Whatever else the word God may mean, it is a
term used to designate that Something upon which
human life is most dependent for its security, wel-
fare and increasing abundance. That there is such
a Something cannot be doubted. The mere fact
that human life happens, and continues to happen,
proves that this Something, however unknown,
does certainly exist.

Of course one can say that there are innumer-
able conditions which converge to sustain human
life, and that is doubtless the fact. But in that case
either one of two things is true. Either the uni-
verse is a single individual organic unity, in which
case it is the whole indivisible universe that has
brought forth and now sustains human life; or else
certain of these sustaining conditions are more criti-
cally, ultimately and constantly important for
human welfare than are others. According to the
first view God would be, or involve, the whole
universe: according to the second he would be those
most important conditions which, taken collec-
tively, constitute the Something which must have
supreme value for all human living. The word
God, taken with its very minimum meaning, is the
name for this Something of supreme value. God
may be much more than this, but he is certainly
this by definition. In this sense, with this minimum

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