RELIGION AND ETHICS
Those who have noticed little children playing contentedly in the
early evening, when one of their number suggested the change of
amusement to the game of bugoo-bear, could not have failed to see the
almost immediate alteration in the infantile mind from the most happy
placidity to the most tense apprehension. Although the lights still
burned at their utmost brilliancy and the game was entered into with
perfect good faith by the children, nevertheless it was a matter of
but a short while until all were thoroughly scared and expected the
bugoo-bear to appear in any dark or shadowed place. This phenomenon
has always seemed to be a very close analogy to just what happens
with grown persons who are working up a religious fervor. Just as the
darker the room is, the more apprehensive the children become, so the
deeper the ignorance of natural science is which engulfs the mature
human individuals, directly in that proportion will be their capacity
for religious fanaticism. The consciousness of man that he is dependent
upon some supernatural being, has been and always will be the only
basis upon which religious belief can be postulated. If we insert
the idea of natural causes in place of the supernatural being in the
foregoing sentence, then instead of a religious belief, we have the
foundation for a system of ethics.
The dissemination of scientific knowledge in the last century has
done more to break down religious caste and hatred than all other
influences combined previous to that time. The authority of age has
been appreciably lessened, the significance of miracles as certain
proofs of divinity on the part of religious teachers has changed, the
reasonableness or expediency of any system of vicarious atonement
as a means of attaining either spiritual or moral "grace," and the
realization of humanity in general that the individual expiates his
physical crimes by bodily suffering, and his moral sins by the
tortures of a guilty conscience, are all verifications of what has
occurred in the spiritual and moral world recently. The enormous
strides made in proselyting by monism within the last few decades,
speak volumes upon this topic. The statement has recently been made, as
the result of an ecclesiastical census conducted by one of the largest
Christian denominations, that less than twenty-five per cent. of our
people in this country regularly attend church service. The demand
of the age for demonstration does not well accord with the credulity
insisted upon by the powerful religious organizations of to-day.
Religious beliefs are of necessity mere matters of superstition, and
are based very largely upon the tendency of the human mind to bow
down before authority, particularly, if it is insolent, and the power
of a falsehood to put on the appearance of a truth, if it can but
gain sufficient repetition. "Credidi propter quod, locutus sum." The
brazenness of this in much of the literature of religious revelation,
particularly in the Hebrew, Christian, and Mohammedan collections, is
most readily apparent to the most cursory critic. In fact, no strictly
religious literature at the time of the supremacy of the belief is free
from it.
It is true of all religions that into the warp of superstition the woof
of a code of ethics is interwoven. In the earlier stages of culture
it has long been one of the accepted criteria of any faith whether
its accompanying science of duty, as developed in it, was relatively
good or bad. That there is a logical connection between these two
elements no one can doubt, but this inter-relation is more frequently
accidental than it is essential. Facts show that the instituters and
early promulgators of all of the great religions of which we have
knowledge, have seized with avidity upon any moral stipulations which
were necessary for their locality or condition of life, and that if
capital could be made out of these peculiar provincial circumstances,
they were not slow in coining them to their advantage. An instance
of this will be readily recognized in the inculcating within their
tenets such doctrines as the existence of an omnipresent and omniscient
deity, whose favor may be won by supplication, humility, or sacrifice,
or that of a personal immortality for each individual in a pleasurable
condition as one of the rewards for belief and an endless existence of
pain for its lack. As the number of converts increased, there has, in
almost every case, grown up a powerful and wealthy sacerdotal class
having special privileges. This cult of priesthood is soon corrupted
by idleness and luxury, and the great influence which is attached to
it by virtue of its vocation, has sooner or later been largely exerted
to keep its parishioners under its control by means of ignorance and
superstition. No matter how pure and sincere may have been its founder,
or how elevating or altruistic its doctrines might be, practically
all religions have suffered from the infamy and gross selfishness of
their priesthoods, who by their short-sighted policies of opposing all
adjustment of its dogma to newly-discovered facts, or their advancement
along with contemporary civilizations, have but precipitated their
downfall. From one to another of the gods of heaven has the "sceptre of
power and the purple of authority" passed with advancing ages, until it
is no wonder that thinking people are asking, "Who will next occupy the
old throne?"
The earliest religion of which we have any knowledge was that
prevailing in the Valley of the Nile over seven, and perhaps as long
as ten, thousand years ago. The origin of these Egyptian Aborigines
we do not know--some have supposed that they came from a mixture of
conquering Lybians, with the early dwellers along the lower courses of
the river. Time has effaced all record of any religious texts which
they may have possessed, yet we can tell from the manner in which
they buried their dead, when not dismembered, with their faces always
to the south, and lying upon their left side, while the corpse was
wrapped in the skins of gazelles or in grass mats--that their ideas of
a future life were tolerably well-defined. The civilization of this
people was modified by the arrival of the conquering immigrants who
probably came from Asia, either by way of Arabia or across the Red
Sea, and who, in turn, engrafted upon the religion of the conquered
certain tenets of their own, and in this way formed a new system, the
records of which we find in "The Book of the Dead," which is not only
the oldest book extant, but also the most antiquated collection of
sacred literature of which we have knowledge. Exploration in Egyptian
burying-grounds plainly shows that between the time of the disposition
of the dead, as first noted, and the date of the supremacy of the "Book
of the Dead," that there existed civilizations in this valley who no
longer buried their dead whole, with crude attempts at embalming with
bitumen, but who burned their corpses more or less completely, and
threw the remaining bones into a shallow pit. After this came a race
who dismembered the bodies of their dead, burying the hands and feet
in one place, while the trunk and the rest of the arms and legs were
placed in a grave, separate again from the head. It is impossible, of
course, to even guess at the length of time necessary to effect such
changes in the customs of people, but we do know that at least seventy
centuries ago the ritual contained in the "Book of the Dead" was
generally accepted. And from this remote pre-dynastic time down to the
seventh century after Christ, mummifying was, in some form or other,
continually practiced in the Valley of the Nile. At the earliest time
of which we have record, we find the Egyptians worshiping a number of
autochthonic gods, of whom Osiris and his sister Isis were the chief.
Their ideas of the deities were entirely anthropomorphic. Osiris having
lived and suffered death and mutilation, and having been embalmed, was
by his sisters, Isis and Nephthys, provided with a series of charms,
by which he was protected from all evil and harm in the future life,
and who had recited certain magical formulæ which had, in the world to
come, given him everlasting life. It is certain that the practice of
this belief changed in minor details many times as the semi-barbarous
and sensual North Africans were subjected to the influence of their
more highly moral and spiritual Asiatic conquerors. Their tombs changed
from shallow pits to brick sepulchres, and these were in turn replaced,
by those who could afford it, by pyramids--the most substantial
form of human architecture left by historic races. As showing the
height of the civilization reached by the ancient Egyptians, it is
worthy of note that the great Pyramid of Cheops is not only the most
gigantic tomb ever built, but that it was designed to serve also as an
astronomical observatory, and that its Orientation for this purpose is
very accurate, when we consider that the Egyptians had no transits or
other instruments such as we have now. Consequently, in the location of
this work, they were forced to either use the shadow or polar method,
and the latter being the most accurate was, in fact, selected by
them. Had they known anything of the refraction of light as it passes
from space into our atmosphere, and been able to make the correction
for horizontal parallax, their location would have been accurate.
The purposes of their astronomical observations, as made from this
pyramid, were astrological undoubtedly, as the completion of the tomb
shut off the galleries which had been so carefully located.
According to the "Book of the Dead," the human economy was composed
of nine different integral parts, all of which, except the "ren" or
name, are comprised broadly within our idea of _body_ and _soul_. The
judgment of each individual took place after death, before the tribunal
of Osiris, and in his Hall of Judgment. Here the soul, stripped of all
chance of deceit or subterfuge, was forced to make, as his address
to Osiris, the justly famous "Negative Confession," and the truth
being apparent to Osiris and his forty-two associates, judgment was
given impartially and upon an absolute basis of fact. The standard of
ethics demanded of the individual can be realized from the fragments
quoted from this address:--"In truth I have come to thee and I have
brought right and truth to thee, and I have destroyed wickedness for
thee. I have not brought forward my name for exaltation to honors.
I have had no association with worthless men. I have not uttered
evil words against any man. I have not stirred up strife. I have not
judged hastily. I have not made haughty my voice, nor behaved with
insolence. I have not ill-treated servants. I have not caused harm to
be done to the servant by his master. I have not made to be the first
consideration of each day that excessive labor should be performed for
me. I have not oppressed the members of my family. I have not defrauded
the oppressed one of his property. I have neither filched away land,
nor have I encroached upon the fields of others. I have not diminished
from the bushel, nor have I misread the pointer of the scales nor added
to the weights. I have not carried away the milk from the mouths of
children. I have caused no man to suffer hunger. I have made no one
to weep. I have not acted deceitfully. I have not uttered falsehood.
I have not wrought evil in the place of right and truth. I have not
committed theft. I have not done violence to any man. I have done no
murder. I have ordered no murder done for me. I have not caused pain.
I have not done iniquity. I have not defiled the wife of any man. I
have not committed fornication, nor have I lain with any man. I have
not done evil to mankind. I have not committed any sin against purity.
I am pure. I am pure. I am pure." Those who were condemned before this
tribunal were instantly devoured by the "Eater of the Dead," while
the good were admitted into the realm of Osiris to enjoy everlasting
happiness and life.
We turn now from the Valley of the Nile to that of the Tigris and
Euphrates, lying about one thousand miles eastward. Here we find the
home of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires, and interwoven with their
religion we find many of the old myths which, in a corrupted form,
occur in our own Bible. As the papyri of Egypt have been forced to give
up their secrets, so have the clay cylinders of Mesopotamia. These,
now lying in the British and Berlin Museums, tell in a purer and more
primitive form than that found in the Old Testament, the story of the
fall of man, and upon an old cylinder seal we have it illustrated,
apple tree, woman, serpent, and all. The story of the deluge is also
there taken from the library of Sardanapalus at Nineveh, just as it was
written upon the cylinder more than two thousand years before Christ.
All that is required to duplicate this deluge as far as the valley of
Mesopotamia is concerned, is a tremendous downpour of water, coincident
with a tornado blowing up the Persian Gulf, just as some thirty years
ago, in the delta of the Ganges, nearly a quarter of a million persons
perished during a like phenomenon in the Bay of Bengal. Here also we
find the creation myth, and how after a terrible struggle with the
engulfing waters, Marduk finally cut them in twain, and out of one-half
made the roof of heaven, while out of the other half he made the
earth. Then, too, out of mingled clay and celestial blood, he made the
first two human beings, man and woman. The Babylonians and Assyrians
believed in the immortality of the soul, dependent, of course, upon
the mode in which it lived here. Thus, we find the fifth, sixth, and
seventh commandments just as we have them in the Pentateuch, together
with injunctions of humanity, charity, mercy, and love on the part of
the follower of Babel. Speaking the truth and keeping one's word, as
well as freedom from deceit, are also commanded, and infringements
of these were regarded as sins punishable by human afflictions and
ailments of all sorts, including death. Their idea of heaven was fairly
well-developed, very greatly in excess of that of the Hebrews. Their
heaven was a place of delight and ease, while Sheol was a place full
of thirst and discomfort. It is also interesting to know that the Jews
got their ideas of angels from the Babylonians, with whom, as far as we
know, this idea was original, inasmuch as we find no mention of them in
the Egyptian religious system.
Considering now the civilization which existed in the valleys of
Mesopotamia from five to six thousand years ago, the first thing which
arrests our attention is their knowledge of astronomy. In place of
the Egyptian pyramid, with its sides Oriented toward the cardinal
points, we find the ziggurat pointing the angles instead. This one
fact shows that Chaldea did not borrow from Egypt, but developed her
science independently of her western neighbor. The planets were all
known and named, eclipses were foretold with accuracy, and to Accadia
we owe not only our observance of Sunday, but our angular duodecimal
scale. What length of time must have been required to admit of such a
highly-developed civilization as this, with such advanced religious and
ethical ideas, is beyond the faintest conjecture. Far more remote than
that time, however, were the first settlements on the alluvial plains
by the rude aborigines of the highlands.
On the plateau of Iran, in Central Asia, we find the location of the
oldest known habitation of the Aryan race. Here, in the earliest
twilight of our history, we find tribes of human beings who possessed
well-developed religious and ethical ideas, and whose descendants,
moving toward the southeast and into the valleys of the Himalayas,
formulated the hymns which, when compiled, constitute the Vedas or the
sacred literature of the Aryan Indians, while the portion who remained
behind, became the progenitors of the Aryan Iranians whose religious
lore we find in that wonderful collection known as the Avesta. In these
two literatures, both of which are worthy of the deepest investigation
and maturest deliberation, we have, so far as is known, the oldest idea
of a non-anthropomorphic deity. His attributes with the Indian were so
subdivided and abstracted as to allow this one god essence to almost
fill a panthenon. Their worship took the form of adoration for the
striking grandeurs of nature, each of whom they regarded as a separate
personal consciousness possessed of superhuman powers. Their religion
seems to the superficial investigator to be but an exceptionally
pure form of pantheism, but this is not, in fact, the case, since
philologists to-day recognize that the overwhelming spontaneous
impulse which forces the barbaric human mentality to give utterance
to its deepest emotions, is a certain index of a crude monotheistic
conception. It is Brahma who is the universal self-existent soul,
and who comprises, in his infinity, both the god and the adorer.
Of course, as time went on, these ideas became more gross, until,
with the introduction of caste, the ancient Vedic religion had lost
much of its beauty and purity. The religious system had become both
dogmatic and pretentious, and particularly insolent in its authority
with the rise in power of the sacerdotal class, the Brahmans. While
the Vedic religion is imbued with a spirit of strong belief in the
efficacy of sacrifice and prayer, we find that this steadily increases
in domination as we approach modern times. To all, except the Sudras
or Serfs, a course of life conduct is prescribed consisting of four
stages, _viz._: as a religious student, as a householder, as an
anchorite, and last, as a religious mendicant. Corresponding to these,
there were four sacred debts, _viz._: that due to the gods and paid by
worship; that due to the ancient sages and discharged by Vedic study;
that which he owes to his manes, and which he relieves himself of by
the perpetuation of his name in a son; and last, that which he owes to
mankind, and which demands his incessantly practicing kindness and
hospitality. They believed in the immortality of the soul and through
metempsychosis, in its reward or punishment, according to its existence
here.
In the sixth century before Christ, there lived in India a member of
the Brahman class who was destined to more than restore Brahmanism to
its pristine purity. Gautama Buddha was born as the son of a local
ruler and his wife, whose conception was accomplished by her falling
into a trance and dreaming that the future Buddha had become a superb
white elephant, who, walking around her and striking her upon the
right side with a lotus flower, entered her womb. Such is the Hindoo
myth. This reformer altogether denied the existence of the soul, as an
entity or substance possessing immortality in the individual sense,
and he taught that the soul's future happiness in the abstract was
entirely dependent upon its performance while here, as distinguished
from any recollection or effect of its previous existences. He denied
the authority of the Veda and the efficacy of prayer--in fact, his
creed is best shown by a quotation from his gospel: "Rituals have no
efficacy, prayers are but vain repetitions, and incantations have no
saving power. But to abandon covetousness and lust, to become free
from all evil passions, and to give up all hatred and ill-will; that
is the right sacrifice and the true worship." This is the kernel of
the pure Buddhistic belief, and this declaration at once reduces his
system from a religious to a purely ethical one. Excepting the myth of
his conception, his life was a perfectly natural one. Nothing could
be more real than his discovery of sorrow and misery, and his inquiry
after its cause; nothing can be more touching than his parting from
his wife and son, whom he loved so much that he could not hazard the
pleasure of a last farewell. And under the stress of this situation, we
are particularly told that he was human enough to give way to tears.
No ethics could be higher in the aggregate than his--not once, but
time and again, does he speak thus: "Indulge in lust but little, and
lust, like a child, will grow. Charity is rich in returns; charity is
the greatest wealth, for though it scatters, it brings no repentance.
Better than sovereignty over the earth, better than living in heaven,
better than lordship over all the worlds, is the fruit of holiness. For
seeking true religion, there is never a time that can be inopportune.
The present reaps what the past has sown, and the future is the
product of the present. Far better is it to revere the truth than try
to appease the gods by the shedding of blood. What love can a man
possess who believes that the destruction of life will atone for evil
deeds? Can a new wrong expiate old wrongs? And can the slaughter of
an innocent victim take away the sins of mankind? This is practicing
religion by the neglect of moral conduct. The sensual man is the slave
of his passions, and pleasure-seeking is degrading and vulgar. But to
satisfy the necessities of life is not evil. To keep the body in good
health is a duty, for otherwise we shall not be able to trim the lamp
of wisdom, and keep our mind strong and clear. There is no savior in
the world except in truth; there is no immortality except in truth.
The truth is best as it is, have faith in the truth and live it. Not
by birth does one become an outcast; not by birth does one become a
Brahman; by deeds one becomes an outcast and by deeds one becomes a
Brahman." What could more strongly emphasize the position of Buddha in
regard to the infamy of the caste system, as it has been developed in
India, than the parable of the low-caste girl at the well who had been
asked by the disciple Ananda for a drink. This girl, seeing that he was
a Brahman, or member of the highest caste, replied that she could not
give him even a drink of water without contaminating his holiness. To
this, Ananda promptly replied: "I ask not for caste, but for water."
And when she came to Buddha with her heart full of gratitude and love
for Ananda, he spoke to her in the following language: "Verily, there
is great merit in the generosity of a king when he is kind to a slave,
but there is greater merit in the slave when, ignoring the wrongs which
he suffers, he cherishes kindness and good-will to all mankind. He will
cease to hate his oppressors, and even when powerless to resist their
usurpation will, with compassion, pity their arrogance and supercilious
demeanor. Blessed are thou, Prakrita, for although you are of low
caste, you will be a model for noblemen and noblewomen. You are of low
caste, but Brahmans will learn a lesson from you. Swerve not from the
path of justice and righteousness, and you will outshine the royal
glory of queens."
Very little wonder is it that, from North Hindustan, the doctrines
of Buddha soon largely prevailed over Central, Southern, and Eastern
Asia. Of the almost numberless sects into which Buddhism is divided,
all go back for their inspiration to his teachings. In fact, he left
little for his disciples to do in the matter of enunciating a pure
and virtuous system of ethics, so thoroughly did he cover the ground
himself. When we remember that Confucius was living in China at almost
the identical time that Buddha was preaching in Hindustan, we cannot
help but wonder at the strangeness of the occurrence--both enunciating
a philosophy or system of ethics which was destined to affect the
conduct of so large a portion of the human race. As we read Lao-Tse's
injunction to "requite hatred with goodness," it seems that he must
have drawn his inspiration from an Indian source.
We return now to the location in Central Asia, and to the remote
antiquity from which we digressed. At the same time the Indians in the
southeast have been developing their religion, the Iranians have not
remained quiescent. Their great sage, Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, had
been teaching his dualism--in many respects the most subtle religious
philosophy ever promulgated. From what little of the Zend lore that
has escaped the ravages of time, we are able to-day to trace the
outlines of a religion and philosophy based upon primal polarities.
Ahura is to Zoroaster the great Life-Spirit-Lord, the Great Creator,
the Great Wise One. His six characteristics are the fundamental laws
of a righteous universe; simple, clear, and pure. Ahura creates the
world during six periods: in the first, heaven; in the second, water;
in the third, earth; in the fourth, plants; in the fifth, animals;
and in the sixth, man. All of the human race is descended from a
primitive pair. There is a deluge, and one man is selected to save
and protect representatives of each species so that the earth may be
repeopled with a better race. Zoroaster questions Ahura on the Mount
of Holy Conversations, and receives from him answers. So far, the
parallel between Zoroastrianism and Judaism is complete. The difference
now appears, for the former held that the world was to last four
periods--during the first two, Ahura has complete authority. Then comes
Ahriman, the self-existent evil-principle, and their conflict fills
the third period. The fourth period, which opens with the advent of
Zoroaster, ends with the downfall of Ahriman, and the resurrection of
the soul for a future life. It is entirely within the power of the
individual as to whether he wishes to come under the power of the Good
or Evil Spirit, and with whom he chooses to ally himself. But the
struggle is incessant, and watchfulness must always be maintained.
So much for the religion--now for the ethics. To the Zoroastrian,
the natural and normal in life is not derided and scorned, nor is
woman looked upon as "a necessary evil," as is the case in Buddhism,
Christianity, and Mohammedanism. Here is a quotation from the Zend
Avesta from the mouth of Ahura himself: "Verily, I say unto you, the
man who has a wife is far above him who lives in continence; he who
keeps a house is far above him who has none; he who has children is far
above him who is childless; he who has riches is far above him who has
none." If we can use the moral code of the only remaining Zoroastrians
in the world to-day, the Parsees, as a criterion to judge by, we must
acknowledge that no religion enjoys a purer and more perfect course of
conduct. Dr. Haug tells us that the following are strictly denounced
by its code: Murder, infanticide, poisoning, adultery on the part
of men as well as of women, sorcery, sodomy, cheating in weight and
measure, breach of promise, regardless of to whom made, deception of
any kind, false covenants, slander and calumny, perjury, dishonest
appropriation of wealth, taking bribes, keeping back the wages of
laborers, misappropriation of religious property, removal of a boundary
stone, turning people out of their property, maladministration and
defrauding, apostasy, heresy, and rebellion. Besides these, there are
a number of special precepts relating to the enforcement of sanitary
regulations, kindness to animals, hospitality to strangers, respect to
superiors, and help to the poor and needy. The following are especially
condemned--abandoning the husband, not acknowledging the children on
the part of the father, cruelty toward subjects on the part of a ruler,
avarice, laziness, illiberality, egotism, and envy. Here we find a
system of religion whose predominating symbolism was the worship of
fire as the nearest human concept of Ahura, and well it might be,
for those primitive people who had so sacredly to cherish it. In the
Greek mythology, Prometheus was inconceivably tortured for filching
from heaven the divine fire and carrying it to mortals. But according
to the Zoroastrian philosophy, Ahura has placed all good within
the reach of man, and it is for him to choose whether he will avail
himself of this or become a slave of Ahriman. It seems strange that
from Bactria, either from the old Mazdaism or through Zoroaster, the
world should have conceived its only monotheistic conception reasonably
free from anthropomorphism, and whose associated code of ethics was
so reasonable, firm and pure. There is in Zoroastrianism no thought
of dogmatic bigotry any more than there is in ancient Buddhism, and
its philosophy of primitive polarity well corresponds with what modern
science has taught us within the last five decades. Both of these
systems are meditative rather than militant, and, consequently, have
not exercised the influence over the destiny of the human race which
Judaism has.
In the consideration of the Jewish religion and its descendants,
Christianity and Mohammedanism, we are face to face with the most
warlike and combative monotheism which history has recorded. In the
earlier form, and as in the Hebrew worship of to-day, Jehovah shares
his authority with no one--in the Christian system, God and Christ
are equally powerful, while with Islam it would seem that Mahomet
had slightly the balance of power, notwithstanding the oft-repeated
declaration that "there is no God but Allah." Here we have the idea
of a chosen people of God carried to its logical conclusion; the
jealousy of Jehovah being in no wise an efficient operative cause for
the terrible butcheries of men, women, and children, such as we have
described in the Old Testament, as having befallen the enemies of the
Hebrews when they were victorious. This wild and fanatical worship of
a suspicious and revengeful God, although it called for the waging of
countless wars upon his supposed orders, and even for the immolation
upon the sacrificial altar of one's own children; yet it did not
promise, until the rise of the Pharisees into potent influence; the
pleasure of a personal immortality for his followers, or the punishment
by endless torture for his non-adherents. The effect of the selfish
idea of God-ownership we see inherited by Christianity with the ancient
heredity qualification changed to one of faith. There can be no
question that the historical Christ was, perhaps, next to Buddha, the
greatest religious reformer whom the world has known, if we accept as a
criterion the number of individuals affected, and the nature of their
work. As the enunciator of a system of ethics, it is impossible to see
how the Jew could be regarded as the equal of the Indian; although
no estimate of Christ can be consistently formed from the St. James
version of the Bible, owing to the many and important interpolations
of recent church enthusiasts. The plan of vicarious atonement is one
of the most immoral doctrines of which the world has a record, and the
contempt for woman which the Hebrew shows is not equalled by Buddha,
although he, too, was filled with that eastern asceticism which looked
with disdain upon intersexual affection. The narrowness and bigotry
which can regard an omnipresent and omniscient deity as working for
the benefit of but a few followers as against the great proportion of
human beings who have passed through an earthly existence entirely in
ignorance of Him, and who, on account of this, have to suffer eternal
torture, has been responsible for no less than ten million murders in
the name of Christ alone, to say nothing of the numberless victims of
war and famine who have perished as a result of the insatiable thirst
of Jehovah, Christ, and Mahomet for more influence in terrestrial
affairs and an augmentation of adherents. The code of ethics prescribed
by the Jewish régime was good--far in advance of that of the greater
portion of their neighbors. But Egypt and Chaldea both played a
very important part in this matter, as we must remember that Hebrew
chronology only places the creation some four thousand years ago,
and we now know that at least three and perhaps five thousand years
previous to the possession of the Garden of Eden by Adam and Eve, the
Valley of the Nile was teeming with a well-developed civilization.
Christianity in the Egyptian City of the Greeks, through Philo, became
deeply imbued with the spirit of Zoroaster, and the aid thus derived
has been of incalculable value to it. The religion of Islam remains
much as Mahomet left it, and it has been, and now is, well suited for
much of the territory over which it has dominion. While its code of
ethics is reasonably high, its conceptions are usually grossly sensual,
and, unfortunately, since shortly after the death of its founder, the
institution of the church and the political organization of the various
countries where it prevails, have both been under the same head, and
are both, consequently, full of corruption.
Before taking up the possibility of a religious conception based
upon the best knowledge we have, there is an interesting point to be
considered. Between the two dates of 650 B. C., and 650 A. D., we have
the work of Buddha, Confucius, Mencius, Christ, Philo, and Mahomet,
as well as a score of lesser lights; in fact, all the great religious
reformers who have been instrumental in shaping the beliefs of the
majority of mankind since their time. And, stranger still, that since
Mahomet, the world has seen no reformer who could wrest a following of
any note from the established religions, although now, with modern
facilities for publication, it would seem to be a much easier task than
formerly. And so it would be, were it not for the dissemination of
knowledge, and the influence of the scientific system which has come
about during the last century, so that now there is not that fanaticism
prevalent concerning religious matters which was so rife at almost all
stages of the world's history until recently. More and more are people
beginning to realize the truth which Pope so well expressed in his
Alexandrine:
"For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight,
His can't be wrong, whose life is in the right."
About 1850 A. D., there began to be felt among scientific men a
possibility that perhaps all of the natural phenomena of which we have
knowledge are so inter-related that all of our observations are but
different views of a few fundamental primary laws. These so-called laws
or statements of facts in their natural order of sequence were always,
and under all conditions, operative in natural affairs, had been quite
thoroughly understood since Humboldt's time. But it remained for
Herbert Spencer in England, and Ernest Haeckel in Germany, to correlate
the vast quantity of facts gained from experiment and observation
along the various lines of scientific research. Particularly has the
latter been a most potent factor in formulating the new and necessarily
predominating theology of the future--a system of belief which is
in accordance with everything which the individual knows, and which
is always ready to accept a new fact upon demonstration, although
its reception may revolutionize even its fundamental concepts. This
doctrine, which has been most aptly termed "monism," stands squarely
upon its basis of "empirical investigation of facts, and the rational
study of their efficient causes." In place of worshiping the trinities
of the old superstitions, it holds for reverence the "good, the true,
and the beautiful" wherever found, and in antithesis to the sacredness
of Sabbath and the church, it holds that for the contemplation of the
objects of its trinity, "all seasons to be summer and all climates
June." While denying the existence of a God outside of Nature, the
freedom of the human will and the possibility of an immortality for
the individual human soul, as usually understood, it does insist
upon the sequence of effect upon cause, and shows that here, in this
earthly existence, we are forced to be virtuous if we would be happy,
and that although we are not completely masters of our fates, yet
it fundamentally lies with us, in the vast majority of cases, to so
conduct our lives that either misery or happiness will result therefrom.
Monistic ethics differ from those of any religious system, from the
fact that the good of all is selected and digested into a code which
looks toward the "greatest good to the greatest number." In doing
this, individual effort is lauded and not proscribed, and altruism
and egotism are developed with equal emphasis. The pleasures of this
life are not forfeited to gain delectation in another, nor is the
"illitative sense" considered a safe guide for conduct. Woman is not
looked upon as fundamentally "unclean," nor is she denied any right
or any privilege which man enjoys. The righteousness of intersexual
love and association is maintained, when in operation within a proper
constraint, and the family is not only the social and political unit,
but the religious as well. Love is held to be more potent than hate,
and justice more beneficial than charity. There is no such thing as
either the forgiveness or remission of sins--the responsibility of
our actions is ours, and ours alone, and can be assumed by no other.
The result is the same whether our acts come through ignorance or
intention--it is for the individual to know before doing.
In the foregoing, a very brief outline of the progress which humanity
has made in historic times in religion and ethics has been attempted,
and, if an interest has been aroused in this subject, its purpose will
have been fulfilled. No matter what creed we hold, we cannot afford to
be bigoted, as simple investigation will show that in many ways we are
but little in advance of our progenitors of seven thousand years ago.
Only in the matter that we have a scientific basis to work upon, and a
vast accumulation of observed facts, have we any reason for pride. And
this has been gained, at almost all times, against every obstacle which
the church, as established at the moment, could bring into potency.