The Necessity of Atheism | Page 5

through his groping mind there evolved the thought, due to past
experience, that he could not contend with these things by physical
force, but must subdue them with magic; his magic consisted of the
beating of crude drum-like instruments, dances, and the mumbling of
words.
Upon falling asleep he dreams, and awakening, he finds that he is still
in the same place where he had lain the night before. Yet, he is certain
that during the night he had traveled to his favorite wood and killed an
animal whose tender flesh he was still savoring. Since the conception
of a dream was as yet foreign to him, the logical conclusion he arrived
at was that he had both a body and a spirit. If he possessed a body and a

spirit, then all things about him, he reasoned, must likewise possess a
similar spirit. Some spirits, he felt, were friendly; some, hostile to him.
The hostile spirits were to be feared; but that powerful factor, "hope,"
had at last entered into his mind, and he hoped to be able to win them
over to the camp of friendly spirits.
In this manner, man passed from the stage of contending against the
spirits to one of placating them. It was believed that certain men carried
more favor with the spirits than others, and these became the original
priests, called the "Shamans."
Another expedient for warding off evil spirits was by means of the
fetish. The primitive fetish was an object containing an active friendly
spirit, which, if worn by the individual, protected him from the evil
spirits. In a short while the manufacture of fetishes became a sacred
profession, and the men who were thought to fashion the best ones
became the professional holy men of the period, the priests.
At first, idols were used to drive away the evil spirits, and then, the
conception changed to one of attracting the good spirits to man. From
the individual fetish man passed to tribal ones, which in their first form
were huge boulders and trees.
As the primitive mind gained cunning, it slyly smeared the surface of
the idol with oily substances, hoping that the spirit, like some wild
beast, would come and lick, be gratified, and remain in the idol. When
some favorable signs denoted that a good spirit had entered into the
idol, it was regularly smeared with oils and then blood, in the hope that
the spirit would be pleased sufficiently to remain there permanently. As
time went on, it became a custom, a rite, and the spirit having
performed to the satisfaction of the tribe, ways were invented to
manifest their gratitude. Instead of smearing the idol with blood, it was
thought more fitting that an animal be killed and offered to the good
spirit contained within the idol. In this manner arose the beginning of
"sacrifice." It was at this time, when man began to persuade the idols or
spirits to do things for his benefit that religion began.
Slowly, slowly, down through the ages, as the mind of man progressed,

his self-made religious conceptions advanced. He now worshiped idols,
and these idols were his gods. The Celts, the Babylonians, the Greeks,
the Romans, all had their idols. All were certain that their gods were
the true ones, and that the others were all inferior and even false gods.
But, is the modern worshipper who is contemptuous of the ancients
very different from them?
The centuries pass by, and in their wake is man's self-conceived
religion. Now, some men take the prerogative in the manufacture of
religion, and there evolve Brahmanism, Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism,
Confucianism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism, all inspired, all
supernatural, and with their myriads of followers who believed and still
believe that theirs is the only true creed.
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