The Varieties of Religious Experience - Penn State University

The Varieties of Religious Experiencewho had already begun to be inwardly dissatisfied with what seemedto them the harshness and irrationality of the orthodox Christianscheme. As examples are better than descriptions, I will quote adocument received in answer to Professor Starbuck’s circular of questions.The writer’s state of mind may by courtesy be called a religion, forit is his reaction on the whole nature of things, it is systematic andreflective and it loyally binds him to certain inner ideals. I thinkyou will recognize in him, coarse-meated and incapable of woundedspirit as he is, a sufficiently familiar contemporary type.Q. What does Religion mean to you?A. It means nothing; and it seems, so far as I can observe useless toothers. I am sixty-seven years of age and have resided in X fifty years,and have been in business forty-five, consequently I have some littleexperience of life and men, and some women too, and I find that themost religious and pious people are as a rule those most lacking inuprightness and morality.The men who do not go to church or have any religious convictionsare the best. Praying, singing of hymns, and sermonizing arepernicious—they teach us to rely on some supernatural power, whenwe ought to rely on ourselves. I teetotally disbelieve in a God. TheGod-idea was begotten in ignorance, fear, and a general lack of anyknowledge of Nature. If I were to die now, being in a healthy conditionfor my age, both mentally and physically, I would just as lief, yes,rather, die with a hearty enjoyment of music, sport, or any other rationalpastime. As a timepiece stops, we die—there being no immortalityin either case.Q. What comes before your mind corresponding to the words God,Heaven, Angels, etc?A. Nothing whatever. I am a man without a religion. These wordsmean so much mythic bosh.88