The work of the trained
specialist is essentially, in religion and philosophy, a negative
work. He can show us how erroneous beliefs, which coloured the
minds of men at certain ages and eras, grew up. He can show us what
can be disregarded, as being only the conventional belief of the
time; he can indicate, for instance, how a false conception of
supernatural interference with natural law grew up in an age when,
for want of trained knowledge, facts seemed fortuitous occurrences
which were really conditioned by natural laws. The poet and the
idealist make and cast abroad the great vital ideas, which the
specialist picks up and analyses. But we must not stop at analysis;
we want positive progress as well. We want people to tell us,
candidly and simply, how their own soul grew, how it cast off
conventional beliefs, how it justified itself in being hopeful or
the reverse. There never was a time when more freedom of thought
and expression was conceded to the individual. A man is no longer
socially banned for being heretical, schismatic, or liberal-
minded.
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