The origin of supernatural conceptions and development of religions from prehistoric times

Front matter

THE ORIGIN OF SUPERNATURAL CONCEPTIONS

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Preface

The knowledge of the advent of man and his status in the universe wherein he found himself prior to the attainment of modern science, was derived from traditionary legends evolved from the vivid imaginations of the human brain attempting to interpret the history of his creation, and the purpose of his existence. It is apparent that those legends have a fictitious origin, although they were assumed to be divine revelations. There is a tendency in the human mind to retain its early impressions with great tenacity; and it is difficult, and often impossible, to unlearn the most illogical and preposterous fallacies that men have been taught as truths in their earlier life while they seize with avidity every pretension to reveal a future life they have learned to believe in, but of which no man has any knowledge or comprehension, except from the fabulous traditions of unknown writers.

Up to a comparatively recent date no true soluix tion of the mechanism of the universe was achieved, about which the writers of all prior histories and legends called revelations were in entire ignorance. To doubt the truth of these so-called revelations has been deemed sacrilegious, and has often been visited with drastic punishment for the alleged profanation. The present age has emerged from the thraldom of this ancient bigotry, and finds no trace in recent history of any supernatural act or communication; which naturally engenders a doubt of the truthfulness of the ancient traditions that is still further confirmed by the fundamental errors to be found in all traditional revelations.

With the above facts clearly established we may venture upon a strict investigation of the ancient writings, with no hesitation on our part in repudiating the narratives of supernatural occurrences of which modern experience has no truthful example.

In investigating the superstitions that have pervaded the thoughts of man from a period anterior to historic data, which have formed so much of the traditional and written literature with which the statement of facts has been inextricably interwoven, it is difficult to trace the true origin of the myths of unknown ages. While the supernatural events recorded in Eastern legends may be retained as illus-

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trations of the creative power of the active imagination of the human mind, they have long since been discarded as realities by the world of science.

There is a firm belief still retained by a large majority of men in the truth of traditionary miracles and divine interposition, on which the dominant religions are founded. We note that in religions holding a common origin, there are numerous sects and interpreters radically opposed to each other, which in past times have produced dissensions and bloody strife, and are still a source of polemic wrangling and waring disaster.

Before attempting to investigate the origin of religion, it may be well to fix a definite meaning to that constantly employed word. We find in the modern lexicons numerous meanings ascribed to the word religion, that differ widely in their nature, and are antagonistic in their purport. If by religion is meant the healthful development of a right life, a practice of conscientious duty to our fellow men, and abstaining from all injustice, every right-minded man must give it his approval. But if by religion is meant " a system of faith in, and worship of, a divine being or beings " (entirely beyond our knowledge, except from the traditions of unknown authors of mystic legends, unconfirmed), the modern agnostic disbe-

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lieves. We have generally used the word religion in the latter sense, as dogmatic, in the succeeding pages.

There are few noted scientists in modern times who would not be classed as agnostics. They are generally so entirely engrossed in the search for, and development of, truth, which is making such wonderful progress at the present day, that they have no time to devote to discussions about current beliefs in religion, nor to the petty altercations of the theologians over dogmatic interpretations and creeds, which neither their authors nor interpreters have any real knowledge of the truth of, and of which there is no proof but vague tradition.

The mission of an iconoclast is not only displeasing but perilous ; in attempting to destroy the timeconsecrated idols believed in for ages, he cannot expect to escape vituperation, unfair criticism, and opposition. Fortunately in these days he cannot here be assailed with imprisonment, torture, or death. Ostracism, anathema, and slander are the only weapons left the fanatical force in America, although severer penalties are still imposed elsewhere for differing from or opposing established faith.

Some fifty years or more ago, I was impelled to write upon this subject; but I then felt that, in attempting to destroy a delusion on which organized

xii society was founded, and for which I had no efficient substitute, I might weaken the organization of society. This caused me then to delay further action, but time has now convinced me that until the fabulous is expurgated from human reason there is no hope that any radical improvement in true culture can be attained.

The hideous crimes that have been perpetrated even in modern times, in priestridden nations, conclusively show that power alone is wanted to reenact the barbarism of the Spanish Inquisition and the prohibition of free thought. The incarceration of an innocent girl in a nunnery, recently enacted in Europe, for desiring to marry in opposition to the will of her parents, where she was walled up for twenty years in a living tomb by a brutal fiend, the superior (who was made a brutal fiend by her fanatical faith, until all the elements of humanity and true womanhood were extinguished in her), is too heartrending and revolting to be passed over in silence. It must remain as an episode of a religion of the nineteenth century.

The more recent offence of a French Jesuit was brought to light in the courts in the present century, where it was shown that a Jesuit priest called l ' Pere Rouvirier " (his name should be execrated for his

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damnable arts) so wrought upon a sensitive neophyte of wealth as to cause her to martyrize herself until she died, suffering torture, that he might reap the fruits of her wealth, which the enlightened French court happily frustrated by annulling her will. The sad history of this poor girl's sufferings in mind and body is heartrending; and when we learn that it was endured through the teachings and instigation of this human monster under the guise of divine instruction, we must condemn in the severest terms a religion that produces such fruits. But we hear the Protestants exclaim, * ' This is not Christianity as taught by us." Unfortunately I remember the incarceration in the last century of Robert Taylor in Protestant England, because he published his belief that the Christian religion had no indisputable foundation for claiming a higher morality or truth than any other, and the earlier persecution of the Quakers and others in England, Scotland, and America, remnants of which remain of this repression in the legal interference with natural rights still extant. It may be well for modern sectarians to investigate how far the acts of their predecessors accord with the views that have been produced in the moral code evoked by modern science at the present day.

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We see superstitions still active, like those which misled the world in earlier times, engendering strange aberrations of reason and common sense in this enlightened age and country, culminating in the knowledge that such gross impostors as Ann Lee, the female Christ of the Shakers, Joseph Smith, the prophet of the Mormons, Mrs. Eddy, the Christian Scientist, and that audacious pretender, Dowie, have all gathered hosts of followers, often highly intelligent, who profess to believe in their divine mission ; and there are not a few at this time who may have serious dubitancy on the subject of their teachings that are inclined to join them.

If it is assumed that any supernatural phenomenon ever occurred in this world at any time, there can be no insuperable barrier to a claim for its repetition, or a belief in its accomplishment by any pretender to divine inspiration and power.

I ask for no leniency or favor, and offer no apology, for what I have written in the following pages. If anything therein can be proved to be erroneous, I shall gladly accept and acknowledge the correction.

J. J. Greenough.

Brookline, Jan. 19, 1905.

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Introduction

In this essay on the origin of the superstitions and dogmas of the human race, I have attempted to trace their derivation and development, through man 's innate intellectual powers, which have evolved ideas of a transcendent being actuating the creation, — ideas that are deduced from the natural laws of mental evolution.

My endeavor has been to show that there never was a supernatural revelation, miracle, or other abnormal manifestation, from any spiritual entity, or other source divine; and that all legends recording phenomena of that character, with which the world 's literature is filled, were derived from unexplained natural phenomena, or the human imagination, before a true knowledge of the cosmos, or psychic laws, was conceived.

I have suggested the probable origin of supernatural conceptions, from their primitive source up to xvii

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their development in historic times. A critical examination and analysis of the ancient records will clearly show their source to be the human brain; this is obviously apparent in the voluminous Indian, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Assyrian writings, and through Grecian and Roman mythology, down to the Christian era — an outcome of Alexandrian culture, the mother of sectaries.

I have only sketched concisely some of the numerous exhibitions of an early mental activity, for, tempting as the subject is, it has been fully elaborated by writers more learned and able than myself.

My first chapters are briefly introductory to an extended investigation of Judaism and Christianity, past and present, and the primitive character of the Hebrews' God as depicted in the Old Testament, upon which the Christian religion is founded.

While carefully evolving a life of Christ from the traditional narratives of his followers, as recorded in the Gospels, that were written a hundred years or more after his death by unconditional believers in his divinity, we have produced a somewhat less transcendent delineation of him who posed as the Messiah of the Hebrews in the Gospels, and declared himself " King of the Jews, ' ' for which he was xviii

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tried by the Roman governor Pilate, found guilty, and crucified.

Although all mention of Christ's belligerent acts is omitted in the Gospels, with one notable exception, — when he entered the Temple at Jerusalem with a host of followers shouting hosannas, who proclaimed him " King of the Jews, ' ' and drove out the occupants, — yet his bellicose utterances and constant movements with an army of catechumens, thousands in number, indicate unrecorded overt acts, which furnish the only rational reason for his execution.

Entering upon this task with no desire to establish any unwarranted theory, but simply to elicit a rational interpretation of a life record assumed to be divine, drawn from the fragmentary records of catechumens, that were written from tradition long after the time the events were said to have occurred, I have endeavored to reconcile and render intelligible the great contrariety of teachings and acts recorded, that led up to, and account for, the crucifixion ; which under any other theory would seem to be baseless and inexplicable.

A candid examination of the teachings of the gospel with the influence of a divine afflatus eliminated, shows that the apothegms and proverbs are

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mostly found in the teachings drawn from earlier sources, anticipated by uninspired men long before the birth of Christ, — notably the Hindu writings, the Golden Rule of Confucius, and the moral teachings of Pythagoras, — while some of the instructions in the Gospels seem inequitable and unpractical, if not immoral.

My purpose is to convince my fellow men that they have received at their birth all the revelation that they will ever receive, in the fundamental power to attain the knowledge they can compass by their own exertions, or from the acquirements of their compeers. On the proper use of man's mental powers will depend the best results for human advancement. This is shown in the profound intellectual and moral teaching of recent times, and the refined culture evolved by the genius and learning of modern civilization, due to scientific cultivation. Ancient truisms are often used as texts, with the assumed glamour of divine revelation, to base profound homilies upon. These could not have been achieved until modern science burst the shackles with which dogmatic religion sought to bind the free volition of man, and his freedom of thought.

We believe the world is the home and field of labor of the human race, and is governed by immutable

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laws that no power of man can change. His duty is to learn their purport, and avail himself of their uses ; to neglect or evade this we assume is a crime. It should be our highest aspiration to act beneficently for the race, and for ourselves ; our lives are a birthright for us to exercise our intellects upon, and improve in knowledge and wisdom; by so doing we shall render the highest and holiest tribute of reverence to the genitor of our being, whose works are our lesson, to be studied for the welfare of mankind, not to be ignored or neglected for ideal creations.

The universe which is spread before us we are comparatively ignorant of. Let us seek to obtain a knowledge of the attainable before we attempt to fathom a hereafter that we can never know in our present state, or obtain a knowledge of from the crude and superstitious records of an anterior age.

In tracing the source from which the origins of the superstitions of the world are derived, and the innumerable ideal creations emanating from the fertile imagination of man, we perceive the wonderful power attained in this highly organized structure; and the more minutely it is analyzed, the more perfect seems the adaptation of means to ends, as we from time to time attain a true knowledge of them.

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It is now clearly understood that, prior to any historic record yet discovered, men were organized into communities and nations, with governments and laws restricting them to certain courses of action, deemed to be proper and correct, and that there were punishments enacted for a dereliction from established law; right and wrong were determined, not always, as we now think, equitably, but the belief was established. Under these advancing forms of civilization great cities and elaborate temples were built, and structures and implements of defence and aggression were devised, as the interests of different nations became antagonistic. The beauty and grandeur of their structures evince a cultivation and luxurious display marvellous to behold in these latter days. While much of the outward and apparent was appreciated and understood, the fundamental principles and sources of the visible universe were unknown, but as the nature of men 's mental powers would not rest with unexplained phenomena, they actively sought for a solution in their imagination; the bolder and more active formed systems, that were seized upon and elaborated from age to age by credulous followers in their efforts to obtain an explanation of the unknown.

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duced, through the inequality of individuals, rulers who could dispense favors, and punish or reward as their will dictated. With this experience before them men formulated their conceptions of a power or powers that created and governed the world they lived in.

As they knew from experience that they could obtain favors from their rulers by subserviency and by the bestowal of gifts upon them, they had no doubt of their efficacy with their supernatural rulers ; and the more costly and elaborate the tribute, the more acceptable would it be to the gods to whom it was given. Thus was established an adulation and worship, with the building of temples, and offering of gifts and sacrifice to propitiate the divine powers, that could in no other way be reached. This universal belief in an endless variety of forms comes from an undeviating source, the natural phenomena with which we are surrounded misinterpreted and misunderstood. From time to time, as tradition informs us, there have been men with transcendent intellects, that have caught glimpses of the true cosmos and have based theories thereon ; but they were imperfect and uncertain, although often containing pertinent truths. The commencement of true knowledge, imperfect though it still is, began within the xxiii

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recent centuries. If we consider antiquity and universal belief a criterion of truth, there are overwhelming descriptions of supernatural communication between a spirit world and man; but if a just perception of the elements from which the legends that chronicle the exhibition of the miraculous are obtained, it will be seen that they all emanate from a mistaken interpretation of cause and effect.

It is conceded that the Hindus were an exceedingly intellectual and profoundly metaphysical people, and elaborated a religion so transcendental as to be beyond the scope of modern thinkers. They had in their mythology numerous deities of varied powers that to the modern thinker are but the visions of the meditative Brahman ; no one in Europe or America believes in the divinity of Brahma or Vishnu. So of the Egyptian cult, the concentration of the intellect of a highly intelligent and cultivated nation, with an elaborate theology, by whom, like the Hindus, stupendous and costly temples were built, more enduring than their religion, of which, or their theomancy, there are now no believers. Again the highly cultivated Greek, and the worldconquering Roman, — their systems of religion were in a high degree elaborate, ideal, and refined, the keynote being justice, honor, probity, and especially xxiv

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truth. The philosophers of Greece are quoted to-day for their profound thoughts, — yet who believes in their theology, or their graphic and poetical legends of the gods ? From almost all the ancient religions we learn there was one transcendent god with subordinate gods for the multiplicity of human attributes and wants; later these minor gods were eliminated, and in their places angels and spirits have been substituted, while in one of the modern religions three gods have been by some theological legerdemain resolved into one. We thus see that there is no innate attribute of worship in man, but simply an attempt to personify a cause beyond his knowledge, and invest it with the very human love of adulation experience has shown to be characteristic of man's earthly rulers.

There is a singular predilection in man, apparent to the careful investigator, to run in, and adhere to, grooves of thought, with a persistent ignoring of all adverse facts. This trait is intensified by early education, and is apparent in the persistent adherence to the religion in which the individual has been trained. If he was born of Hindu parents he will be a believer in Brahma. If his parents were Jews, or Mohammedans, his belief will be fixed in their faith, while if the belief of his compeers is Christian,

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he will adhere tenaciously to that faith. Fortunately for the advancement of the world, some men are endowed with an unconquerable spirit of investigation that bursts the bonds of theological prohibition, and in the face of torture and death proclaim the tenets they believe founded in fact. As the world grows wiser, the barriers against knowledge are reduced, which by the Jewish legend was the unpardonable sin that all mankind were cursed for, until at the present time it is not generally penal among the most enlightened nations to declare any proposition that the propounder believes. No greater proof can be adduced to show the utter unreliability of the ancient legends relating abnormal supernatural and miraculous events, than the readiness of men and women of recent times, up to the present day, to follow after and believe in charlatans and impostors of questionable character and stupid pretence, under the guise of divine inspiration and plenary revelation. Men are so anxious to hear from the other world they have been taught to believe in, that they will run after and follow any pretended messenger that assumes to bring tidings therefrom, the truth of which these impostors know their credulous neophytes have no power to refute. It is sad to note that the fundamental belief of all the various xxvi

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sectarists of the Christian Church, dominating the highest civilization, furnishes the most potent argument to sustain the pretenders to supernatural revelation ; for it is clear that if any supernatural revelation, plenary inspiration, or other miraculous event or communication was ever vouchsafed to man there can be no denial that such an event is not only possible, but very probable, in a cultivated age more capable of appreciating it than in former times. One of the strongest reasons for doubting the truthfulness of all historic relations of supernatural events or revelations is their utterly unprovable existence in modern times, notwithstanding the positive assertion of innumerable witnesses that are willing to testify, and in some cases may believe in miraculous events now taking place.

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Contents

I. Early Religions ....

II. The God of the Old Testament

III. Christ's Advent and Mission

Chapter I. Early Religions

When prehistoric man emerges from the nebulous epoch and first appears in tangible form to the modern investigator, he is found surrounded by works of elaborate art, in some particulars transcending all the works of his successors in magnitude and accomplishment. This shows a state of high cultivation, that must have required untold ages to have perfected. In critically examining these potent remains of early attainments, aided by the recorded thought of primitive culture, we note an elaborate perception and investigation of nature with which the world teemed.

Modern investigation shows that there were upon the earth hundreds of centuries ago monsters of prodigious size and hideous mien, many of which have been recently unearthed. While some of these prod-

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igies may not have survived the advent of man, he, no doubt, gained his vivid pictures of the horrible and awful from the realities he saw in nature. The dragons and other apparent prodigies drawn by Eastern nations were but exaggerations pictured by imaginative minds excited by the marvels existent at the dawn of man's ingress, which may have disappeared since that time.

Ages prior to any record that we have of men congregated into communities they were governed by matured laws, and ideas of right and wrong, of good and evil, with a subserviency to ruling powers. Their laws were at that early period united with elaborate religious dogmas, upon which authority was founded ; thus, the free thought of man had begun to be subordinated to creeds and traditions that have shackled and curtailed man's progress throughout historic time.

In searching for the origin of the innumerable religious beliefs of the world, which ages have formulated and consolidated into habits, and modes of thought, that have crystallized into the usages of advancing civilization with cultured people, an investigator should be sure that an antagonism to existing creeds is based on an honest and sincere desire to attain a higher civilization, and sounder

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moral culture, than the present status affords. While sweeping away fictitious cults, believed in for ages, he should have in mind the attainment of the highest standard in morals, and the greatest happiness of all his fellow men. When a man attempts to change the current of thought and belief of the world he is surrounded by, with all its vested rights and interests at stake, which to-day form most potent factors in modern society, the task is of Herculean proportions. But the truth is cogent, above all other interests or assumed rights, however ancient or consolidated, built upon fictitious foundations.

In looking backward through the maze of primitive thought for a rational clue to the earlier stages in the evolution of man's mental efforts, beyond the limits of scientific proof, it may be permissible to extend our theories into the unknown, if we are guided by logical deductions from the storehouse of accumulated facts, that are attested by a strictly scientific investigation of known phenomena — with the distinct understanding, however, that every assumption may be controverted by a better theory, if it can be adduced.

It would seem from the generally received laws of evolution, that when the mental powers of man ffii)fr ©Viflftl Of

had developed into thoughts and observations of, and deductions from, his surroundings, he would realize the fact that the numerous natural objects of his cognizance were there by no cause within his knowledge; from them he received his food and, as he progressed, his shelter; they were available to supply his wants. Could the intellect of man as now recognized long remain satisfied with a passive reception of those goods — when by their failures he suffered — without striving to find out, or account for, their origin and source? The lowest mental effort would suggest there was a power beyond his cognition.

If this interpretation of the earliest denouement of the active brain of developed man is correct, no abnormal power is manifested in the poetical legends, and historical aberrations evolved by the imagination inherent in the human mind from a misconception or distortion of facts.

In early childhood we have examples of the constructive power of the imagination, and brave tales are evolved from fertile sources of child lore, of which nursery rhymes are but an adulterated echo. The primitive man had all the imagination of childhood, with maturer mind, unrestricted by modern culture.

As various objects appeared spontaneously, without man's effort, it was obviously natural for him to assume a being existed that produced them; and as it was natural for him to assume that they were created for his good, it seems to be indisputaable that he would seek to propitiate the unknown power that made them. As these objects were so various and distinct one from another, and as his enemies were supplied with them as well as himself, it would seem impossible for him to believe they were all produced by the same Deity; therefore, his imagination readily supplied a host sufficient for the purpose. Hence we find in the earliest records the notable phenomena of nature personified and deified.

In the earliest Hindu Vedas we can trace the sublime conceptions of nature, causing, governing, and directing the objects provided, in accordance with a seemingly ungoverned will in the author that appeared capricious and anomalous. Thus were noted devastating winds, storms, thunders, earthquakes, volcanoes; to terrify man for his assumed transgressions; sometimes to avenge him against his enemies; and as menaces against the human race for its derelictions. Such were the aspects of nature to primitive man, sublime and

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beneficent, or terrific and vengeful; personified by fatherly care and paternal love, or stern and unrelenting punishment, to suit the varying moods of the gods.

By the every- day experiences of life man was confirmed in the belief of an extraneous power that produced the varied results so constantly witnessed by him. This caused him to ponder and construct, in his imagination, ideal gods, of a nature and with attributes analogous to the human race.

As man's gregarious experience taught him to propitiate the most powerful — a trait common with all gregarious animals — he strove to placate the unseen deity he could not cope with, which his imagination had wrought into innumerable forms, with attributes still more innumerable; while nature's laws, acquired either by experience or innate mental reasoning, caused him to organize a world of spirits dominated by a supreme head, or God, — a belief that has assumed control over the thoughts and convictions of mankind in an endless variety of forms, in striving to delineate the unknowable, up to the present day, and which is as firmly adhered to now as it was at the beginning of historic time, with the assumed authority of supernatural revelation.

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Thus at the dawn of human association the organized communities, as appears from the earliest records now extant, were striving for the unknown origin of themselves and their surroundings which caused them to build up vague theories of antecedent powers that brought forth the various objects with which they were associated, — things not made by any power known to them. Thus gods were elaborated with characteristics in accordance with human experience, observation, and imaginings, formed by the untutored minds of the authors, with attributes to suit the multiplex phenomena noted.

The earliest records of human thought describe the origin of man, whose mind not being controlled by laws or facts, wandered ad libitum without restraint. Thus was conceived a spirit world, whose habitat was above the immovable world we inhabit, devoted to the gods who made them. These gods being invisible were described and represented with minuteness. None of the legends or sacred writings that are claimed to be revelations, which give a history of the origin of the world and its inhabitants, with the heavens located above the ' ( firmament," agree with the known facts of nature; which proves that those assumed revelations were mere human inventions, by authors ignorant of the cosmos now undisputed.

In tracing the course of progressive thinking, from the dawn of nebulous history to the present time, the earliest recorded conceptions show a belief in the existence of a superior power by whom mankind was dominated, and rewarded as accorded with its supreme ungoverned will, or punished, if not averted by the prayers and supplications of its worshippers, who could thus modify its purpose.