God and the World a Survey of Thought (Paperback)

Excerpt: ...one is likely to dispute. In his recently published book, The World of Life, he has devoted a whole chapter to answering the question, "Is Nature cruel?" and it is due to him, as well as to the importance of the problem, that we should carefully note what he has said. The following quotations may be taken as sufficiently indicating his position. "The widespread idea of the cruelty of Nature is 60 almost wholly imaginary." 7 "Our whole tendency to transfer our sensations of pain to the other animals is grossly misleading." 8 "No other animal needs the pain-sensations that we need; it is therefore absolutely certain