Very recently, in the time-scale of our development, man adopted the
methods of "Big Business," and the religion of many gods and idols,
polytheism, has given way to one Supreme God, monotheism. Man found that
it made for simplicity and saved his valuable time if he worshiped one
god, instead of obeying the hitherto many. The "Chosen People" took it
upon themselves to bring the next divinely concocted conception of a
Supreme God, and they manufactured the creed of Judaism.
After many years, a rift arose among the Jews, and the sectarians were
defeated and expelled. Foiled in their first object, they cast aside
the laws of Moses and offered the Hebrew religion without the Hebrew
ceremonies to the Greek and Roman world. Jesus was the man who prepared
the way for this remarkable event.
When Mohammed conceived the divine conception that he would follow in
the footsteps of his brother-prophets, Moses and Jesus, the latest of
the major religions was revealed.
At the present time, the Hebrews and Christians, although worshiping the
same Jehovah, are disputing with each other, and indeed, amongst
themselves, with regard to the various attributes, amorous pursuits, and
lineal descendants of the Godhead. Jehovah himself appears to be on the
decline and his unity is steadily disintegrating into a paradoxical
trinity. But we are progressing, for in 1300 years no new prophet has
arisen, and no new divine revelation is perturbing our race; the old
ones, however, are causing quite enough disturbance.
It would be of value for the modern religionist who believes that the
worship of a deity in our own age is far removed from the worship of an
idol by our savage ancestors, to retrace his steps and compare the
savage mind worshiping his particular idol and a so-called civilized
mind of today worshiping his deity.
The savage prayed to his idol, that is, he _begged_. He begged the idol
to watch over his flock or his fields. The modern prays, that is he begs
of his idol, his deity, to prosper his business, to guard his life, and,
as one of my "super-devout" acquaintances recently informed me, on the
eve of an important golf match, for the Deity to give him endurance; in
other words, "to cut down his golf score."
The savage voiced his incantations; the modern sings hymns, that is he
flatters. There is still a great deal of the charlatanry of the magician
in the construction of the houses of prayer, with the sunlight shut out
and only filtering through the leaded and multi-colored panes, the
semidarkness, the solemnity, the rise and swell of the organ; all things
combined to overcome the senses, to play upon the emotions, and to
subdue the reason.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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