IX A Last Word

IX A Last Word V is-à-vis the above-mentioned modern interpretation of religion, I quote below what Alexis Carrel has to say of himself: He (the writer) realizes that his description of this aspect of mental activity will please neither men of science nor men of religion. Scientists will consider such an attempt as puerile or insane; ecclesiastics, as improper and aborted, because mystical phenomena belong only in an indirect way to the domain of science.1 The phraseology Carrel uses to express his concept of religion is frequently redolent of the religious, but the similarity ends there, for in actual fact, there is no real difference between Carrel’s view and a purely atheistic one. 1. The first thing we have to consider is that according to this interpretation, religion emerges as something unreal. It implies that the concepts of God, life after death and revelation have no basis in reality, but are miracles wrought by our own powers of imagination. But if we are to judge by the force and intensity with which religion has made its way into the minds of the people, it is unthinkable that it is purely a thing of the imagination. The distinguished contemporary historian, Arnold Toynbee writes: If we set out to make a survey of the religions that have been practised at different times and places by the numerous human