Indeed to go a stage further, the construction of a theory of consciousness, which is the subject matter of my book, means that the logical working out of a particular frame of mind is only as valid as the assumptions on which that particular frame of mind is based. A professional lawyer’s assumptions are valid in interpreting an Act of Parliament; but not in philosophy. Thomas Aquinas did not offer us immortal truths; he worked out with penetrating logic one medieval frame of mind: that is all. Logic is a tool: not a god; and logic by itself can never lead us unaided to immortal truth. Science is more modest than religion, and much more reliable: it claims to deal only in probabilities. So with the disappearance of ideal certainties, all certain creeds disappear, and they become merely working hypotheses or the rules of a club: which is very much the view taken by the man in the street. Otherwise, if it is claimed creeds are written in stone, they fly in the face of evolution, which is today’s experience; and no-one must complain if intelligent people say they are false.
The consequences of Evolution are very far reaching. Arcadia and the Garden of Eden are myths. At some stage Man, in the sense of a living soul aware of itself, appeared or was created from the stock of his forefathers. There was no Fall, save insofar as we each have our own fall. Christ was not a Second Adam, to put right what had gone wrong historically. Nothing had gone wrong: in detail yes, many small things had gone wrong: no animal likes being eaten by a predator. But in broad outline, Man’s evolution into a conscious soul was a triumphant success. All that was necessary was that man should be taught about God, correctly; and having been taught about God, he needed to seek the same kind of relationship with his fellow man too. He would then be honouring one set of standards: not two.
The almost certain proof of evolution changes the future as well as the past. Evolution teaches that everything in experience changes, rather like the Greek philosopher Heraclitus: even an indwelling with God changes. The future of this world becomes potential, which we can influence either for good or ill; it ceases consciously to be a preparatory school for a life of happiness after death. To be effective in this world, you have to dedicate yourself to what you are doing, and forget about the hereafter. If your eyes are fixed on the hereafter, you are ineffective here and now. At least that is my experience. It is the old choice between doing and being. Do you want to do something effective; or occupy a position, and be admired by yourself and others? You cannot generally have both at the same time. Evolution prevents you turning the social and political clock back for long.
This is a chapter to which the Church of England has little to contribute. The clergy have not embraced evolution, their creeds are still the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow; and their theology is of a personal salvation in a world after death: see particularly the Easter collect in the new Common Worship. In the medieval world there was a Welsh text called “The Food of the Soul”, which suggested there was only one type of virtuous love: the love of God and of Mankind was different only in degree. Only one set of standards, not two. But Mr.Oliver Davies, whose article I read about the text, suggests that this idea must have come from the pagan tradition of bardic inspiration, not from the Bible. Surely he was right; the laity was forbidden to read the Bible in those days. As for the promise of a heaven after death, that seems to be attractive nowadays to men who feel there is nothing they can usefully do about their condition in this world; it is viewed by the affluent man in the street with the same scepticism with which indulgences were viewed in the sixteenth century. Besides folk-law nowadays is that everyone goes to heaven; and however unlikely, any clergyman who preached hell-fire would be greeted with derision. Even the teaching of Jesus that he was the good shepherd, although it illuminates the beauty and sublimity of the teacher, seems to have little relevance in the world today. That a perfect shepherd and his tiny flock are making their way to a heaven after death, is a poor guide to those struggling to ensure that National Socialism or its equivalent will not lead us again into world war, and its fearful slaughter.