Sharlee hesitated. "I'm not sure that I can answer that with a direct yes, and I will not answer it with any sort of no. So I'll say that I believe in them all, modified a little in places to satisfy my reason."
"Ah, they are subject to modification, then?"
"Certainly. Aren't you? Am not I? Whatever is alive is subject to modification. These doctrines," said she, "are evolving because they have the principle of life in them."
"So you are an evolutionist?"
"The expert in evolutionary sociology will hardly quarrel with me for that."
"The expert in evolutionary sociology deals with social organisms, nations, the human race. Your Bible deals with Smith, Brown, and Jones."
"Well, what are your organisms and nations but collections of my Smiths, Browns, and Joneses? My Bible deals with individuals because there is nothing else to deal with. The individual conscience is the beginning of everything."
"Ah! So you would found your evolution of humanity upon the increasing operation of what you call conscience?"
"Probably I would not give all the credit to what I call conscience. Probably I'd give some of it to what I call intellect."
"In that case you would almost certainly fall into a fatal error."