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Religious Instruction 307
fanaticism, from deceits of the reason, barren-
ness of soul, or perverted feeling of right, all
of which are the notorious results of Christian
training and Christian instruction, given ac-
cording to the usual methods of the present
day. For the present as well as for the future,
a child will be able to solve more easily these
spiritual problems if his fine feeling for right
and his quick logic have not been dulled by
the dogmatic answers to those eternal prob-
lems, that place him in as much difficulty as
the thinker.
Kant exposed long ago the most serious in-
juries of the kind of religious instruction
which still prevails. He showed that by mak-
ing the church’s teaching the basis of moral-
ity, improper motives were assigned to action.
A thing must be avoided, not because God has
forbidden it, but because it is in and for itself
wrong. Man must aim at good, not because
heaven or hell awaits the good or the bad, but
because good has a higher value than evil. To
this point of view of Kant there must be added
the truth, that a position is ethically weaken-
ing, when man is presented as incapable of
doing good by his own power. So he is told
in this as in all other cases, he must be humble
and trust in God’s help. Confidence in our
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