MILL (John Stuart).
Three Essays on Religion: Nature, The Utility of Religion, and Theism.
Mill’s most extended mediations on the philosophy of religion, published posthumously with an introduction by Mill’s stepdaughter, the philosopher and feminist Hellen Taylor, who had assisted Mill since the death of her mother in 1858. The first two essays were written between 1850 and 1858 and the third considerably later, between 1868 and 1873.
‘Mill was somewhat cagey on this subject [religion], both in public discourse - he refused to answer questions about his religious beliefs while running for Parliament - and in his writings. In correspondence Mill said that he had never had a belief in God. He did write that there is enough evidence for a divine designer/creator in nature to ‘afford a large balance of probability in favour of creation by intelligence’, yet he added that it was possible that a recently proposed alternative explanation for this evidence might turn out to be a better one. He was adamant that the existence of evil in the world established that no being could exist who was both omnipotent and perfectly morally good. Mill had a tremendous amount of respect for the moral teachings of Jesus, which he saw as only one part of a complete morality, but he believed that these teachings had been perverted by modern Christianity’ (Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Philosophers, Bristol, Thoemmes Press, 2002).
