......”‘As for religion, Christian or any other, when its
dogmas are no longer believed, its ethics pass away,’ and he
draws a picture of the rotten state of society in our Western
world, which he attributes directly to the growth of
agnosticism. The fact that the birth-rate in England has been
declining for twenty-five years, and was lowest in 1904, seems
to Dr. Barry to be due to several causes--‘poverty and luxury,
pleasure-seeking and disbelief in the Bible,’ and he adds, ‘The
spirit of anarchic individualism that cries, “No God, no
Master!” is needed to tell us why Englishmen and their wives,
once dedicated to a blameless and lasting union, have fallen
into the pit which Malthus or his followers digged for them.’
England alone is not at fault. ‘Wherever unbelief has taken
hold, or doubt saps the ancient creeds, there Malthus reigns
instead of Christ.’”