The American Journal of Sociology

Mohammedanism, Romanism, and Protestantism contain systems of world-philosophy which have been deduced from religious dogmas. The world-philosophy is in each case removed by several steps of deduction from the religious postulates. Religion is tradition. It is a product of history, and it is embodied in ritual, institutions, officials, etc., which are historical. From time to time it is observes that the religious generalizations do not hold true; experience does not verify them. At last skepticism arises and new efforts of philosophy are required to re-establish the religious dogmas or to make new compromises. In modern times the thirst for reality has developed criticism and skepticism; everything is discussed and questioned. There are few certainties in our knowledge. Our mores are flexible, elastic, and to some extent unstable, but they have strong guarantees. The religion, however, sums up the most general and philosophic elements in the mores, and inculcates them as religious dogmas. It also forms precepts on them.