The Churches and Modern Thought: An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candourPhelips, Vivian
Religion
The Churches and Modern Thought: An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candour
Phelips, Vivian
Rationalism
We read of the Cucamas that, 'as
soon as a relation died, these people assembled and ate him roasted
or boiled, according as he was thin or fat!'" [124]
It is easy, then, to understand why a savage should desire to partake
of the flesh of an animal or man whom he regards as divine. By eating
the body of the god he shares in the god's attributes and powers. "And
when," as Dr. Frazer points out, [125] "the god is a corn-god, the
corn is his proper body; when he is a vine-god, the juice of the
grape is his blood; and so by eating the bread and drinking the wine
the worshipper partakes of the real body and blood of the god." If
the apologist, nothing daunted, maintains that there is a religious
germ in these primitive superstitions, it is practically tantamount to
saying that every superstition contains such a germ; that superstition
and religion are, in fact, often synonymous terms. I thought it
was only the sceptic who said that. Before committing himself any
further to a supernatural theory which is so obviously untenable,
I do entreat the average apologist to read carefully the works of
great thinkers who have made primitive man their especial study. Let
him read, for instance, Herbert Spencer's Principles of Sociology,
where he will find a natural and mind-satisfying explanation of
primitive ideas concerning supernatural agents, ghosts, spirits,
demons, gods, resurrection, another life, inspiration, divination,
sacrifices, fasting, propitiation, and prayer. He will learn, also,
much that he ought to know concerning ancestor-worship, idol-worship,
fetish-worship, animal-worship, plant-worship, nature-worship, and
the heathen deities generally. He should also read Frazer's Golden
Bough, J. M. Robertson's Pagan Christs and Christianity and Mythology,
and other scholarly and informing works of this description, instead
of confining his studies to works of an apologetic character, where
everything incompatible with existing Christian theories is carefully
omitted, or coloured out of all recognition.
§ 4. The Solar Myth.
JONAH AND THE WHALE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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