REVIEW

Review ~ 52 ~ Advocates of this course tend to argue that even if religion is necessary for the inculcation of discipline, belief in God should not be regarded as compulsory. They feel that a godless religion serves the same purpose. Citing Buddhism, they maintain that, in the present advanced age; such a form of religious structure is more suitable to the needs of society. To such thinkers, society, along with its political and economic objectives is itself the God of the modern age. ‘Parliament is the Prophet of this God, through which He informs mankind of His will, and dams and factories rather than mosques and churches are His places of worship.’6 The study of religion, by the evolutionary method holds it to be progressing from belief in God to denial of God (e.g. Buddhism). Scholars, who adhere to this view first collect all the material which has been attributed over the ages to religion, then, independently of those, whose approach is essentially an internal one, they arrange this material in an evolutionary sequence, intentionally omitting any details which might cast doubt on its validity.