Varieties of Religious Experience: a Study in Human Nature

Many scientists immediately reject all aspects of the Quaker religion because evidence suggests that Fox was schizophrenic. Calling this rejection medical materialism he insisted that the origin of Fox's notions about religion should not be considered when placing a value on them. He pointed out that many believed El Greco to have suffered from astigmatism yet no one would dismiss his art based on this medical detail. "Scientific theories are organically conditioned just as much as religious emotions are; and if we only knew the facts intimately enough we should doubtless see 'the liver' determining the dicta of the sturdy atheist as decisively as it does those of the Methodist under conviction anxious about his soul. When it alters in one way the blood that percolates it we get the Methodist when in another way we get the atheist form of mind."- Dr. William James