Visible World

Invisible Reality

Symbols

•        Monkey-to-man chart
•        Evolutionary charts

Priests

•        Scientist-philosophers
•        Doctrinaire teachers

Ceremonies

•        Courses & seminars
•        Awards & prizes

Propaganda

•        School textbooks & regulations
•        Museums & documentary films

Founder & Heroes

•        Darwin, Marx, Huxley
•        Astronomer-philosophers

Scriptures & holy books

•        Origin of the Species
•        Naturalist journals

Financial support

•        Government grants
•        Institutional salaries

Hermeneutics

•        Interpret everything within a long time
•        Interpret all data as evolutionary
  

Cosmic myth

•        Origin = big bang
•        Destiny = big cold

Ultimate reality (deity)

•        Material-chemical process
•        Matter + energy + (long) time

Invisible powers (spirit)

•        Cause-to-effect determination
•        Evolutionary directionalism

Personal experience

•        Freedom from guilt
•        Freedom to explore

Explanation of pain & evil

•        Blame ignorance
•        Blame (others’) religion

Afterlife

•        None
•        Extinction

Logical consequences

•        No ultimate moral authority
•        No spirit, soul or non-material life

Practical consequences

•        Social Darwinism, eugenics, amorality
•        Intellectual bigotry & totalitarianism