of destruction, if simply left to itself.
'What Positivism surely needs to give it hope and consistency is the
doctrine of the Logos, of the Eternal Word and Reason, the Creator,
Orderer, and Sustainer of all things, Who has taken a stainless human
nature that He might make men capable of all knowledge. This Divine
Humanity of the Logos, drawing mankind into Himself, is indeed worthy
of all worship. In loving Him, we learn really what it is to "live for
others." In looking to Him we cease from selfishness and pride. Such
a worship of humanity is not a mere baseless hope, but a reality
appearing in the very midst of history, a reality apprehended by Faith
indeed, but by a Faith always proving itself to those, and by those,
who hold it fast in Love. There is room, then, ample room, and a loud
demand for the re-establishment of a Christian Philosophy based upon
the Incarnation.'--JOHN WORDSWORTH (Bishop of Salisbury), _The One
Religion_, pp. 307-309.
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