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Chapter 14 



Living in a World of Change 



HAT has the idea of evolution done to the com- 

 mon thought? We should glance first at the 

 prevailing outlook in the middle ages and earlier. 

 During these periods the world appeared to most people as 

 a place of inscrutable mystery and fear. For most people 

 the world was run by a multitude of imps and goblins, ca- 

 pricious and irresponsible, petty and jealous, influenced by 

 the trivialities that loom large in the mind of a simple child. 

 Most of the inhabitants of this country and of European 

 countries today have perhaps grown beyond that level of 

 " belief." By the end of the Fifteenth Century Europe was 

 made up of Christian countries, in which official religions 

 prescribed a theory of the world and of its workings. Tech- 

 nically, these official religions were monotheistic. That is, 

 they presupposed a single controlling deity as the source of 

 the universe and of its destiny. In practice there was still 

 a great deal of polytheism. That is, large numbers of the 

 populace continued to fear a multitude of mysterious forces, 

 and to seek personal help from several supernatural powers. 

 And these powers were for the most part conceived as per- 

 sons, not merely metaphorical personifications. 



Toward Order 



We like to contrast our outlook and insight with the 

 absurdities that filled the minds of our ancestors. That 

 yields the satisfaction of intimating a certain superiority on 

 our part. The superstitions of the ancients, however, mean 

 hardly more than ignorance — a lack of such special knowl- 



