310 THE RIDDLE OF THE UNIVERSE. 



transmitted from their primate ancestors by heredity. 

 It it even found in many other vertebrates. When a 

 dog barks at the full moon, or at a ringing bell, of 

 which it sees the hammer moving, or at a flag that 

 flutters in the breeze, it expresses not only fear, but 

 also the mysterious impulse to learn the cause of the 

 obscure phenomenon. The crude beginnings of reli- 

 gion among primitive races spring partly from this 

 hereditary superstition of their primate ancestors, and 

 partly from the worship of ancestors, from various 

 emotional impulses, and from habits which have 

 become traditional. 



The religious notions of modern civilized peoples, 

 which they esteem so highly, profess to be on a much 

 higher level than the ''crude superstition" of the 

 savage; we are told of the great advance which 

 civilization has made in sweeping it aside. That is a 

 great mistake. Impartial comparison and analysis 

 show that they only differ in their special " form of 

 faith" and the outer shell of their creed. In the 

 clear light of reason the refined faith of the most 

 liberal ecclesiastical religion — inasmuch as it contra- 

 dicts the known and inviolable laws of nature — is no 

 less irrational a superstition than the crude spirit- 

 faith of primitive fetichism on which it looks down 

 with proud disdain. 



And if, from this impartial standpoint, we take a 

 critical glance at the kinds of faith that prevail to-day 

 in civilized countries, we find them everywhere satu- 

 rated with traditional superstition. The Christian 

 belief in Creation, the Trinity, the Immaculate Con- 

 ception, the Redemption, the Resurrection and Ascen- 

 sion of Christ, and so forth, is just as purely 

 imaginative as the belief in the various dogmas of the 



