XX 



THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 



BROADLY speaking, there are two theories as to 

 the origin of religion, apart from such effete notions 

 as that the revelation of one God has been granted 

 to all men and that polytheism and fetichism, as 

 seen among the savages of to-day, are developed 

 from a primitive monotheism by a process of de 

 generation. 



These two theories arc, first, that primitive man 

 began by taking an interest in natural phenomena 

 the thunder, the river, the avalanche and then 

 attributed life to such phenomena, thus deify 

 ing them. This theory, of academic popularity, is 

 known as animism. It assumes an interest in nat 

 ure which is not observed in the savage or the 

 dull-witted peasant; it does noi: account for the 

 known facts of ancestor- worship ; and it assumes 

 that men attributed life and volition to natural 

 objects before they conceived the belief that the 

 life of those who have lived persists after bodily 

 death. 



The other outstanding theory maintains that 

 religion, in the beginning, consists in the worship 



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