Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-31
EVOLUTION OF RELIGION.
Have Religious Ideals Improved as
Civilization Has Progressedp

from the University Magazine.
The study Of the evolution Of religion
may almost be said to be the study of the
development OF the human mind. If re-
ligion be defined as the belief in and
fear of unseen spiri 8 who have power to
help or harm mankind, It m y be sad
to be the most characteristic feature Of
man. No tribe OF savages, however de-
graded, is without It; and 1t is insepa-
rably bound up vii the highest and
hottest hopes of the most advanced por-
tons of our race. No question could
therefore be of more interest than the
problem of the general growth and modi-
flea ion of religious feeling nd belief.
But at the outset of our inquiry we are
met with host of difficulties. How Is
such a history to be elucidated? Wha.
data do we possess? OF the history of
some Of the later dominant religions. such
as Christianity. Mahometanism and Budd-
hism. which owe their initial impetus 10
the mpelling force of great personal
ity. we know a good dsal But the origin
Of such faiths as Brahminism and the
ancient religions of Rome and E ypt IS
lost in the mists Of an immemorial an
-iquity: and yet 1t is on the soil Of such
beliefs that the later religions took root
and grew.
The only way out of these difficulties is
the comparative method. For ,unately for
our inquiry there still exist on the earth
fast diminishing tribes of saw ges who
have remained at level Of culture COM
parable wi h that shown by the oldest
tools found in the river gravels. These
gravels accumulated around the melting
edges OF the great ice sheet which once
covered northern Europe and America.
While the great river Of human progress
carried other peoples onward on it's bosom
these tribes have remained n stagnant
back waters. Ii their knowledge o. the
arts has remained stationary, 1t Is a fair
inference that their beliefs have re.
manned at a primitive level also. This
.rgument of course has been fiercely
combated by those who assert that man.
kind were originally in full possession of
knowledge of the true God which they
los. through their own wick edness; and
that. whereas one chosen race was Sc
lected as the venicla of a special revela-
ton. all the rest were allowed to wallow
in ignorance and sin.
Such q theory raises enormous moral
difficulties and is moreover at total vari-
ance with the facts. When the so-called
heather relig. ems are studied, so far from
cur detecting any traces OF an originally
pure religion in them we discover un-
mistakable signs that their original
kernel resembled the bel efs of the lower
savages IN ct. as nations have adj
vanced in civilization so Their religious
beliefs have improved for 1t remains
eternally rue that righteousness eXalteth
nation. To this conclusion that d-s-
llHSulSIcu SCIOldT DIT William f1dmSdy
has taken exception. In recent book he
has st ted tina experience bears out the
view Of Paul, that mankind left to itself
retrcgrades and does not evolve into
higher morality. There is ruth and un-
truth I'm this. In mild climate with
abundance of food mans mental advance
stops. but man is not left to himself.
Small por ions of the race are subject ID
to 4 fierce struggle for existence and so
taught eternal truth by bitter exper .ence
and these highly developed tribes subju-
gaze the more slothful tribes, and SO
spread this knowledge. Nay, it seems
that from the reaction between the two
the leading thinkers are born. There
fore, on the two-fold ground Of the re-
semblance of their tools TO those OF the
Oldest fossil men and the resemblance of
their beliefs to the oldest Strata Of the
historical religions. we may turn with
confidence to the savages as giving us
the best clue to whac the beliefs of
primitive man were like. In such an
inquiry stress is, of course, to be laid on
those elements which are common to
savage beliefs all over the world; recog-
nzng that each tribe has some regularity
OF its own. which may have been spe-
cially evolved and never have formed
part of the basis on which the beliefs of
the higher RACES were founded