Religion consists of conscious ideas, hopes, enthusiasms, and objects of worship; it opera
Nevertheless, we must confess that this religious pursuit of the Life of Reason has been singularly abortive. Those within the pale of each religion may prevail upon themselves, to express satisfaction with its results, thanks to a fond partiality in reading the past and generous draughts of hope for the future; but any one regarding the various religions at once and comparing their achievements with what reason requires, must feel how terrible is the disappointment which they have one and all prepared for mankind. To confuse intelligence and dislocate sentiment by gratuitous fictions is a short-sighted way of pursuing happiness. Thus religion too often debauches the morality it comes to sanction and impedes the science it ought to fulfill.
Religion pursues rationality through the imagination. When it explains events or assigns causes, it is an imaginative substitute for science. When it gives precepts, insinuates ideals, or remoulds aspiration, it is an imaginative substitute for wisdom—I mean for the deliberate and impartial pursuit of all food. The condition and the aims of life are both represented in religion poetically, but this poetry tends to arrogate to itself literal truth and moral authority, neither of which it possesses. Hence the depth and importance of religion becomes intelligible no less than its contradictions and practical disasters. Its object is the same as that of reason, but its method is to proceed by intuition and by unchecked poetical conceits.
Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?
A.Religion seeks the truth through imagination, reason, in its search, utilizes the emotions.
B.Religion has proved an ineffective tool in solving man's problems.
C.Science seeks a piece meal solution to man's questions.
D.The functions of philosophy and reason are the same.