The Profits of Religion, Fifth Edition | Page 9

of the god stood. A
legal decision was an oracle or omen, indicative of the will of the god.
The power thus lodged in the priests of Babylonia and Assyria was
enormous. They virtually held in their hands the life and death of the
people.
And of the business side of this vast religious system:
The temples were the natural depositories of the legal archives, which
in the course of centuries grew to veritably enormous proportions.
Records were made of all decisions; the facts were set forth, and duly
attested by witnesses. Business and marriage contracts, loans and deeds
of sale were in like manner drawn up in the presence of official scribes,
who were also priests. In this way all commercial transactions received
the written sanction of the religious organization. The temples
themselves--at least in the large centres--entered into business relations
with the populace. In order to maintain the large household represented
by such an organization as that of the temple of Enlil of Nippur, that of
Ningirsu at Lagash, that of Marduk at Babylon, or that of Shamash at
Sippar, large holdings of land were required which, cultivated by
agents for the priests, or farmed out with stipulations for a goodly share
of the produce, secured an income for the maintenance of the temple
officials. The enterprise of the temples was expanded to the furnishing
of loans at interest--in later periods, at 20%--to barter in slaves, to
dealings in lands, besides engaging labor for work of all kinds directly
needed for the temples. A large quantity of the business documents
found in the temple archives are concerned with the business affairs of
the temple, and we are justified in including the temples in the large
centres as among the most important business institutions of the
country. In financial or monetary transactions the position of the
temples was not unlike that of national banks....
And so on. We may venture the guess that the learned professor said
more in that last sentence than he himself intended, for his lectures
were delivered in that temple of plutocracy, the University of
Pennsylvania, and paid out of an endowment which specifies that "all

polemical subjects shall be positively excluded!"
#Prayer-wheels#
These priestly empires exist in the world today. If we wish to find them
we have only to ask ourselves:
What countries are making no contribution to the progress of the race?
What countries have nothing to give us, whether in art, science, or
industry?
For example, Gervaise tells us of the Talapoins, or priests of Siam, that
"they are exempted from all public charges, they salute nobody, while
everybody prostrates himself before them. They are maintained at the
public expense." In the same way we read of the negroes of the
Caribbean islands that "their priests and priestesses exercise an almost
unlimited power." Miss Kingsley, in her "West African Studies", tells
us that if we desire to understand the institutions of this district, we
must study the native's religion.
For his religion has so firm a grasp upon his mind that it influences
everything he does. It is not a thing apart, as the religion of the
Europeans is at times. The African cannot say, "Oh, that is all right
from a religious point of view, but one must be practical." To be
practical, to get on in the world, to live the day and night through, he
must be right in the religious point of view, namely, must be on
working terms with the great world of spirits around him. The
knowledge of this spirit world constitutes the religion of the African,
and his customs and ceremonies arise from his idea of the best way to
influence it.
Or consider Henry Savage Lander's account of Thibet:
In Lhassa and many other sacred places fanatical pilgrims make
circumambulations, sometimes for miles and miles, and for days
together, covering the entire distance lying flat upon their bodies....
From the ceiling of the temple hang hundreds of long strips, katas,
offered by pilgrims to the temple, and becoming so many flying prayers

when hung up--for mechanical praying in every way is prominent in
Thibet.... Thus instead of having to learn by heart long and varied
prayers, all you have to do is to stuff the entire prayer-book into a
prayer-wheel,
and revolve it while repeating as fast as you can four words meaning,
"O God, the gem emerging from the lotus-flower." ... The attention of
the pilgrims is directed to a large box, or often a big bowl, where they
may deposit whatever offerings they can spare, and it must be said that
their religious ideas are so strongly developed that they will dispose of
a considerable portion of their money in this fashion.... The Lamas are
very clever in many ways, and have a