“Genel manada daha yüksek kültür düzeyine erişmiş bir toplumda batıl inançların varlığını nasıl sürdürdüğünü sorarsak, bu sorunun yanıtını insanlar arasındaki doğal, evrensel ve yok edilemez eşitsizlikte buluruz. If the one acts from the love or fear of God, he is religious if the other acts from the love or fear of man, he is moral or immoral according as his behaviour comports or conflicts with the general good.” Two men may behave in exactly the same way, and yet one of them may be religious and the other not.
On the other hand, mere practice, divested of all religious belief, is also not religion. James, “faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” In other words, no man is religious who does not govern his conduct in some measure by the fear or love of God. But unless the belief leads to a corresponding practice, it is not a religion but merely a theology in the language of St. Of the two, belief clearly comes first, since we must believe in the existence of a divine being before we can attempt to please him.
Thus defined, religion consists of two elements, a theoretical and a practical, namely, a belief in powers higher than man and an attempt to propitiate or please them. “By religion, then, I understand a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and of human life.
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