THE PLANETARY GODS.
The Terrestrial God.
Why man should claim that the terrestrial God, the God that was created
on this earth, extends his sway beyond the limits of this globe, is not
easily accounted for. It is an assumption that is not at all warranted.
We know that the composition of the planets that belong to the family
of the solar system are the same as that of our own, this earth. All
those worlds seem to be constructed of the same chemical elementary
substances as this globe of ours, and working on the same general
universal plan. That all the planets of the solar system, and the
sun itself, possess the same common characteristics as this earth, is
evident. The planets all move in the same direction round the sun. They
all revolve upon their own axes, and round the sun. They have day and
night, seasons and periods of revolution. They have their atmospheres,
snows, rings, and all the necessary equipments of a planet proper. They
seem to have seas, mountains, valleys, poles, equators, etc.
Some of the planets seem to be in a much higher state of organization
than our own.
Take Saturn, for example, with its series of rings and satellites,
its immense distance from the sun, 886,000,000 miles, moving at the
rate of 22,000 miles per hour, and having a year equal to about 30
years of our globe. He flourishes at a distance from us of about
300,000,000 miles. He has a diameter of 73,000 miles. His volume is
700 times that of the earth, and he receives his light from the sun,
just the same as we do. It is admitted by astronomers that the Saturnal
scenery is most magnificent, and surpasses anything we are familiar
with. The rings form immense arches, which span the sky and shed a
soft radiance around; while in the strange beauty of the night eight
moons in all their different phases, full, new crescent, or gibbous,
light up the starry vault.
We know that the planets are composed of the same elementary substances
as this world whereon we live, that they are also surrounded with
an atmosphere, have water upon them, receive the sun's heat, exhibit
all the peculiar characteristics of this globe of ours, and all the
planets seem to be obeying the same general universal laws.
Can anyone give us a plausible reason why there is no organized
vital matter on our neighboring planets--plants, living creatures,
similar to those found on this terrestrial globe?
If the elementary substances are the same as those that are found
on this earth, and they have a similar sunshine, heat, moisture,
and temperature, all the forces may be presumed to be the same
or similar. There is no reason that the elements should not enter
into organic life of a similar, perhaps either inferior or superior,
organization to that existing on this world? What is to hinder them? It
is certainly possible, therefore probable. May we not assume that it
is both possible and probable? Those on earth who believe that this
globe of ours was especially fitted up for us, made for man only,
are very presumptuous. There was no special forethought for the
adaptation or convenience of creatures like ourselves.
As to the forethought, adaptation, or convenience, the hog, the
elephant, the ass, and the fly enjoy their life just as much as men
do. It is very convenient for them. But not more so than it is for man,
and it is no more convenient for man than it is for the animals. We
are certainly nearer the truth to say that the other planets are
inhabited by beings, races, that may exhibit as much intelligence
as, if not more than, we do on this globe. The conditions of light
and heat may not be the same. The other planets may vary in form and
structure, and have shapes not at all familiar to us. That, however,
does not in any way interfere with the reasonable probability, nay,
certainty, that they are inhabited.
Whether they are inhabited or not, matters little. Yet we may safely
make the inference that these planets are not simply placed in space
for our convenience. May not the inhabitants of Venus, Mercury,
Mars, Flora, Mnemosene, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, etc.,
think that this earth has been created by their respective gods for
their convenience? Have they not as much right to have each of them a
god as this earth is supposed to have? Has not the god of Jupiter as
much right to be proclaimed by a portion of its inhabitants to be the
creator of all the planets, sun, moon, and stars, as this sectarian,
terrestrial God has?
The right to this power, to this prerogative, is as much vested in
the god of Neptune or Saturn, as in this earthly God. Imagine the
god of Saturn complacently smiling at the arrogance of this pigmy of
a terrestrial god. May not the god of Venus have a preëmptory claim
to the godship of this planetary system? Or the god of Uranus, or of
any other of the planets? Or possibly every planet has its god that
acts as superintendent over his own territory, the laws of gravitation
preventing his divinity from leaving his place of abode. Or, perhaps
there are no planetary gods--every solar system may have, perhaps,
only one god, residing on the great sun himself, communicating directly
with all his subject planets by the rays he sends forth. It is not at
all unlikely that perhaps every solar system has its god. And over
these many solar system gods, somewhere in the immensity of space,
a god of immense magnitude may preside. So you may go on multiplying
gods, sub-gods and superior gods, without end.
Where do we find that a man, or a set of men, have a right to arrogate
to themselves the power or privilege to assume that this terrestrial
God has anything at all to say or to dictate on any other planet? This
earthly God has no more right to interfere with the business of Mars
or Mercury than the god of Saturn has a right to interfere with our
earthly affairs.
Should it, however, transpire that any planetary god, whether he comes
from Uranus, or Neptune, or any other planet, should interfere, we who
were made in his image will assemble in the houses we have built for
his sake, for the terrestrial God's sake, and pass resolutions advising
our terrestrial God to say to the other planetary gods: "Hands off,
ye gods, if you please! For the sake of peace and harmony among the
gods of this planetary system, we, representing this terrestrial
God by proxy--since it really makes no great difference in the end
of the great gathering-in of the elementary substances all organic
beings are composed of--we, the organized elements of this earth,
men, animals, plants, etc., more especially the highest organized
beings, men, having a more perfected nervous system, being the elect
of all terrestrial productions, claim the right to speak for our God,
and proclaim to all planetary gods, potentates, majesties, holies of
holies, or their representatives, that they have no right whatsoever
to interfere with our terrestrial management. We can have our little
local pet God or Gods if we desire, so long as our methods do not in
any way inconvenience them."
Let it be taken for granted that the same, elementary substances are
found (of which we have evidence) in the sun and all the planets,
and probably in the stars we see; that their gaseous fluids and solid
substances are of similar nature to the elements known to us; and that
they also receive the same sun's heat (or the distant stars may receive
light and heat from some other suns), is it not more than likely that
the conditions produced by the contact of these elements with the sun's
heat, may resemble those we are familiar with? If there is heat there
must be motion, there must be friction, there must be consumption
and expenditure of heat, also expansion and contraction. If these
forces exist, other forces necessarily must also exist, as cold from
absence of heat, dynamic force, electric and magnetic forces. We may
readily suppose that there are currents of air. Water may be agitated
by the wind. If atmospheres surround these planets there is only one
source of heat that can keep them in a gaseous state, and that is
the sun. Heat from the same source keeps the Oxygen and the Hydrogen
fluid. If evaporation and consolidation exist why should there not
be aqueous vapor, rain, etc.? We must concede that the elements
known as Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Carbon are found in these
distant planets. We cannot be far wrong in supposing that there are
carbonic acid, ammonia, and maybe other combinations. Atoms certainly
must exist, and molecules (a drop of water is a molecule). There
may also be conductions of heat, of molecular motion. What then is
to hinder the evolution of phenomena on these distant planets being
regulated by laws very similar to the laws of this earth--radiation and
absorption of heat, combustion and explosion, tension and velocity of
the various elements, under peculiar circumstances favoring all these
conditions? That elements wherever found possess the same physical
properties when brought under the same influence of heat and moisture,
there can be no doubt, whether they are farther removed, or nearer to
the contact of the sun's rays. It is a fact, a well-established fact,
that different substances require varying degrees of temperature to
reduce them to a liquid, gaseous, or solid condition, and no matter
where the temperature is produced the result will be the same. If,
for example, a temperature can be procured on the surface of Uranus,
or Saturn, sufficient to melt iron, lead, or silver, these metallic
substances will melt at Uranus or Saturn as quickly as on the earth's
surface. The laws regulating radiation, absorption, dispersion, or
contraction, or any other phase the elementary substances may assume,
under heat or pressure, etc.--these laws will hold good on any of
the planets just as well as on this terrestrial planet.
It is therefore far from unreasonable to presume that the organizable
elements may have assumed a vitality on the distant planets, evolved
and developed creatures in accordance with known laws, or laws that
are still unknown to us. Because it is perfectly natural for these
substances to organize themselves into life, under a certain degree of
temperature, moisture, and electricity, when these necessary elements
are present--as natural as that oxygen and hydrogen make water, or
that the sun's heat sets all the elementary substances into a state
of activity.
We have no reason to doubt that these planets, or even the sun,
have not their own vital products just as well as this earth. These
vital products may be of low grade, or of a very highly organized
nature. We may assume, without fear of any great error, that wherever
there are air and water there is life. Because if there is heat it is
a sun's heat, otherwise there could not be air and water. If there
is a sun's heat, atmosphere, and water, there is certainly life,
lowly or highly developed.
The degree of organic development depends on the age of the
planet--whether it has been in existence a few millions of years more
or a few millions of years loss. These organic forms may have advanced
to any degree of perfection and possess qualities like or unlike our
own, or they may still exist in a very primitive state of evolution.
Let it be distinctly understood that on the degree of organic
development depends whether they have reached our height of perfection
of nervous development, or the development of a substance capable
of performing functions similar to the brain substance animals
are endowed with on this earth, with physiological action the same
or similar--whether undergoing gradual changes, and accumulating
experience, they may have arrived at that degree of perfection to be
capable of thinking and reflecting, may have acquired understanding
of a nature possessing all the fear, wonder, and ignorance of certain
states of nervous development, where the ideas are just forming and
imagination barely assuming form. They may, I say, have begun evolving
their gods, or images representing the same, or may have reached that
state of perfection that every creature is endowed with such powers,
understanding, and reasoning, acquired by millions of years of training
and education, that they constitute gods in themselves.
Or the creatures inhabiting these planets may be in a condition
like that of creatures many, many ages past upon earth--may have no
knowledge of gods or God, but are undergoing the necessary evolutionary
changes that will ultimately bring them to that happy elysium, when
they will be capable to produce their God or gods, as we have done
on this earth.
Why is it not possible that a higher order of beings inhabiting Saturn
are at this moment employing instruments in order to ascertain the
constitution and condition of this terrestrial globe, speculating
on the probability whether this earth is inhabited or not? They may
have positive knowledge that this planet has an atmosphere several
hundred miles in depth. They may know its size, diameter, its
distance from the sun, and that this planet revolves in an ellipse
as the planet Saturn does. They may also know that the elements are
of the same nature; and that there are mountains, seas, an equator,
a north and a south pole, but only one moon. Looking at this planet
as a star of this solar system, of perhaps the third or the fourth
magnitude, nothing compared with their own, either in size, moons,
belts, or other important features, these higher organized beings
on Saturn may be able to behold worlds beyond themselves far more
vast than their own, and regard this planet, Venus, Mercury, etc.,
as very insignificant affairs.
Why may they not have appliances, modes of travel or communication,
as far removed in intelligence from our highest order of beings,
as the difference between a frog and the pope?
We have no reason to exclude any supposition, however wild and
extravagant, as to the conditions of other planets. It is not entirely
imaginary. Inferences may be drawn from what we know, and deductions
made from our practical experience. This problem is safer to speculate
on, having a solid basis to start with. Those who believe in the
actuality of an existing God have not a thing to base his existence
on, except the natural functions of the brain.
But if we concede that this earth has a God, what right have we to
assume that each other planet has not a god of its own? We have no
evidence to the contrary. Who dares to state positively that they
have not a god? Why should this insignificant terrestrial planet God
presume, or persons for him, that he controls and governs planetary
bodies hundreds of times larger, and perhaps far more important,
than this small solar system?
How do we know that the inhabitants of other planets have not had
angels, saints, and saviors? How do we know that they have not
had beings who pretended to know all about their god, and were as
brutal, as savage, and as demented as some of the persons figuring
in scripture, or the tyrannical, bloody papists of the Dark Ages?
The imagination of man supplied us with Gods or a God on earth;
the imagination is justified in supplying other planets with a god
or gods. The god of Jupiter, Mars, or Saturn, etc., may with as
much force and propriety say, "I am that I am; I am the great I am,
the creator of all things. You, Planet Earth, may be a little older,
riper, more solidified, have a solid crust, yet remember our god is
just as good as yours, and better. You have only one moon--a fossil
world, a mere cinder. And, moreover, our god is fourteen hundred times
larger than yours, because our globe is that much larger. Our globe
has a diameter of ninety thousand miles. And we have four satellites,
or moons. Our largest is as big as your whole earth. Therefore, it
is ridiculous for you to claim superiority. As to my neighbor Saturn,
with his eight moons and belts, his god smiles at your presumption. I,
the god of Jupiter, agree with the great god of Saturn and others,
that your terrestrial affected greatness is too ridiculous to be
worthy of our serious consideration. In fact, it is absurd for your
earthly godship to claim to have made the sun that great luminary
that gives us all heat, light, and life."
Let us go but one step farther into space to show the fallacy of the
assumption that this terrestrial God created all planets, stars,
etc. At the present time it is considered that the star Alpha (a)
Centauri in the southern hemisphere is the nearest to the earth. Its
distance is more than 200,000 times that of the earth from the sun,
or twenty trillions of miles. Light would require about four and
a half years to travel this enormous distance. The stars which we
see at such immense distances are suns. The vast distance at which
the stars are known to be, precludes the thought of their shining,
like the planets or the moon, by reflecting back the light of our
sun. They must be self-luminous, and are doubtless each a center of
a system of planets and satellites.
Our sun is but a star. As we see only the suns of these distant
systems, so their inhabitants see only the sun of our system, and
that as a small star.
Arrogant, conceited humanity, with an unbounded assurance and
self-confidence, mixed with profound ignorance, have the impudence
to claim that their terrestrial God created all the stars, suns,
and planetary systems that are so far away in space that the eye of
man cannot behold them--no, not even with the strongest instrument
yet made.
We may be compared to maggots on a big cheese, crawling over its
surface; they may with equal propriety claim that their cheese is the
only cheese ever created, and that it was made for their own special
use, and that all other cheeses were made only for their benefit. Some
of the maggots might equally claim that there was only one God--the man
who made the cheese. That is, that man, the maggot's god, made the cow
that gave the milk that produced the cheese whereon the maggot dwelt.
Let every planet have its God,
And every God its planet.
Much mystery lies in the word,
You simply have to scan it.
Let every man his own God make,
God in man, pure and elect,
Let common sense and reason wake!
Knowledge, truth, makes man perfect.
Go search your God through depths of space
On suns and stars infinite.
The mind expands to every place.
To distance without limit.
If you don't find the God you seek
Search within yourselves. Perchance,
You'll find your God, quite good and meek,
But not in your ignorance.