In the beginning I have given a few of the numerous meanings that have
been applied to the word. It will be seen how vague they are. And at
the end I have a definition of my own to give which differs from all.
But as I have frequently to use the word from the beginning of the book,
I will try to define how I use it.
By "religion," then, generally I mean a scheme of the world with some
theory of how man got into it and the influences, mostly supernatural,
which affect him here. It usually, though not always, includes some code
of morality for use here and some account of what happens after death.
This is, I think, more or less the accepted meaning.
And there are the words Spirit and Soul.
I note that in considering origins of religion the great first
difficulty has been how the savage evolved the idea of "God" or "Spirit"
as opposed to man. Various theories have been proposed, such as that it
evolved from reasoning on dreams. To me the question is whether such an
idea exists at all. It may be possible that men trained in abstract
thought without reference to fact, the successors of many generations of
men equally so trained, do consider themselves to have such a
conception. I have met men who declared they had a clear idea of the
fourth dimension in Mathematics and of unending space. There may be
people who can realise a Spirit which has other qualities than man. In
some creeds the idea is assumed as existing. But personally I have never
found it among those who make religion as distinguished from those who
theorise upon it. The gods of the simpler religious people I have met,
whether East or West, have been frankly only enlarged men, with the
appetites and appearances and the powers of men. They differ from men
only in degree, never in kind. They require food and offerings, they
have passions, sometimes they have wives. The early gods are but men. If
they are invisible, so can man be; if they are powerful, so are kings.
It is only a question of degree, never of kind. I do not find that the
God that the Boers appeal to so passionately has any different qualities
in their thoughts from a marvellous man. Truly they will say, "No, God
is a Spirit." Then if you reply, "So be it; tell me how a Spirit differs
from a man, what qualities a Spirit has that are inconceivable in man,"
they cannot go on; and the qualities they appeal to in their God are
always very human qualities--partiality, forgiveness, help, and the
like.
Many men will say they believe things which they do not understand. I
enter into the subject so fully later I do not want to write more now. I
only wish to define that the word God, as I use it, in no wise means
more than "the Personality who causes things."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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