Conscious Clay

THE EXCITING "BULL SESSIONS" that so often generate more heat than light, and absorb college students and others in animated arguments far into the night, are nine times out of ten on subjects discussed in these pages. In fact, this book is largely a product of many years of individual and group discussions, as well as of prolonged study in and out of universities of the three essential departments of the modern mind—science, philosophy, and religion.


The approach here used is chosen for the scientifically inclined person of today in non-Christian as well as in so-called Christian lands. Jewish and Christian teachers of former periods started by quoting the Bible, but that does not appeal to the skeptical youth of this age. Facts of experience and science must now be the starting point.


The arguments employed in these chapters are directed not at the devout religionist but to the troubled and inquiring mind. If this brief but comprehensive analysis of the world, life, ethics, and religion is followed through and its unexpressed implications are thought out and lived out, many will find, I trust, a unifying outlook that will lead not only to happiness, even in tragic misfortune, but to creative living that gives personality survival beyond what we call death. All readers can find interest and profit, I hope, through the adaptation of these ideas to their own experiences, beliefs, and problems, and thus receive some aid in the all-important task of developing their own philosophies of life."—William Allison Shimer, Preface