I40 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



asks me to account for the existence of " the Christians in 

 tropical America, not to mention the flourishing churches in 

 Uganda and South Madras, or contrariwise the Muhammadan 

 races such as the Tartars or Kirghis on the mid-Asian plains. 

 Buddhism, evolved amongst Indian races in a tropical climate, 

 yet now receives the adoration almost solely of Mongoloid 

 peoples, the bulk of whom live under temperate skies." 



Is Mr. Houghton really serious when he would have us 

 believe that what is called Christianity is the same everywhere 

 and never undergoes any modification, and that the same holds 

 true of Muhammadanism and Buddhism ? Does he really hold 

 that the Christianity of North Germany is the same as that of 

 Italy, and that Scotch Presbyterianism is identical with Spanish 

 Roman Catholicism? He would fain have his readers believe 

 that when Negroes take over Christianity from any Christian 

 sect, they discard completely all their inherited beliefs and 

 assimilate every idea of their Christian teachers ! Yet the facts 

 are all against this. Any open-minded missionary — and there 

 are many such— will tell him that there is very great difficulty 

 in eliminating the substratum of old beliefs and immemorial 

 customs. This need not surprise us. The early Christian 

 Fathers had the same difficulties. In the Christianity of every 

 country there is a solid element derived from pre-Christian 

 times. In order to comply with the feelings of their neophytes 

 and to keep them from relapsing, the Christian Fathers had to 

 make the birthday of Christ coincide with that of Mithras and 

 with the ancient midwinter festivals, such as the Saturnalia. 

 In the so-called Christianity of Mexico there are numerous 

 Aztec and pre-Aztec survivals, and the same holds true of the 

 Christianity of the Maoris of New Zealand. The schisms in 

 the early Christian Church were due in no small degree to the 

 different religious ideas amongst the various races, Jews, Greeks, 

 Latins, Africans, Goths, who embraced the main tenets of 

 Christianity. 



So too is it with Muhammadanism and Buddhism. If 

 Muhammadanism is the same everywhere, why do so many 

 different sects exist ? It is almost incredible that Mr. Houghton, 

 himself an Indian Civil servant, in daily contact with Indian 

 Muhammadanism, which he must know has taken over the 

 Hindu Caste system, should be under the delusion that this 

 religion— Hinduism with a varnish of Islam — is absolutely 



