Mankind's Search for God

Chapter 5
Hinduism—A Search for Liberation
“In Hindu society, it is the religious custom, first thing in the morning, to bathe in a nearby river or at home if no river or stream is at hand. People believe that it makes them holy. Then, still without having eaten, they go to the local temple and make offerings of flowers and food to the local god. Some will wash the idol and decorate it with red and yellow powder.
“Nearly every home has a corner or even a room for worship of the family’s favorite god. A popular god in some localities is Ganesa, the elephant god. People will especially pray to him for good fortune, as he is known as a remover of obstacles. In other places Krishna, Rama, Siva, Durga, or some other deity might take first place in devotion.”—Tara C., Kathmandu, Nepal.
WHAT is Hinduism? Is it just the oversimplified Western concept of venerating animals, bathing in the Ganges, and being divided by castes? Or is there more to it? The answer: There is much more. Hinduism is a different way of understanding life, to which Western values are totally alien. Westerners tend to see life as a chronological line of events in history. Hindus see life as a self-repeating cycle in which human history is of little importance.
It is no easy task to define Hinduism, since it has no definite creed, priestly hierarchy, or governing agency. However, it does have swamis (teachers) and gurus (spiritual guides). A broad definition of Hinduism given by one history book states that it is “the whole complex of beliefs and institutions that have appeared from the time when their ancient (and most sacred) scriptures, the Vedas, were composed until now.” Another one states: “We might say that Hinduism is adherence to or worship of the gods Vishnu, or Shiva [Siva], or the goddess Shakti, or their incarnations, aspects, spouses, or progeny.” That serves to include the cults of Rama and Krishna (incarnations of Vishnu), Durga, Skanda, and Ganesa (respectively the wife and sons of Siva). It is claimed that Hinduism has 330 million gods, yet it is said that Hinduism is not polytheistic. How can that be?
Indian writer A. Parthasarathy explains: “The Hindus are not polytheistic. Hinduism speaks of one God . . . The different gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon are mere representatives of the powers and functions of the one supreme God in the manifested world.”
Hindus often refer to their faith as sanatana dharma, which means eternal law or order. Hinduism is really a loose term that describes a host of religions and sects (sampradayas) that have developed and flourished over the millenniums under the umbrella of the complex ancient Hindu mythology. So intricate is that mythology that the New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology states: “Indian mythology is an inextricable jungle of luxuriant growths. When you enter it you lose the light of day and all clear sense of direction.” Nevertheless, this chapter will cover some of the features and teachings of that faith.
Hinduism’s Ancient Roots
While Hinduism may not be as widespread as some other major religions, nevertheless, it commanded the loyalty of nearly 700 million followers by 1990, or about 1 in 8 (13%) of the world’s population. However, most of these are found in India. So it is logical to ask, How and why did Hinduism become concentrated in India?
Some historians say that Hinduism had its roots over 3,500 years ago in a wave of migration that brought a pale-skinned, Aryan people down from the northwest into the Indus Valley, now located mainly in Pakistan and India. From there they spread into the Ganges River plains and across India. Some experts say that the religious ideas of the migrants were based on ancient Iranian and Babylonian teachings. One thread common to many cultures and also found in Hinduism is a flood legend.
But what form of religion was practiced in the Indus Valley before the Aryans arrived? One archaeologist, Sir John Marshall, speaks of “‘The Great Mother Goddess’, some representations being pregnant female figurines, the majority being nude female figures with high collars and headdresses. . . . Next comes ‘The Male God’, ‘recognisable at once as a prototype of the historic Siva’, seated with the soles of his feet touching (a yoga posture), ithyphallic (recalling the lingam [phallus] cult), surrounded by animals (depicting Shiva’s epithet, ‘Lord of Beasts’). Stone representations of phallus and vulva abound, . . . which point to the cult of the lingam and yoni of Shiva and his spouse.” (World Religions—From Ancient History to the Present) To this day Siva is revered as the god of fertility, the god of the phallus, or lingam. The bull Nandi is his bearer.
Hindu scholar Swami Sankarananda disagrees with Marshall’s interpretation, stating that originally the venerated stones, some known as Sivalinga, were symbols of “the fire of the sky or the sun and the fire of the sun, the rays.” (The Rigvedic Culture of the Pre-Historic Indus) He reasons that “the sex cult . . . did not originate as a religious cult. It is an after-product. It is a degeneration of the original. It is the people who bring down the ideal, which is too high for them to comprehend, to their own levels.” As a counterargument to Western criticism of Hinduism, he says that, based on Christian veneration of the cross, a pagan phallic symbol, “Christians . . . are the votaries of a sex cult.”
In the course of time, the beliefs, myths, and legends of India were put into writing, and today they form the holy writings of Hinduism. Although these sacred works are extensive, they do not attempt to propose a unified Hindu doctrine.
Hinduism’s Holy Writings
The oldest writings are the Vedas, a collection of prayers and hymns known as the Rig-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda. They were composed during several centuries and were completed about 900 B.C.E. The Vedas were later supplemented by other writings, including the Brahmanas and the Upanishads.
The Brahmanas specify how rituals and sacrifices, both domestic and public, are to be performed and go into great detail on their deep meaning. They were put into writing from about 300 B.C.E. or later. The Upanishads (literally, “sittings near a teacher”), also known as the Vedanta and written about 600-300 B.C.E., are treatises that set out the reason for all thought and action, according to Hindu philosophy. The doctrines of samsara (transmigration of the soul) and Karma (the belief that the deeds of a former existence are the cause of one’s present state in life) were expressed in these writings.
Another set of writings are the Puranas, or long allegorical stories containing many Hindu myths about gods and goddesses as well as Hindu heroes. This extensive Hindu library also includes the epics of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The first is the story of “Lord Rama . . . the most glorious of all characters found in scriptural literature,” according to A. Parthasarathy. The Ramayana is one of the most popular writings for Hindus, dating from about the fourth century B.C.E. It is the story of the hero Rama, or Ramachandra, viewed by Hindus as a model son, brother, and husband. He is considered to be the seventh avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu, and his name is often invoked as a greeting.
According to Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, “Bhagavad-gītā [part of the Mahabharata] is the supreme instruction of morality. The instructions of Bhagavad-gītā constitute the supreme process of religion and the supreme process of morality. . . . The last instruction of the Gītā is the last word of all morality and religion: surrender unto Kṛṣṇa [Krishna].”—BG.
The Bhagavad Gita (Celestial Song), viewed by some as “the jewel of India’s spiritual wisdom,” is a battlefield conversation “between Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa [Krishna], the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and Arjuna, His intimate friend and devotee, whom He instructs in the science of self-realization.” However, the Bhagavad Gita is only one part of the extensive Hindu holy library. Some of these writings (Vedas, Brahmanas, and the Upanishads) are viewed as Sruti, or “heard,” and are therefore considered to be directly revealed sacred writ. Others, such as the epics and the Puranas, are Smriti, or “remembered,” and thus composed by human authors, although derived from revelation. One example is the Manu Smriti, which sets out Hindu religious and social law, in addition to explaining the basis for the caste system. What are some of the beliefs that have arisen from these Hindu writings?
Teachings and Conduct—Ahimsa and Varna
In Hinduism, as in other religions, there are certain basic concepts that influence thinking and daily conduct. An outstanding one is that of ahimsa (Sanskrit, ahinsa), or nonviolence, for which Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948), known as the Mahatma, was so famous. On the basis of this philosophy, Hindus are not supposed to kill or do violence to other creatures, which is one of the reasons why they venerate some animals, such as cows, snakes, and monkeys. The strictest exponents of this teaching of ahimsa and respect for life are the followers of Jainism (founded in the sixth century B.C.E.), who go barefoot and even wear a mask so as not to swallow accidentally any insect. In contrast, the Sikhs are known for their warrior tradition, and Singh, a common last name among them, means lion.
A universally known aspect of Hinduism is varna, or the caste system, which divides society into rigid classes. One cannot help noticing that Hindu society is still stratified by this system, although it is rejected by Buddhists and Jains. However, just as racial discrimination persists in the United States and elsewhere, so likewise the caste system is deeply embedded in the Indian psyche. In a way it is a form of class consciousness that, in a parallel way, can still be found today to a lesser degree in British society and in other lands. (James 2:1-9) Thus, in India a person is born into a rigid caste system, and there is almost no way out. Furthermore, the average Hindu does not seek a way out. He views it as his predetermined, inescapable lot in life, the result of his deeds in a prior existence, or Karma. But how did the caste system originate? Once again we have to turn to Hindu mythology.
According to Hindu mythology, there were originally four major castes based on the body parts of Purusha, mankind’s original father-figure. The hymns of the Rig-Veda state:
“When they divided Purusha how many portions did they make?
What do they call his mouth, his arms? What do they call his thighs and feet?
The Brahman [the highest caste] was his mouth, of both his arms was the Rajanya made.
His thighs became the Vaisya, from his feet the Sudra was produced.”—The Bible of the World.
Thus, the priestly Brahmans, the highest caste, were supposed to have originated from Purusha’s mouth, his highest part. The governing, or warrior, class (Kshatriya or Rajanya) came from his arms. The merchant and farmer class, called the Vaisya, or Vaishya, originated from his thighs. A lower caste, the Sudra, or Shudra, or laborer class, resulted from the lowest part of the body, his feet.
Over the centuries even lower castes came into existence, the outcastes and the Untouchables, or as Mahatma Gandhi called them more kindly, the Harijans, or “persons belonging to the god Vishnu.” Although untouchability has been illegal in India since 1948, the Untouchables still have a very hard existence.
In the course of time, the castes multiplied to match just about every profession and artisanship in Indian society. This ancient caste system, which keeps everyone in his or her social place, is in reality also racial and “includes distinct racial types varying from what is known as the [light-skinned] Aryan to the [darker-skinned] pre-Dravidian stocks.” Varna, or caste, means “color.” “The first three castes were Aryans, the fairest people; the fourth caste, that comprising the dark-skinned aborigines, was non-Aryan.” (Myths and Legends Series—India, by Donald A. Mackenzie) It is a fact of India’s life that the caste system, fortified by the religious teaching of Karma, has millions of people locked into perpetual poverty and injustice.
The Frustrating Cycle of Existence
Another basic belief that affects Hindu ethics and conduct, and one of the most vital, is the teaching of Karma. This is the principle that every action has its consequences, positive or negative; it determines each existence of the transmigrated or reincarnated soul. As the Garuda Purana explains:
“A man is the creator of his own fate, and even in his fœtal life he is affected by the dynamics of the works of his prior existence. Whether confined in a mountain fastness or lulling on the bosom of a sea, whether secure in his mother’s lap or held high above her head, a man cannot fly from the effects of his own prior deeds. . . . Whatever is to befall a man on any particular age or time will surely overtake him then and on that date.”
The Garuda Purana continues:
“Knowledge acquired by a man in his prior birth, wealth given away in charity in his prior existence, and works done by him in a previous incarnation, go ahead of his soul in its sojourn.”
On what does this belief hinge? The immortal soul is essential to the teaching of Karma, and Karma is what makes the Hindu view of the soul differ from that of Christendom. The Hindu believes that each personal soul, jīva or prān, passes through many reincarnations and possibly “hell.” It must strive to unite with the “Supreme Reality,” also called Brahman, or Brahm (not to be confused with the Hindu god Brahma). On the other hand, Christendom’s doctrines offer the soul the options of heaven, hell, purgatory, or Limbo, depending on the religious persuasion.—Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10; Psalm 146:4.
As a consequence of Karma, Hindus tend to be fatalistic. They believe that one’s present status and condition is the result of a previous existence and is therefore deserved, whether good or bad. The Hindu can try to establish a better record so that the next existence might be more bearable. Thus, he more readily accepts his lot in life than does a Westerner. The Hindu sees it all as the outworking of the law of cause and effect in relation to his prior existence. It is the principle of reaping what you have sown in a supposed former existence. All of this, of course, is based on the premise that man has an immortal soul that passes on to another life, whether that be as a human, an animal, or a vegetable.
So, what is the ultimate aim in the Hindu faith? To achieve moksha, which means liberation, or release, from the grinding wheel of rebirths and different existences. Therefore, it is an escape from embodied existence, not for the body, but for the “soul.” “Since moksha, or release from the long series of incarnations, is the goal of every Hindu, the biggest event in his life is really his death,” states one commentator. Moksha can be achieved by following the different margas, or ways. Oh, how much of this religious teaching hangs on the ancient Babylonian concept of the immortal soul!
Yet, according to the Bible, this despising and disdaining of the material life is diametrically opposed to Jehovah God’s original purpose for mankind. When he created the first human pair, he assigned them to a happy, joyful earthly existence. The Bible account tells us:
“And God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. Further, God blessed them and God said to them: ‘Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.’ . . . After that God saw everything he had made and, look! it was very good.” (Genesis 1:27-31)
The Bible prophesies an imminent era of peace and justice for the earth, an era in which each family will have its own decent dwelling, and perfect health and life will be mankind’s everlasting lot.—Isaiah 65:17-25; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1-4.
The next question to answer is, Who are the gods a Hindu must please in order to achieve good Karma?
The Pantheon of Hindu Gods
While Hinduism may lay claim to millions of gods, in actual practice there are certain favorite gods that have become the focal point for various sects within Hinduism. Three of the most prominent gods are included in what Hindus call Trimurti, a trinity, or triad of gods.
The triad consists of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva the Destroyer, and each has at least one wife or consort. Brahma is wedded to Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge. Vishnu’s wife is Lakshmi, while Siva’s first wife was Sati, who committed suicide. She was the first woman to enter sacrificial fire, and thus she became the first suttee. Following her mythological example, thousands of Hindu widows over the centuries have sacrificed themselves on their husband’s funeral pyre, although this practice is now illegal. Siva also has another wife known by several names and titles. In her benign form, she is Parvati and Uma, as well as Gauri, the Golden One. As Durga or Kali, she is a terrifying goddess.
Brahma, although central to Hindu mythology, does not occupy a place of importance in the worship of the average Hindu. In fact very few temples are dedicated to him, even though he is called Brahma the Creator. However, Hindu mythology attributes the assignment of creating the material universe to a supreme being, source, or essence—Brahman, or Brahm, identified with the sacred syllable OM or AUM. All three members of the triad are considered part of that “Being,” and all other gods are viewed as different manifestations. Whichever god is then worshiped as supreme, that deity is thought to be all-embracing. So while Hindus openly venerate millions of gods, most acknowledge only one true God, who can take many forms: male, female, or even animal. Therefore, Hindu scholars are quick to point out that Hinduism is actually monotheistic, not polytheistic. Later Vedic thinking, however, discards the concept of a supreme being, replacing it with an impersonal divine principle or reality.
Vishnu, a benevolent solar and cosmic deity, is the center of worship for the followers of Vaishnavism. He appears under ten avatars, or incarnations, including Rama, Krishna, and the Buddha. Another avatar is Vishnu Narayana, “represented in human form asleep on the coiled serpent Shesha or Ananta, floating on the cosmic waters with his wife, the goddess Lakshmi, seated at his feet while the god Brahma arises from a lotus growing out of Vishnu’s navel.”—The Encyclopedia of World Faiths.
Siva, also commonly called Mahesha (Supreme Lord) and Mahadeva (Great God), is Hinduism’s second-greatest god, and the worship rendered to him is called Saivism. He is described as “the great ascetic, the master yogin who sits wrapped in meditation on the slopes of the Himalayas, his body smeared with ashes and his head covered in matted hair.” He is also noted “for his eroticism, as the bringer of fertility and the supreme lord of creation, Mahadeva.” (The Encyclopedia of World Faiths) Worship is rendered to Siva by means of the lingam, or phallic representation.
Like many other world religions, Hinduism has its supreme goddess, who can be attractive or terrifying. In her more pleasant form, she is known as Parvati and Uma. Her fearsome character is displayed as Durga or Kali, a bloodthirsty goddess who delights in blood sacrifices. As the Mother Goddess, Kali Ma (Black Earth-Mother), she is the chief deity for the Shakti sect. She is depicted as naked to the hips and wearing adornments of corpses, snakes, and skulls. In times past, strangled human victims were offered to her by believers known as thugi, from which came the English word “thug.”
Hinduism and the River Ganges
We cannot speak of Hinduism’s pantheon of gods without mentioning its most sacred river—the Ganges. Much of Hindu mythology is directly related to the river Ganges, or Ganga Ma (Mother Ganga), as devout Hindus call it. They recite a prayer that includes 108 different names for the river. Why is the Ganges so revered by sincere Hindus? Because it is so closely associated with their daily survival and with their ancient mythology. They believe that it formerly existed in the heavens as the Milky Way. Then how did it come to be a river?
With some variations most Hindus would explain it like this: Maharajah Sagara had 60,000 sons who were killed by the fire of Kapila, a manifestation of Vishnu. Their souls were condemned to hell unless the goddess Ganga would come down from heaven to cleanse them and release them from the curse. Bhagīratha, a great-grandson of Sagara, interceded with Brahma to allow the sacred Ganga to come down to the earth. One account continues: “Ganga replied. ‘I am so mighty a torrent I would shatter the earth’s foundations.’ So [Bhagīratha], after doing penance for a thousand years, went to the god Shiva, the greatest of all ascetics, and persuaded him to stand high above the earth amidst the rock and ice of the Himalayas. Shiva had matted hair piled on his head, and he allowed Ganga to thunder down from the skies into his locks, which absorbed gently the earth-threatening shock. Ganga then trickled softly out on to the earth and flowed down from the mountains and across the plains, bringing water and therefore life to the dry earth.”—From the Ocean to the Sky, by Sir Edmund Hillary.
The followers of Vishnu have a somewhat different version of how the Ganges was started. According to an ancient text, the Vishnu Purana, their version is:
“From this region [the holy seat of Vishnu] proceeds the river Ganges, that removes all sins . . . She issues from the nail of the great toe of Vishnu’s left foot.”
Or as Vishnu’s followers say in Sanskrit: “Visnu-padabja-sambhuta,” which means “Born of the lotus-like foot of Vishnu.”
36 Hindus believe that the Ganges has the power to release, purify, cleanse, and cure believers. The Vishnu Purana states:
“Saints, who are purified by bathing in the waters of this river, and whose minds are devoted to Kesava [Vishnu], obtain final liberation. The sacred river, when heard of, desired, seen, touched, bathed in, or hymned, day by day purifies all beings. And those who living even at a distance . . . exclaim ‘Ganga and Ganga’ are relieved of the sins committed during the three previous existences.”
The Brahmandapurana states:
“Those who bathe devoutly once in the pure currents of the Ganga, their tribes are protected by Her from hundreds of thousands of dangers. Evils accumulated through generations are destroyed. Just by bathing in the Ganga one gets immediately purified.”
Indians flock to the river to perform puja, or worship, by offering flowers, chanting prayers, and receiving from a priest the tilak, the spot of red or yellow paste on the forehead. Then they wade into the waters to bathe. Many will also drink the water, even though it is heavily polluted by sewage, chemicals, and cadavers. Yet such is the spiritual attraction of the Ganges that it is the ambition of millions of Indians to bathe at least once in their ‘holy river,’ polluted or not.
Others bring the bodies of their loved ones to be burned on pyres by the riverside, and then the ashes may be strewn in the river. They believe that this guarantees eternal bliss for the departed soul. Those too poor to pay for a funeral pyre just push the shrouded body off into the river, where it is attacked by scavenger birds or just decomposes. This brings us to the question, In addition to what we have considered already, what does Hinduism teach about life after death?
Hinduism and the Soul
The Bhagavad Gita gives an answer when it says:
“As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth, and then to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death.”—Chapter 2, text 13.
One Hindu comment on this text states: “Since every living entity is an individual soul, each is changing his body at every moment, manifesting sometimes as a child, sometimes as a youth, and sometimes as an old man—although the same spirit soul is there and does not undergo any change. This individual soul finally changes the body itself, in transmigrating from one to another, and since it is sure to have another body in the next birth—either material or spiritual—there was no cause for lamentation by Arjuna on account of death.”
Notice that the commentary states that “every living entity is an individual soul.” Now that statement agrees with what the Bible says at Genesis 2:7:
“And Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul.”
But an important distinction has to be made: Is man constituted a living soul with all his functions and faculties, or does he have a soul apart from his bodily functions? Is man a soul, or does he have a soul? The following quotation clarifies the Hindu concept.
Chapter 2, text 17, of the Bhagavad Gita states:
“That which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.”
This text is then explained:
“Each and every body contains an individual soul, and the symptom of the soul’s presence is perceived as individual consciousness.”
Therefore, while the Bible states that man is a soul, Hindu teaching states that he has a soul. And there is a world of difference here that deeply affects the teachings that are a consequence of these viewpoints.—Leviticus 24:17, 18.
The teaching of the immortal soul is ultimately drawn from ancient Babylon’s stagnant pool of religious knowledge. It logically leads into the ‘life after death’ consequences that are featured in the teachings of so many religions—reincarnation, heaven, hell, purgatory, Limbo, and so forth. For the Hindu, heaven and hell are intermediate waiting places before the soul gets its next reincarnation. Of special interest is the Hindu concept of hell.
Hindu Teaching of Hell
One text from the Bhagavad Gita states:
“O Kṛṣṇa [Krishna], maintainer of the people, I have heard by authorities that those who destroy family traditions dwell . . . in hell.”—Chapter 1, text 43.
A commentary says: “Those who are very sinful in their earthly life have to undergo different kinds of punishment on hellish planets.” However, there is one shade of difference with Christendom’s eternal hellfire torment: “This punishment . . . is not eternal.” Then, what exactly is the Hindu hell?
The following is a description of the fate of a sinner, taken from the Markandeya Purana:
“Then the emissaries of Yama [god of the dead] quickly bind him with dreadful nooses and drag him to the south, trembling with the stroke of the rod. Then he is dragged by the emissaries of Yama, sending out dreadful, inauspicious yells through grounds rough with [the plant] Kusa, thorns, ant-hills, pins and stones, glowing with flames at places, covered with pits, blazing with the heat of the sun and burning with its rays. Dragged by the dreadful emissaries and eaten by hundreds of jackals, the sinful person goes to Yama’s house through a fearful passage. . . .
“When his body is burnt he experiences a great burning sensation; and when his body is beaten or cut he feels great pain.
“His body being thus destroyed, a creature, although walking into another body, suffers eternal misery on account of his own adverse actions. . . .
“Then to have his sins washed off he is taken to another such hell. After having gone through all the hells the sinner takes upon a beastly life. Then going through the lives of worms, insects, and flies, beasts of prey, gnats, elephants, trees, horses, cows, and through diverse other sinful and miserable lives, he, coming to the race of men, is born as a hunchback, or an ugly person or a dwarf or a Chandala Pukkasa.”
Compare that with what the Bible says about the dead:
“For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten. Also, their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished, and they have no portion anymore to time indefinite in anything that has to be done under the sun. All that your hand finds to do, do with your very power, for there is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, the place to which you are going.”—Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10.
Of course, if as the Bible says, man does not have a soul but is a soul, then there is no conscious existence after death. There is no bliss, and there is no suffering. All the illogical complications of the “hereafter” disappear.
Hinduism’s Rival
This necessarily brief review of Hinduism has shown that it is a religion of polytheism based on monotheism—belief in Brahman, the Supreme Being, source, or essence, symbolized by the syllable OM or AUM, and with many facets or manifestations. It is also a religion that teaches tolerance and encourages kindness toward animals.
On the other hand, some elements of Hindu teaching, such as Karma and the injustices of the caste system, together with the idolatry and the conflicts in the myths, have made some thinking people question the validity of that faith. One such doubter arose in northeastern India about the year 560 B.C.E. He was Siddhārtha Gautama. He established a new faith that failed to prosper in India yet flourished elsewhere, as our next chapter will explain. That new faith was Buddhism.

The name Hinduism is a European invention.
In Sanskrit, “soul” is often translated from ātma, or ātman, but “spirit” is a more accurate translation.—See A Dictionary of Hinduism—Its Mythology, Folklore and Development 1500 B.C.–A.D. 1500, page 31, and the booklet Victory Over Death—Is It Possible for You? published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., in 1986.
A tenth and future avatar is that of Kalki Avatara “depicted as a magnificent youth riding a great white horse with a meteor-like sword raining death and destruction on all sides.” “His coming will re-establish righteousness on earth, and the return of an age of purity and innocence.”—Religions of India; A Dictionary of Hinduism.—Compare Revelation 19:11-16.
The Bible teaching of a resurrection of the dead has no relationship to the immortal soul doctrine.

Sikhism—A Reform Religion
Sikhism, symbolized by three swords and a circle, is the religion of over 17 million people. Most live in the Punjab. The Sikh Golden Temple, set in the midst of an artificial lake, is located in Amritsar, the Sikh holy city. Sikh men are easily recognized by their blue, white, or black turbans, the wearing of which is an essential part of their religious practice, as is their letting their hair grow long.
The Hindi word sikh means “disciple.” Sikhs are disciples of their founder, Guru Nānak, and followers of the teachings of the ten gurus (Nānak and nine successors) whose writings are in the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib. The religion got its start in the early 16th century when Guru Nānak wanted to take the best of Hinduism and Islām and form a united religion.
Nānak’s mission can be stated in one sentence: “As there is only one God, and He is our Father; therefore, we must all be brothers.” Like the Muslims, the Sikhs believe in one God and forbid the use of idols. (Psalm 115:4-9; Matthew 23:8, 9) They follow the Hindu tradition of believing in an immortal soul, reincarnation, and Karma. The Sikh place of worship is called a gurdwara.—Compare Psalm 103:12, 13; Acts 24:15.
One of Guru Nānak’s great commandments was: “Always remember God, repeat His name.” God is spoken of as the “True One,” but no name is given. (Psalm 83:16-18) Another commandment was “Share what you earn with the less fortunate.” In line with this, there is a langar, or free kitchen, in every Sikh temple, where people of all kinds may freely eat. There are even free rooms where travelers may spend the night.—James 2:14-17.
The last Guru, Gobind Singh (1666-1708), established a brotherhood of Sikhs called the Khalsa, who follow what are known as the five K’s, which are: kesh, uncut hair, symbolizing spirituality; kangha, a comb in the hair, symbolizing order and discipline; kirpan, a sword, signifying dignity, courage, and self-sacrifice; kara, a steel bracelet, symbolizing unity with God; kachh, shorts as underwear, implying modesty and worn to symbolize moral restraint.—See The Encyclopedia of World Faiths, page 269.


Jainism—Self-Denial and Nonviolence
This religion, with its ancient Indian swastika symbol, was founded in the sixth century B.C.E. by the wealthy Indian prince Nataputta Vardhamāna, better known as Vardhamana Mahāvīra (a title meaning “Great Man” or “Great Hero”). He turned to a life of self-denial and asceticism. He set out naked in search of knowledge “through the villages and plains of central India in quest of release from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.” (Man’s Religions, by John B. Noss) He believed that the salvation of the soul could be achieved only through extreme self-denial and self-discipline and a rigid application of ahimsa, nonviolence to all creatures. He took ahimsa to the extreme of carrying a soft broom with which he could gently sweep away any insects that might be in his path. His respect for life was also to protect the purity and integrity of his own soul.
His followers today, in an effort to improve their Karma, lead a similar life of self-denial and respect for all other creatures. Again we see the powerful effect on human lives of the belief in the immortality of the human soul.
Today there are fewer than four million believers of this faith, and most are in the Bombay and Gujarat areas of India.

Simple Guide to Hindu Terms
ahimsa (Sanskrit, ahinsa)—nonviolence; not hurting or killing anything. Basis for Hindu vegetarianism and respect for animals
ashram—a shrine or place where a guru (spiritual guide) teaches
ātman—spirit; associated with that which is deathless. Often mistakenly translated soul. See jīva
avatar—a manifestation or an incarnation of a Hindu deity
bhakti—devotion to a deity that leads to salvation
bindi—a red spot that married women wear on the forehead
Brahman—the priestly and highest level of the caste system; also the Ultimate Reality.
dharma—the ultimate law of all things; that which determines the rightness or wrongness of acts
ghat—stairway or platform by a river
guru—teacher or spiritual guide
Harijan—member of the Untouchable caste; means “people of God,” compassionate name given them by Mahatma Gandhi
japa—worship of God by repetition of one of his names; a mala, or rosary of 108 beads, is used to keep count
jīva (or prān, prāni)—the personal soul or being
Karma—the principle that every action has its positive or negative consequences for the next life of the transmigrated soul
Kshatriya—the professional, governing, and warrior class and the second level of the caste system
mahant—holy man or teacher
mahatma—Hindu saint, from maha, high or great, and ātman, spirit
mantra—a sacred formula, believed to have magical power, used in initiation into a sect and repeated in prayers and incantations
maya—the world as an illusion
moksha, or mukti—release from the cycle of rebirth; the end of the soul’s journey. Also known as Nirvana, the union of the individual with the Supreme Entity, Brahman
OM, AUM—a word symbol representing Brahman used for meditation; sound considered to be the mystic vibration; used as a sacred mantra
paramatman—the World-Spirit, the universal ātman, or Brahman
puja—worship
sadhu—a holy man; an ascetic or yogi
samsara—transmigration of an eternal, imperishable soul
Shakti—the female power or the wife of a god, especially Siva’s consort
sraddha—important rites conducted to honor ancestors and assist departed souls in attaining moksha
Sudra—laborer, the lowest of the four main castes
swami—teacher or higher level of spiritual guide
tilak—a mark on the forehead that symbolizes the retention of the memory of the Lord in all his activities
Trimurti—Hindi triad of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva
Upanishads—early sacred poetic writings of Hinduism. Also known as Vedanta, the end of the Vedas
Vaisya—class of merchants and farmers; third group in the caste system
Vedas—earliest sacred poetic writings of Hinduism
Yama—the god of death; he keeps track of each one’s Karma to determine the quality of the next life
Yoga—from the root yuj, meaning to join or yoke; involves the joining of the individual to the universal divine being. Popularly known as the discipline of meditation involving posture and breath control. Hinduism recognizes at least four main Yogas, or paths.

Four Ways to Moksha
The Hindu faith offers at least four ways to achieve moksha, or liberation of the soul. These are known as yogas or margas, paths to moksha.
1. Karma Yoga—“The way of action, or karma yoga, the discipline of action. Basically, karma marga means performing one’s dharma according to one’s place in life. Certain duties are required of all people, such as ahimsa and abstention from alcohol and meat, but the specific dharma of each individual depends on that person’s caste and stage in life.”—Great Asian Religions.
This Karma is performed strictly within caste limitations. Purity of caste is maintained by neither marrying nor eating outside of one’s caste, which was determined by one’s Karma in a previous existence. Therefore one’s caste is not viewed as an injustice but as a legacy from a previous incarnation. In Hindu philosophy men and women are not all equal. They are divided by caste and by sex and, in effect, by color. Usually the lighter the skin, the higher the caste.
2. Jnana Yoga—“The way of knowledge, or jnana yoga, the discipline of knowledge. In contrast to the way of action, karma marga, with its prescribed duties for every occasion in life, jnana marga provides a philosophical and psychological way of knowing the self and the universe. Being, not doing, is the key to jnana marga. [Italics ours.] Most importantly, this way makes moksha possible in this life for its practitioners.” (Great Asian Religions) It involves introspective yoga and withdrawal from the world and the practice of austerities. It is the expression of self-control and self-denial.
3. Bhakti Yoga—“The most popular form of the Hindu tradition today. This is the way of devotion, bhakti marga. In contrast to karma marga . . . this path is easier, more spontaneous, and may be followed by persons of any caste, sex, or age. . . . [It] allows human emotions and desires to flow freely rather than to be overcome by Yogic asceticism . . . [It] consists exclusively of devotion to divine beings.” And there are traditionally 330 million to venerate. According to this tradition, to know is to love. In fact, bhakti means “emotional attachment to one’s chosen god.”—Great Asian Religions.
4. Raja Yoga—A method of “special postures, methods of breathing, and rhythmical repetition of the proper thought-formulas.” (Man’s Religions) It has eight steps.

Mahatma Gandhi and the Caste System
“Nonviolence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed.”—Mahatma Gandhi, March 23, 1922.
Mahatma Gandhi, famous for his nonviolent leadership in helping to achieve India’s independence from Britain (granted in 1947), also campaigned to improve the lot of millions of fellow Hindus. As Indian Professor M. P. Rege explains: “He proclaimed ahimsa (nonviolence) as the fundamental moral value, which he interpreted as concern for the dignity and well-being of every person. He denied the authority of the Hindu scriptures when their teaching was contrary to ahimsa, strove valiantly for the eradication of untouchability and the hierarchical caste system, and promoted the equality of women in all spheres of life.”
What was Gandhi’s view of the lot of the Untouchables? In a letter to Jawaharlal Nehru, dated May 2, 1933, he wrote: “The Harijan movement is too big for mere intellectual effort. There is nothing so bad in the world. And yet I cannot leave religion and therefore Hinduism. My life would be a burden to me if Hinduism failed me. I love Christianity, Islam and many other faiths through Hinduism. . . . But then I cannot tolerate it with untouchability.”—The Essential Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), revered Hindu leader and teacher of ahimsa

Hinduism—Some Gods and Goddesses
Aditi—mother of the gods; sky-goddess; the Infinite
Agni—god of fire
Brahma—the Creator God, the principle of creation in the universe. One of the gods of the Trimurti (triad)
Brahman, or Brahm—the Supreme, all-pervasive entity of the universe, represented by the sound OM or AUM.
Also referred to as Atman. Some Hindus view Brahman as an impersonal Divine Principle or Ultimate Reality
Buddha—Gautama, founder of Buddhism; Hindus view him as an incarnation (avatar) of Vishnu
Durga—wife or Shakti of Siva and identified with Kali
Ganesa (Ganesha)—Siva’s elephant-headed son-god, Lord of Obstacles, god of good fortune. Also called Ganapati and Gajanana
Ganga—goddess, one of Siva’s wives and personification of the river Ganges
Hanuman—monkey god and devoted follower of Rama
Himalaya—abode of snow, father of Parvati
Kali—Siva’s black consort (Shakti) and bloodthirsty goddess of destruction. Often portrayed with large red tongue hanging out
Krishna—the playful eighth incarnation of Vishnu and the deity of the Bhagavad Gita. His lovers were the gopis, or milkmaids
Lakshmi—goddess of beauty and good fortune; Vishnu’s consort
Manasa—goddess of snakes
Manu—ancestor of the human race; saved from the flood’s destruction by a great fish
Mitra—god of light. Known as Mithras to the Romans
Nandi—the bull, Siva’s vehicle or mode of transport
Nataraja—Siva in dance posture encompassed by a ring of flames
Parvati or Uma—goddess consort of Siva. Also takes the form of goddess Durga or Kali
Prajapati—Creator of the universe, Lord of Creatures, father of gods, demons, and all other creatures. Later known as Brahma
Purusha—cosmic man. The four main castes were made from his body
Radha—consort of Krishna
Rama, Ramachandra—the seventh incarnation of the god Vishnu. The epic narrative Ramayana relates the story of Rama and his wife Sita
Saraswati—goddess of knowledge and consort of Brahma the Creator
Shashti—goddess who protects women and children in childbirth
Siva—god of fertility, death, and destruction; a member of the Trimurti. Symbolized by the trident and the phallus
Soma—both a god and a drug; the elixir of life
Vishnu—god the preserver of life; third member of the Trimurti

(Based on listing in Mythology—An Illustrated Encyclopedia)

Hindu Legend of the Flood
“In the morning they brought to Manu [mankind’s ancestor and first lawgiver] water for washing . . . When he was washing himself, a fish [Vishnu in his incarnation as Matsya] came into his hands.
“It spoke to him the word, ‘Rear me, I will save thee!’ ‘Wherefrom wilt thou save me?’ ‘A flood will carry away all these creatures: from that I will save thee!’ ‘How am I to rear thee?’”
The fish instructed Manu on how to care for him. “Thereupon it said, ‘In such and such a year that flood will come. Thou shalt then attend to me (to my advice) by preparing a ship; and when the flood has risen thou shalt enter into the ship, and I will save thee from it.’”
Manu followed the fish’s instructions, and during the flood the fish pulled the ship to a “northern mountain. It then said, ‘I have saved thee. Fasten the ship to a tree; but let not the water cut thee off, whilst thou art on the mountain. As the water subsides, thou mayest gradually descend!’”—Satapatha-Brahmana; compare Genesis 6:9–8:22.

Mankind's Search for God

Chapter 4
Searching for the Unknown Through Magic and Spiritism“
MEN of Athens, I behold that in all things you seem to be more given to the fear of the deities than others are.” (Acts 17:22) That was what the Christian apostle Paul told a crowd assembled on the Areopagus, or Mars’ Hill, in the ancient city of Athens, Greece. Paul made that remark because earlier he had seen that “the city was full of idols.” (Acts 17:16) What had he seen?
Without a doubt, Paul had seen a variety of Greek and Roman gods in that cosmopolitan city, and it was obvious that the life of the people was wrapped up in their worship of the deities. For fear that by chance they might neglect to venerate any important or powerful deity who could thus become incensed, the Athenians even included “an Unknown God” in their worship. (Acts 17:23) That clearly demonstrated their fear of the deities.
Of course, fear of the deities, especially of unknown ones, is not limited to the Athenians of the first century. For thousands of years, it has dominated nearly all mankind. In many parts of the world, almost every aspect of the people’s life is directly or indirectly involved with some deity or with spirits. As we have seen in the previous chapter, the mythologies of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese, and others were deeply rooted in ideas about gods and spirits, which played an important role in personal and national affairs. During the Middle Ages, stories about alchemists, sorcerers, and witches were rampant throughout the realm of Christendom. And the situation is much the same today.

Rites and Superstitions Today
Whether people are aware of it or not, many things that they do are linked with superstitious practices or beliefs, some having to do with deities or spirits. For example, did you know that birthday observance has its origin in astrology, which attaches great importance to one’s exact birth date? What about the birthday cake? It appears to be related to the Greek goddess Artemis, whose birthday was celebrated with moon-shaped honey cakes topped with candles. Or did you know that wearing black at funerals was originally a ruse to escape the attention of evil spirits said to be lurking on such occasions? Some black Africans paint themselves white, and mourners in other lands wear unusual colors so that the spirits will not recognize them.
Besides these popular customs, people everywhere have their superstitions and fears. In the West, breaking a mirror, seeing a black cat, walking under a ladder, and, depending on where you are, Tuesday or Friday the 13th are all viewed as omens foreboding something evil. In the East, the Japanese wear their kimono with the left side folded over the right, for the other way is reserved for corpses. Their houses are built with no windows or doors facing the northeast so that the demons, which are said to come from that direction, will not find the entrance. In the Philippines, people remove the shoes of the dead and place them beside the legs before the burial so that “Saint” Peter will welcome them. Old folks tell youngsters to behave by pointing out that the figure on the moon is “Saint” Michael, watching and writing down their deeds.
Belief in spirits and deities, however, is not limited to seemingly harmless customs and superstitions. In both primitive and modern societies, people have resorted to various means in order to control or appease the fearsome spirits and to gain the favor of the benevolent ones. Naturally, we may first think of people in remote jungles and mountains who consult spirit mediums, medicine men, and shamans (priests of magic) when sick or otherwise in dire straits. But people in cities large and small also go to astrologers, psychic readers, fortune-tellers, and soothsayers to inquire about the future or to obtain help in making important decisions. Some, even though nominally belonging to one religion or another, pursue such practices with enthusiasm. Many others have made spiritism, black magic, and the occult their religion.
What is the source or origin of all these practices and superstitions? Are they just different ways of approach to God? And most important, what do they do for those who follow them? To find the answers to these questions, we must look back into the history of man and get a glimpse of his early ways of worship.

Reaching for the Unknown
Contrary to what evolutionists may claim, a human possesses a spiritual dimension that makes him different from and superior to the lower creatures. He is born with the urge to search out the unknown. He is ever struggling with questions such as: What is the meaning of life? What happens after one dies? What is man’s relationship to the material world and, in fact, to the universe? He is also driven by the desire to reach out to something higher or more powerful than himself in order to gain some control over his environment and his life.—Psalm 8:3, 4; Ecclesiastes 3:11; Acts 17:26-28.
Ivar Lissner in his book Man, God and Magic put it this way: “One can only marvel at the perseverance with which man has striven, throughout his history, to reach outside himself. His energies were never directed solely toward the necessities of life. He was forever questing, groping his way further, aspiring to the unattainable. This strange and inherent urge in the human being is his spirituality.”
Of course, those who do not believe in God do not view matters quite that way. They generally attribute this human tendency to man’s needs, psychological or otherwise, as we have seen in Chapter 2. However, is it not our common experience that when faced with danger or a desperate situation, most people’s first response is to appeal to God or some higher power for help? This is just as true today as it was in times past. Thus, Lissner went on to say: “No one who has carried out research among the oldest primitive peoples can fail to understand that they all conceive of God, that they possess a lively awareness of a supreme being.”
How they endeavored to satisfy that inborn desire to reach out to the unknown was quite another matter. Nomadic hunters and herdsmen trembled at the power of wild beasts. Farmers were particularly attuned to the changes in weather and seasons. Dwellers of the jungles reacted quite differently from people living in the deserts or mountains. In the face of these varied fears and needs, people developed a bewildering variety of religious practices through which they hoped to appeal to the benevolent gods and appease the fearsome ones.
In spite of the great diversity, however, there are certain common features recognizable in these religious practices. Among them are reverence and fear of sacred spirits and supernatural powers, the use of magic, divining the future by signs and omens, astrology, and diverse methods of fortune-telling. As we examine these features, we will see that they have played a major role in shaping the religious thinking of people around the world and throughout the ages, even including people today.

Sacred Spirits and Supernatural Powers
The life of people in early times seemed to be filled with mystery. They were surrounded by inexplicable and perplexing events. For example, they could not understand why a perfectly robust person should suddenly fall ill, or why the sky should fail to give rain at the usual season, or why a bare, seemingly lifeless, tree should turn green and appear full of life at a certain time of the year. Even one’s own shadow, heartbeat, and breath were mysteries.
With man’s inborn spiritual inclination, it was only natural that he attribute these mysterious things and happenings to some supernatural power. However, lacking proper guidance and understanding, his world soon came to be filled with souls, spirits, ghosts, and demons. For example, the Algonquian Indians of North America call a person’s soul otahchuk, meaning “his shadow,” and the Malays of Southeast Asia believe that when a man dies, his soul escapes through his nostrils. Today, belief in spirits and departed souls—and attempts to communicate with them in some fashion—is nearly universal.
In the same manner, other things in the natural environment—sun, moon, stars, oceans, rivers, mountains—seemed to be alive and to exert a direct influence on human activities. Since these things appeared to occupy a world of their own, they were personified as spirits and deities, some benevolent and helpful, others wicked and harmful. Worship of created things came to occupy a prominent place in almost all religions.
We can find beliefs of this kind in the religions of practically every ancient civilization. The Babylonians and Egyptians worshiped their gods of the sun, moon, and constellations. Animals and wild beasts were also among their objects of veneration. The Hindus are noted for their pantheon of gods, numbering into the millions. The Chinese have always had their sacred mountains and their river gods, and they express their filial piety in ancestor worship. The ancient Druids of the British Isles held oak trees as sacred, and they gave special reverence to mistletoe growing on oak. Later, the Greeks and Romans contributed their share; and belief in spirits, deities, souls, demons, and sacred objects of all sorts became solidly entrenched.
Though some people today may view all such beliefs as superstitions, these ideas are still to be found in the religious practices of many people around the world. Some still believe that certain mountains, rivers, strangely shaped rocks, old trees, and numerous other things are sacred, and they worship them as objects of devotion. They build altars, shrines, and temples at these places. For example, the Ganges River is sacred to the Hindus, whose fondest wish is to bathe in it while alive and have their ashes scattered on it after death. Buddhists consider it an extraordinary experience to worship at the shrine in Buddh Gaya, India, where the Buddha is said to have gained enlightenment under a bodhi tree. Catholics go on their knees to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico or bathe in the “sacred” waters at the shrine in Lourdes, France, in search of miraculous cures. Veneration of created things rather than of the Creator is still very much in evidence today.—Romans 1:25.

The Rise of Magic
Once the belief had been established that the inanimate world was full of spirits, good and bad, it led easily to the next step—attempts to communicate with the good ones for guidance and blessings and to appease the evil ones. The result was the practice of magic, which has flourished in practically every nation past and present.—Genesis 41:8; Exodus 7:11, 12; Deuteronomy 18:9-11, 14; Isaiah 47:12-15; Acts 8:5, 9-13; 13:6-11; 19:18, 19.
In its most basic sense, magic is an effort to control or coerce the natural or supernatural forces to do man’s bidding. Not knowing the real cause of many everyday happenings, people in earlier societies believed that the repetition of certain magical words or incantations, or the performance of some ritual, could bring about certain desired effects. What lent credibility to this sort of magic was that some of the rituals actually worked. For example, the medicine men—essentially magicians or sorcerers—of the Mentawai Islands west of Sumatra were reported to be surprisingly effective in curing people suffering from diarrhea. Their magical formula was to have the sufferers lie face down near the edge of a cliff and lick the ground from time to time. What made it work? The soil on the cliffs contained kaolin, the white clay commonly used in some of today’s diarrhea medicines.
A few successes of this kind quickly negated all the failures and established the reputation of the practitioners. They soon became members held in awe and high esteem—priests, chiefs, shamans, medicine men, witch doctors, mediums. People went to them with their problems, such as the healing and the prevention of sickness, finding lost items, identifying thieves, warding off evil influences, and meting out vengeance. Eventually there came to be a large body of superstitious practices and rituals that dealt with these matters as well as other events in life, like birth, coming of age, betrothal, marriage, death, and burial. The power and mystery of magic soon dominated every aspect of the people’s lives.

Rain Dances and Spells
In spite of the enormous variety in the magical practices of different peoples, the basic ideas behind them are remarkably similar. First, there is the idea that like produces like, that a desired effect can be produced by mimicking it. This is sometimes called imitative magic. For example, when shortage of rain threatened their crops, the Omaha Indians of North America danced around a vessel of water. Then one of them drank some of the water and spit it into the air in imitation of a sprinkle or shower. Or a man might roll on the ground like a wounded bear to ensure that he would be successful in his bear hunt.
Other people had more elaborate rituals, including chants and offerings. The Chinese would make a large paper or wooden dragon, their rain-god, and parade it around, or they would take the idol of their deity out of the temple and place it in the sun so that it could feel the heat and perhaps send rain. The ritual of the Ngoni people of East Africa includes pouring beer into a pot buried in the ground in a rain temple and then praying, “Master Chauta, you have hardened your heart towards us, what would you have us do? We must perish indeed. Give your children the rains, there is the beer we have given you.” Then they drink the remaining beer. This is followed by song and dance and the shaking of branches dipped in water.
Another idea behind magical practices is that objects that have belonged to a person continue to influence him even after they are separated from him. This led to the practice of casting a spell on someone by working on something that once belonged to that person. Even in 16th- and 17th-century Europe and England, people still believed in witches and wizards who could cause people harm with this kind of power. The techniques included such things as making a wax image of a person and sticking pins into it, writing his name on a piece of paper and then burning it, burying a piece of his clothing, or doing other things to his hair, fingernail cuttings, sweat, or even excrement. The extent of these and other practices can be seen by the fact that Acts of Parliament were enacted in England in 1542, 1563, and 1604 declaring witchcraft a capital offense. In one manner or another, this form of magic has been practiced by people in almost every nation throughout the ages.

The Future in Signs and Omens
Often magic is employed to uncover hidden information or to peer into the future by signs and omens. This is known as divination, and the Babylonians were noted for it. According to the book Magic, Supernaturalism, and Religion, “they were masters in the arts of prescience, predicting the future from the livers and intestines of slaughtered animals, from fire and smoke, and from the brilliancy of precious stones; they foretold events from the murmuring of springs and from the shape of plants. . . . Atmospheric signs, rain, clouds, wind, and lightning were interpreted as forebodings; the cracking of furniture and wooden panels foretold future events. . . . Flies and other insects, as well as dogs, were the carriers of occult messages.”
The Bible book of Ezekiel reports that on one military campaign, “the king of Babylon stood still at the crossways, at the head of the two ways, in order to resort to divination. He has shaken the arrows. He has asked by means of the teraphim; he has looked into the liver.” (Ezekiel 21:21) Conjurers, sorcerers, and magic-practicing priests were also a regular part of the Babylonian court.—Daniel 2:1-3, 27, 28.
People of other nations, both Oriental and Occidental, also dabbled in many forms of divination. The Greeks consulted their oracles regarding great political events as well as mundane private affairs such as marriage, travel, and children. The most famous of these was the oracle of Delphi. Answers, thought to be from the god Apollo, were provided through the priestess, or Pythia, in unintelligible sounds and were interpreted by the priests to create ambiguous verses. A classic example was the answer given to Croesus, king of Lydia, which said: “If Croesus crosses the Halys, he will destroy a mighty empire.” It turned out that the mighty empire destroyed was his own. Croesus met defeat at the hands of Cyrus the Persian when he crossed the Halys to invade Cappadocia.
In the West the craft of divination reached a peak with the Romans, who were preoccupied with omens and portents in nearly everything they did. People of every social class believed in astrology, witchcraft, talismans, fortune-telling, and many other forms of divination. And according to an authority on Roman history, Edward Gibbon, “the various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true.” The famous statesman and orator Cicero was an expert in looking for omens in the flight of birds. The Roman historian Petronius observed that judging by the multitude of religions and cults in some Roman towns, there must have been more gods than people in them.
In China, more than 100,000 pieces of oracle bones and shells dating from the second millennium B.C.E. (the Shang dynasty) have been unearthed. They were used by the Shang priests in seeking divine guidance for everything from weather to the movement of troops. The priests wrote questions in an ancient script on these bones. Then they heated the bones and examined the cracks that appeared and wrote down the answers right on the same bones. Some scholars believe that from this ancient script, Chinese writing developed.
The most well-known ancient Chinese treatise on divination is the I Ching (Canon of Changes; pronounced Yee-Jing), said to be written by the first two Chou emperors, Wen Wang and Chou Kung, in the 12th century B.C.E. It contains detailed explanations of the interplay of the two opposing forces yin and yang (dark-bright, negative-positive, female-male, moon-sun, earth-heaven, and so on), which many Chinese still believe to be the controlling principles behind all life’s affairs. It presents the picture that everything is ever changing and nothing is permanent. To succeed in any undertaking, one must be aware of and act in harmony with all the changes of the moment. Thus, people ask questions and cast lots and then turn to the I Ching for answers. Through the centuries, the I Ching has been the basis for all manner of fortune-telling, geomancy, and other forms of divination in China.

From Astronomy to Astrology
The orderliness of the sun, moon, stars, and planets has long been a source of fascination for people on earth. Star catalogs dating back to 1800 B.C.E. have been discovered in Mesopotamia. Based on such information, the Babylonians were able to predict many astronomical events, such as lunar eclipses, the rising and setting of constellations, and certain movements of the planets. The Egyptians, Assyrians, Chinese, Indians, Greeks, Romans, and other ancient people likewise observed the sky and kept detailed records of astronomical events. From these records they built their calendars and ordered their yearly activities.
From the astronomical observations, it became noticeable that certain events on earth seemed to synchronize with certain celestial events. For example, the change of the seasons followed closely the movement of the sun, the tides ebbed and flowed in phase with the moon, the annual flooding of the Nile always followed the appearance of Sirius, the brightest star. The natural conclusion was that the heavenly bodies played a significant role in causing these and other events on earth. In fact, the Egyptians called Sirius the Bringer of the Nile. The notion that the stars influenced events on earth quickly led to the idea that the heavenly bodies could be counted on to foretell the future. Thus astronomy gave birth to astrology. Soon, kings and emperors kept official astrologers in their courts to consult the stars concerning important national affairs. But the common people likewise looked to the stars regarding their personal fortunes.
The Babylonians, once again, come into the picture. They viewed the stars as the heavenly abodes of the gods, just as the temples were their earthly abodes. This gave rise to the concept of grouping the stars into constellations as well as the belief that disturbances in the heavens, such as eclipses or appearances of certain bright stars or comets, foreboded sorrow and war on earth. Hundreds of reports by astrologers to the kings were found among the artifacts unearthed in Mesopotamia. Some of these stated, for instance, that an impending lunar eclipse was a sign that a certain enemy would suffer defeat or that the appearance of a certain planet in a certain constellation would spell “great wrath” on earth.
The extent to which the Babylonians relied on this form of divination can further be seen in the taunting words of the prophet Isaiah against them when foretelling Babylon’s destruction: “Stand still, now, with your spells and with the abundance of your sorceries, in which you have toiled from your youth . . . Let them stand up, now, and save you, the worshipers of the heavens, the lookers at the stars, those giving out knowledge at the new moons concerning the things that will come upon you.”—Isaiah 47:12, 13.
From Babylon, astrology was exported to Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome, and Arabia. In the East, the Hindus and Chinese also had their elaborate systems of astrology. The “Magi” that the evangelizer Matthew reported came to the infant Jesus were “astrologers from eastern parts.” (Matthew 2:1, 2) Some scholars believe that these astrologers might have been of the Chaldean and Medo-Persian school of astrology from Parthia, which had been a province of Persia and later became the independent Parthian Empire.
It was the Greeks, however, who developed astrology into the form that is practiced today. In the second century C.E., Claudius Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer in Alexandria, Egypt, gathered all the existing astrological information into four books, called the Tetrabiblos, that have served as the basic text for astrology until now. From this, developed what is commonly called natal astrology, that is, a system for predicting a person’s future by studying his birth chart, or horoscope—a chart showing the positions of the sun, the moon, and various planets among the constellations as seen from a person’s birthplace at the moment of his birth.
By the 14th and 15th centuries, astrology had gained wide acceptance in the West. Universities taught it as a discipline, which required working knowledge of languages and mathematics. Astrologers were viewed as scholars. The writings of Shakespeare are full of allusions to astrological influences on human affairs. Every royal court and many noblemen retained private astrologers for ready consultation. Hardly any project—be it war, building, business, or travel—was undertaken without the stars’ being consulted first. Astrology had become respectable.
Even though the work of astronomers like Copernicus and Galileo, along with the advance of scientific inquiry, has greatly discredited astrology as a legitimate science, it has survived until this day. (See box, page 85.) To heads of State as well as to the man on the street, whether from technologically advanced nations or remote villages in developing countries, this mysterious craft, initiated by the Babylonians, developed by the Greeks, and further expanded by the Arabs, still wields wide influence today.

Destiny Written in the Face and the Palm
If looking to the heavens for signs and omens about the future seems intangible, there are other more immediate and easily accessible ways available to those who dabble in the art of divination. The Zohar, or Sefer ha-zohar (Hebrew, Book of Splendor), a 13th-century text of Jewish mysticism, declared: “On the firmament which envelops the universe, we see many figures formed by the stars and planets. They reveal hidden things and profound mysteries. Similarly, upon our skin which encircles the human being there exist forms and traits that are the stars of our bodies.” This philosophy led to further ways of divination, or foretelling the future, by examining the face and the palm of the hand for prophetic signs. Both in the East and in the West, such practices are still widespread. But it is clear that their origins are rooted in astrology and magic.
Physiognomy is fortune-telling by examining the features of the face, such as the shape of the eyes, nose, teeth, and ears. In Strasbourg in 1531, one John of Indagine published a book on the subject in which he provided vivid engravings of faces with a variety of shapes of eyes, nose, ears, and so on, along with his interpretations. Interestingly, he quoted the words of Jesus Christ at Matthew 6:22, “If, then, your eye is simple, your whole body will be bright,” as the basis for saying that large, bright, and round eyes signified integrity and good health, whereas sunken and small eyes were signs of envy, malice, and suspicion. However, in a similar book, Compendium of Physiognomy, published in 1533, the author Bartolommeo Cocle claimed that large and round eyes signified a fickle and lazy person.
According to diviners, next to the head, the hand reflects the forces from above more than any other part of the body. Thus, reading the lines of the hand to determine one’s character and destiny is another popular form of divination—chiromancy, commonly referred to simply as palmistry. Chiromancers of the Middle Ages searched the Bible for support of their craft. They came up with verses such as “He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work” and “Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.” (Job 37:7; Proverbs 3:16, KJ) The bumps, or mounts, of the hand were also considered because it was thought they represented the planets and thus revealed something about the individual and his future.
Fortune-telling by studying the features of the face and of the hand is immensely popular in the Orient. Besides the professional readers and advisers offering their services, amateurs and do-it-yourselfers abound because books and publications of every level are widely available. People often dabble in palm reading as a source of amusement, but many take such matters seriously. In general, however, people are seldom content with employing just one means of divination. When they are faced with serious problems or important decisions, they will go to their temple, be it Buddhist, Taoist, Shinto, or other, to inquire of the gods, then to the astrologer to consult the stars, to the fortune-teller to read their palm and look at their face, and, after all of that, come home and inquire of their departed ancestors. Somewhere they hope to find an answer that seems appropriate to them.

Just Innocent Fun?
It is natural that everyone should want to know what the future holds. The desire to secure good fortune and to avert what may be harmful is also universal. That is why people throughout the ages have looked to spirits and deities for guidance. In so doing, they became involved in spiritism, magic, astrology, and other superstitious practices. People in the past wore amulets and talismans to protect themselves, and they turned to medicine men and shamans for cures. People today still carry “Saint” Christopher medals or wear “good luck” charms, and they have their séances, Ouija boards, crystal balls, horoscopes, and tarot cards. Where spiritism and superstition are concerned, mankind seems to have changed little.
Many people, of course, realize that these are nothing but superstitions and that there is no real basis to them. And they might add that they do it just for fun. Others even argue that magic and divination are actually beneficial because they provide psychological assurance to people who might otherwise be too intimidated by the obstacles they face in life. But is all of this just innocent fun or a psychological boost? What really is the source of the spiritistic and magical practices that we have considered in this chapter as well as the many others that we have not mentioned?
In the course of examining the various aspects of spiritism, magic, and divination, we have noted that they are closely tied to beliefs in departed souls and the existence of spirits, good and evil. Thus, fundamentally, belief in spirits, magic, and divination is based on a form of polytheism rooted in the doctrine of the immortality of the human soul. Is this a sound basis on which to build one’s religion? Would you consider worship based on such a foundation acceptable?
The Christians in the first century were confronted with the same questions. They were surrounded by the Greeks and Romans, with their many gods and deities as well as their superstitious rituals. One ritual was the practice of offering food to idols and then sharing in eating the food. Should anyone who loved the true God and was interested in pleasing him participate in such rituals? Note how the apostle Paul answered that question.
“Now concerning the eating of foods offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one. For even though there are those who are called ‘gods,’ whether in heaven or on earth, just as there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords,’ there is actually to us one God the Father, out of whom all things are, and we for him.” (1 Corinthians 8:4-6) To Paul and the first-century Christians, true religion was not the worship of many gods, not polytheism, but was devotion to only “one God the Father,” whose name the Bible reveals when it says: “That people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, you alone are the Most High over all the earth.”—Psalm 83:18.
We should note, however, that although the apostle Paul said “an idol is nothing,” he did not say that the “gods” and “lords” to whom people turned with their magic, divination, and sacrifices were nonexistent. What, then, is the point? Paul made it clear later in the same letter when he wrote: “But I say that the things which the nations sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, and not to God.” (1 Corinthians 10:20) Yes, through their gods and lords, the nations were actually worshiping the demons—angelic, or spirit, creatures who rebelled against the true God and joined forces with their leader, Satan the Devil.—2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6; Revelation 12:7-9.
Often people take pity on the so-called primitive people who were enslaved by their superstitions and fears. They say they are repulsed by the bloody sacrifices and savage rites. And rightly so. Yet, to this day we still hear about voodoo, satanic cults, even human sacrifices. Though these may be extreme cases, they nonetheless demonstrate that interest in the occult is still very much alive. It might begin with ‘innocent fun’ and curiosity, but the result is often tragedy and death. How wise it is to heed the Bible’s warning: “Keep your senses, be watchful. Your adversary, the Devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone.”—1 Peter 5:8; Isaiah 8:19, 20.
Having considered how religion began, the diversity in ancient mythologies, and the various forms of spiritism, magic, and superstition, we will now turn our attention to the more formal major religions of the world—Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto, Judaism, the churches of Christendom, and Islām. How did they get started? What do they teach? What influence do they have on their believers? These and other questions will be considered in the following chapters.

Is Astrology Scientific?
Astrology claims that the sun, moon, stars, and planets can influence affairs on earth and that the configuration of these heavenly bodies at the moment of one’s birth plays a role in one’s life. However, scientific discoveries present formidable challenges:
▪ The work of astronomers like Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler has clearly demonstrated that the earth is not the center of the universe. It is also known now that often the stars that appear to be in a constellation are not really bound in a group. Some of them may be deep in space, while others may be relatively near. Thus, the zodiacal properties of the various constellations are purely imaginary.
▪ The planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto were unknown to early astrologers because they were not discovered until the invention of the telescope. How, then, were their “influences” accounted for by the astrological charts drawn up centuries earlier? Furthermore, why should the “influence” of one planet be “good” and another “evil,” when science knows now that basically they are all masses of lifeless rock or gases, hurtling in space?
▪ The science of genetics tells us that the basis of our personality traits is formed, not at birth, but at conception, when one of the millions of sperm cells from the father unites with a single egg cell from the mother. Yet, astrology fixes one’s horoscope by the moment of birth. This difference of about nine months should give one a completely different personality profile in astrological terms.
▪ The timing of the sun’s journey among the constellations as seen by an earthbound observer is today about one month behind what it was 2,000 years ago when the astrology charts and tables were drawn up. Thus, astrology would cast a person born in late June or early July as a Cancer (highly sensitive, moody, reserved). Actually, however, the sun is in the constellation Gemini at that time, which should make the person communicative, witty, chatty.
Clearly, astrology has no rational or scientific ground on which to stand.

Mankind's Search for God

Chapter 3
Common Threads in Mythology
WHY consider myths? Are they not just fictions from the distant past? While it is true that many are based on fiction, others are based on fact. Take for example the myths and legends found worldwide that are based on the fact of the world Deluge, or Flood, that the Bible relates. A reason for considering myths is that they are the foundation for beliefs and rites still found in religions today. For example, belief in an immortal soul can be traced from ancient Assyro-Babylonian myths through Egyptian, Greek, and Roman mythology to Christendom, where it has become an underlying tenet in her theology. Myths are evidence that ancient man was searching for gods, as well as for a meaning in life. In this chapter we will briefly cover some of the common themes that arise in the myths of the world’s major cultures. As we review these mythologies, we will note how creation, the Flood, false gods and demigods, the immortal soul, and sun worship crop up regularly as common threads in the patchwork of mythology. But why should this be the case? Very often there is a kernel of historical fact, a person, or an event that has later been exaggerated or distorted to form the myth. One of these historical facts is the Bible’s record of creation.

Fact and Fiction About Creation
Creation myths abound, but none have the simple logic of the Bible’s creation record. (Genesis, chapters 1, 2) For example, the account given in Greek mythology sounds barbaric. The first Greek to put myths in writing in a systematic way was Hesiod, who wrote his Theogony in the eighth century B.C.E. He explains how the gods and the world began. He starts off with Gaea, or Gaia (Earth), who gives birth to Uranus (Heaven). What follows is explained by scholar Jasper Griffin in The Oxford History of the Classical World: “Hesiod tells the story, known to Homer, of the succession of sky gods. First Uranus was supreme, but he suppressed his children, and Gaia encouraged his son Cronos to castrate him. Cronos in turn devoured his own children, until his wife Rhea gave him a stone to eat in place of Zeus; the child Zeus was brought up in Crete, compelled his father to disgorge his siblings, and with them and other aid defeated Cronos and his Titans and cast them down into Tartarus.” From what source did the Greeks get this strange mythology? The same author answers: “Its ultimate origin seems to have been Sumerian. In these eastern stories we find a succession of gods, and the motifs of castration, of swallowing, and of a stone recur in ways which, though varying, show that the resemblance with Hesiod is no coincidence.” We have to look to ancient Mesopotamia and Babylon as the source of many myths that permeated other cultures. The ancient mythology of Chinese folk religion is not always easy to define, since many written records were destroyed in the period 213-191 B.C.E. Some myths have remained, however, such as the one describing how the earth was formed. A professor of Oriental art, Anthony Christie, writes: “We learn that Chaos was like a hen’s egg. Neither Heaven nor Earth existed. From the egg P’an-ku was born, while of its heavy elements Earth was made and Sky from the light elements. P’an-ku is represented as a dwarf, clad in a bearskin or a cloak of leaves. For 18,000 years the distance between Earth and Sky grew daily by ten feet, and P’an-ku grew at the same rate so that his body filled the gap. When he died, different parts of his body became various natural elements. . . . His body fleas became the human race.” From South America an Inca legend explains how a mythical creator gave speech to each nation. “He gave to each nation the language it was to speak . . . He gave being and soul to each one as well [as] the men and the women and commanded each nation to sink below the earth. Thence each nation passed underground and came up in the places to which he assigned them.” (The Fables and Rites of the Yncas, by Cristóbal de Molina of Cuzco, quoted in South American Mythology) In this case it appears that the Bible’s account of the confusion of languages at Babel is the factual kernel for this Inca myth. (Genesis 11:1-9) But now let us turn our attention to the Deluge described in the Bible at Genesis 7:17-24.

The Flood—Fact or Myth?
Taking us back to some 4,500 years ago, to about 2,500 B.C.E., the Bible tells us that rebel spirit sons of God materialized in human form and “went taking wives for themselves.” This unnatural interbreeding produced the violent Nephilim, “the mighty ones who were of old, the men of fame.” Their lawless conduct affected the pre-Flood world to the point that Jehovah said: “‘I am going to wipe men whom I have created off the surface of the ground . . . because I do regret that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah.” The account then continues with the specific and practical steps Noah had to take to save himself, as well as his family and a variety of animal kinds, from the Flood.—Genesis 6:1-8, 13–8:22; 1 Peter 3:19, 20; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6. The record of pre-Flood events related in Genesis is branded as myth by modern critics. Yet, the history of Noah was accepted and believed by faithful men, such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jesus Christ, and the apostles Peter and Paul. It is also supported by the fact that it is reflected in so many mythologies worldwide, including the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh as well as the myths of China and of the Aztecs, Incas, and Maya. With the Bible record in mind, let us now consider the Assyro-Babylonian mythology and its references to a flood.—Isaiah 54:9; Ezekiel 14:20; Matthew 24:37; Hebrews 11:7.

The Flood and the God-Man Gilgamesh
Going back in history possibly some 4,000 years, we encounter the famous Akkadian myth called the Epic of Gilgamesh. Our knowledge of this is based mainly on a cuneiform text that came from the library of Ashurbanipal, who reigned 668-627 B.C.E., in ancient Nineveh. It is the story of the exploits of Gilgamesh, described as being two-thirds god and one-third man, or a demigod. One version of the epic states: “In Uruk he built walls, a great rampart, and the temple of blessed Eanna for the god of the firmament Anu, and for Ishtar the goddess of love . . . , our lady of love and war.” However, Gilgamesh was not exactly a pleasant creature to have around. The inhabitants of Uruk complained to the gods: “His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior’s daughter nor the wife of the noble.” What action did the gods take in response to the people’s protest? The goddess Aruru created Enkidu to be the human rival of Gilgamesh. However, instead of being enemies, they became close friends. In the course of the epic, Enkidu died. Shattered, Gilgamesh cried: “When I die, shall I not be like Enkidu? Woe has entered my belly. Fearing death, I roam over the steppe.” He wanted the secret of immortality and set out to find Utnapishtim, the deluge survivor who had been given immortality with the gods. Gilgamesh eventually finds Utnapishtim, who tells him the story of the flood. As found in Epic tablet XI, known as the Flood Tablet, Utnapishtim recounts instructions given to him concerning the flood: “Tear down (this) house, build a ship! Give up possessions, seek thou life. . . . Aboard the ship take thou the seed of all living things.” Does this not sound somewhat similar to the Bible’s reference to Noah and the Flood? But Utnapishtim cannot bestow immortality upon Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh, disappointed, returns home to Uruk. The account concludes with his death. The overall message of the epic is the sadness and frustration of death and the hereafter. Those ancient people did not find the God of truth and hope. However, the epic’s link to the Bible’s simple account of the pre-Flood era is quite evident. Now let us turn to the Flood account as it appears in other legends.

Flood Legend in Other Cultures
Even earlier than the account in the Epic of Gilgamesh is the Sumerian myth that presents “Ziusudra, the counterpart of the biblical Noah, who is described as a pious, a god-fearing king, constantly on the lookout for divine revelations in dreams or incantations.” (Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament) According to the same source, this myth “offers the closest and most striking parallel to biblical material as yet uncovered in Sumerian literature.” The Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations, which came later, were influenced by the Sumerian. The book China—A History in Art tells us that one of the ancient rulers of China was Yü, “the conqueror of the Great Flood. Yü channeled flood waters into rivers and seas to resettle his people.” Mythology expert Joseph Campbell wrote about the Chinese “Period of the Great Ten,” saying: “To this important age, which terminates in a Deluge, ten emperors were assigned in the early Chou-time mythology. Hence, it appears that what we are viewing here may be a local transformation of the series of the old Sumerian king list.” Campbell then cited other items from Chinese legends that appeared to “reinforce the argument for a Mesopotamian source.” That takes us back to the same basic source of many myths. However, the story of the Flood also appears in the Americas, for example, in Mexico during the period of the Aztecs in the 15th and 16th centuries C.E. Aztec mythology spoke of four previous ages, during the first of which the earth was inhabited by giants. (That is another reminder of the Nephilim, the giants referred to in the Bible at Genesis 6:4.) It included a primeval flood legend in which “the waters above merge with those below, obliterating the horizons and making of everything a timeless cosmic ocean.” The god controlling rain and water was Tlaloc. However, his rain was not obtained cheaply but was given “in exchange for the blood of sacrificed victims whose flowing tears would simulate and so stimulate the flow of rain.” (Mythology—An Illustrated Encyclopedia) Another legend states that the fourth era was ruled by Chalchiuhtlicue, the water-goddess, whose universe perished by a flood. Men were saved by becoming fish! Similarly, the Incas had their Flood legends. British writer Harold Osborne states: “Perhaps the most ubiquitous features in South American myth are the stories of a deluge . . . Myths of a deluge are very widespread among both the highland peoples and the tribes of the tropical lowlands. The deluge is commonly connected with the creation and with an epiphany [manifestation] of the creator-god. . . . It is sometimes regarded as a divine punishment wiping out existing humankind in preparation for the emergence of a new race.” Likewise, the Maya in Mexico and Central America had their Flood legend that involved a universal deluge, or haiyococab, which means “water over the earth.” Catholic bishop Las Casas wrote that the Guatemalan Indians “called it Butic, which is the word which means flood of many waters and means the final judgment, and so they believe that another Butic is about to come, which is another flood and judgment, not of water, but of fire.” Many more flood legends exist around the world, but the few already quoted serve to confirm the kernel of the legend, the historical event related in the book of Genesis.

The All-Pervasive Immortal Soul Belief
However, not all myths have a basis in fact or in the Bible. In his search for God, man has clutched at straws, deluded by the illusion of immortality. As we will see throughout this book, the belief in an immortal soul or variations thereof is a legacy that has come down to us through the millenniums. The people of the ancient Assyro-Babylonian culture believed in an afterlife. The New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology explains: “Under the earth, beyond the abyss of the Apsu [full of fresh water and encircling the earth], lay the infernal dwelling-place to which men descended after death. It was the ‘Land of no return’ . . . In these regions of eternal darkness the souls of the dead—edimmu—‘clad, like birds, in a garment of wings’ are all jumbled together.” According to the myth, this subterranean world was ruled over by the goddess Ereshkigal, “Princess of the great earth.” The Egyptians likewise had their idea of an immortal soul. Before the soul could reach a happy haven, it had to be weighed against Maat, the goddess of truth and justice, who was symbolized by the feather of truth. Either Anubis, the jackal-headed god, or Horus, the falcon, helped in the procedure. If approved by Osiris, that soul would go on to share bliss with the gods. (See illustration, page 50.) As is so often the case, here we find the common thread of the Babylonian immortal soul concept shaping people’s religion, lives, and actions. The old Chinese mythology included a belief in survival after death and the need to keep ancestors happy. Ancestors were “conceived as living and powerful spirits, all vitally concerned about the welfare of their living descendants, but capable of punitive anger if displeased.” The dead were to be given every aid, including companions in death. Thus, “some Shang kings . . . were buried with anywhere from a hundred to three hundred human victims, who were to be his attendants in the next world. (This practice links ancient China with Egypt, Africa, Japan, and other places, where similar sacrifices were made.)” (Man’s Religions, by John B. Noss) In these cases belief in an immortal soul led to human sacrifices.—Contrast Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10; Isaiah 38:18, 19. The Greeks, having formulated many gods in their mythology, were also concerned with the dead and their destination. According to the myths, the one put in charge of that realm of murky darkness was the son of Cronus and brother of the gods Zeus and Poseidon. His name was Hades, and his realm was named after him. How did the souls of the dead reach Hades? Writer Ellen Switzer explains: “There were . . . frightening creatures in the underworld. There was Charon, who rowed the ferry that transported those who had recently died from the land of the living to the underworld. Charon required payment for his ferry service [across the river Styx], and the Greeks often buried their dead with a coin under the tongue to make sure that they had the proper fare. Dead souls who could not pay were kept on the wrong side of the river, in a kind of no-man’s-land, and might return to haunt the living.” The Greek mythology of the soul went on to influence the Roman concept, and the Greek philosophers, such as Plato (about 427-347 B.C.E.), strongly influenced early apostate Christian thinkers who accepted the immortal soul teaching into their doctrine, even though it had no Biblical basis. The Aztecs, Incas, and Maya also believed in an immortal soul. Death was as much a mystery to them as it was to other civilizations. They had their ceremonies and beliefs to help them reconcile themselves to it. As the archaeological historian Victor W. von Hagen explains in his book The Ancient Sun Kingdoms of the Americas: “The dead were in reality living: they had merely passed from one phase to another; they were invisible, impalpable, invulnerable. The dead . . . had become the unseen members of the clan.”—Contrast Judges 16:30; Ezekiel 18:4, 20. The same source tells us that “the [Inca] Indian believed in immortality; in fact he believed one never died, . . . the dead body merely became undead and it took on the influences of the unseen powers.” The Maya too believed in a soul and in 13 heavens and 9 hells. Thus, wherever we turn, people have wanted to deny the reality of death, and the immortal soul has been the crutch to lean on.—Isaiah 38:18; Acts 3:23. Africa’s mythologies likewise include references to a surviving soul. Many Africans live in awe of the souls of the dead. The New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology states: “This belief is bound up with another—the continuing existence of the soul after death. Magicians are able to call on souls to aid their powers. The souls of the dead often transmigrate into the bodies of animals, or may even be reincarnated in plants.” As a consequence, the Zulu will not kill some snakes that they believe to be the spirits of relatives. The Masai of southeastern Africa believe in a creator called ’Ng ai, who places a guardian angel by each Masai as a protection. At the moment of death, the angel takes the warrior’s soul to the hereafter. The previously quoted Larousse supplies a Zulu death-legend involving the first man, Unkulunkulu, who for this myth had become the supreme being. He sent the chameleon to tell mankind, “Men shall not die!” The chameleon was slow and got distracted on the way. So Unkulunkulu sent a different message by means of a lizard, saying, “Men shall die!” The lizard got there first, “and ever since no man has escaped death.” With variations, this same legend exists among the Bechuana, Basuto, and Baronga tribes. As we pursue the study of mankind’s search for God, we will see even further how important the myth of the immortal soul has been and still is to mankind.

Sun Worship and Human Sacrifices
The mythology of Egypt embraces an extensive pantheon of gods and goddesses. As in so many other ancient societies, while the Egyptians searched for God, they gravitated toward worshiping that which sustained their daily life—the sun. Thus, under the name of Ra (Amon-Ra), they venerated the sovereign lord of the sky, who took a boat ride every day from east to west. When night fell, he followed a dangerous course through the underworld. Human sacrifices were a common feature in the sun worship of the Aztec, Inca, and Maya religions. The Aztecs celebrated a constant cycle of religious festivals, with human sacrifices to their various gods, especially in the worship of the sun-god Tezcatlipoca. Also, in the festival of the fire-god Xiuhtecutli (Huehueteotl), “prisoners of war danced together with their captors and . . . were whirled about a dazzling fire and then dumped into the coals, fished out while still alive to have their still palpitating hearts cut out to be offered to the gods.”—The Ancient Sun Kingdoms of the Americas. Farther south, the Inca religion had its own sacrifices and myths. In ancient Inca worship, children and animals were offered to the sun-god Inti and to Viracocha, the creator.

Mythical Gods and Goddesses
The most prominent of the Egyptian triads is that made up of Isis, symbol of divine motherhood; Osiris, her brother and consort; and Horus, their son, usually represented by a falcon. Isis is sometimes portrayed in Egyptian statues offering her breast to her child in a pose very reminiscent of Christendom’s virgin-and-child statues and paintings, which came on the scene over two thousand years later. In time Isis’ husband, Osiris, achieved popularity as the god of the dead because he offered hope of an eternally happy life for the souls of the dead in the hereafter. Egypt’s Hathor was the goddess of love and joy, music and dancing. She became the queen of the dead, helping them with a ladder to achieve heaven. As the New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology explains, she was celebrated with great festivals, “above all on New Year’s Day, which was the anniversary of her birth. Before dawn the priestesses would bring Hathor’s image out on to the terrace to expose it to the rays of the rising sun. The rejoicing which followed was a pretext for a veritable carnival, and the day ended in song and intoxication.” Have things changed all that much in New Year celebrations thousands of years later? The Egyptians also had many animal gods and goddesses in their pantheon, such as Apis the bull, Banaded the ram, Heqt the frog, Hathor the cow, and Sebek the crocodile. (Romans 1:21-23) It was in this religious setting that the Israelites found themselves in captivity as slaves in the 16th century B.C.E. To release them from Pharaoh’s stubborn grip, Jehovah, the God of Israel, had to send ten different plagues against Egypt. (Exodus 7:14–12:36) Those plagues amounted to a calculated humiliation of the mythological gods of Egypt. Now let us move on to the gods of ancient Greece and Rome. Rome borrowed many gods from ancient Greece, along with their virtues and vices. For example, Venus and Flora were brazen prostitutes; Bacchus was a drunkard and reveler; Mercury was a highway robber; and Apollo was a seducer of women. It is reported that Jupiter, the father of the gods, committed adultery or incest with about 59 women! (What a reminder of the rebel angels who cohabited with women before the Flood!) Since worshipers tend to reflect the conduct of their gods, is it any wonder that Roman emperors such as Tiberius, Nero, and Caligula led debauched lives as adulterers, fornicators, and murderers? In their religion, the Romans incorporated gods from many traditions. For example, they took up with enthusiasm the worship of Mithras, the Persian god of light, who became their sun-god and the Syrian goddess Atargatis (Ishtar). They converted the Grecian Artemis the huntress into Diana and had their own variations of the Egyptian Isis. They also adopted the Celtic triple goddesses of fertility.—Acts 19:23-28. For the practice of their public cults at hundreds of shrines and temples, they had a variety of priests, all of whom “came under the authority of the Pontifex Maximus [Supreme Pontiff], who was the head of the state religion.” (Atlas of the Roman World) The same atlas states that one of the Roman ceremonies was the taurobolium, in which “the worshiper stood in a pit and was bathed in the blood of a bull sacrificed over him. He emerged from this rite in a state of purified innocence.”

Christian Myths and Legends?
According to some modern critics, Christianity also embraces myths and legends. Is that really so? Many scholars reject as myths the virgin birth of Jesus, his miracles, and his resurrection. Some even say he never existed but that his myth is a carryover from more ancient mythology and sun worship. As mythology expert Joseph Campbell wrote: “Several scholars have suggested, therefore, that there was never either John [the Baptizer] or Jesus, but only a water-god and a sun-god.” But we need to remember that many of these same scholars are atheists and thus reject totally any belief in God. However, this skeptical point of view flies in the face of historical evidence. For example, the Jewish historian Josephus (c.37-c.100 C.E.) wrote: “To some of the Jews the destruction of Herod’s army seemed to be divine vengeance, and certainly a just vengeance, for his treatment of John, surnamed the Baptist. For Herod had put him to death, though he was a good man.”—Mark 1:14; 6:14-29. This same historian also testified to the historical existence of Jesus Christ, when he wrote that there arose “a certain Jesus, a wizard of a man, if indeed he may be called a man . . . whom his disciples call a son of God.” He continued by saying that “Pilate had sentenced him . . . And even now the race of those who are called ‘Messianists’ after him is not extinct.”—Mark 15:1-5, 22-26; Acts 11:26. Therefore, the Christian apostle Peter could write with total conviction as an eyewitness of Jesus’ transfiguration, saying: “No, it was not by following artfully contrived false stories [Greek, my´thos] that we acquainted you with the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but it was by having become eyewitnesses of his magnificence. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when words such as these were borne to him by the magnificent glory: ‘This is my son, my beloved, whom I myself have approved.’ Yes, these words we heard borne from heaven while we were with him in the holy mountain.”—2 Peter 1:16-18. In this conflict between man’s “expert” opinion and God’s Word, we must apply the principle stated earlier: “What, then, is the case? If some did not express faith, will their lack of faith perhaps make the faithfulness of God without effect? Never may that happen! But let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, even as it is written: ‘That you might be proved righteous in your words and might win when you are being judged.’”—Romans 3:3, 4.

Common Threads
This brief review of some of the world’s mythologies has served to indicate some common features, many of which can be traced back to Babylon, the Mesopotamian cradle of most religions. There are common threads, whether in the facts of creation, or in accounts about a period when demigods and giants occupied the land and a deluge destroyed the wicked, or in the basic religious concepts of sun-worship and an immortal soul. From a Biblical viewpoint, we can explain these common threads when we recall that after the Flood, at God’s behest mankind spread out from Babel in Mesopotamia more than 4,200 years ago. Although they separated, forming families and tribes with different languages, they started off with the same basic understanding of prior history and religious concepts. (Genesis 11:1-9) Over the centuries, this understanding became distorted and adorned in each culture, resulting in many of the fictions, legends, and myths that have come down to us today. These myths, divorced from Bible truth, failed to bring mankind nearer to the true God. However, mankind have also expressed their religious sentiments in various other ways—spiritism, shamanism, magic, ancestor worship, and so on. Do they tell us anything about mankind’s search for God?
Based on The World Book Encyclopedia, 1987, Volume 13.
[See Table above]

Gods of the Roman Soldier
Rome was famous for its disciplined army. The cohesion of its empire depended on the morale and the effectiveness of the military legions. Was religion a factor to be reckoned with? Yes, and fortunately for us, the Romans left behind clear evidence of their occupation in the form of highways, fortresses, aqueducts, coliseums, and temples. For example, in Northumbria, in the north of England, there is the famous Hadrian’s Wall, built about 122 C.E. What have excavations revealed about Roman garrison activity and the role of religion? In the Housesteads Museum, located near the excavated ruins of a Roman garrison on Hadrian’s Wall, an exhibit states: “The religious life of a Roman soldier was divided into three parts. Firstly . . . the cult of the Deified Emperors and the worship of the protecting gods of Rome such as Jupiter, Victory and Mars. An altar was dedicated to Jupiter every year on the parade ground of each fort. All soldiers were expected to participate in the festivals celebrating the birthdays, accession days and victories of the Deified Emperors.” How similar to the customs of armies of today, in which chaplains, altars, and flags are a regular part of army worship. But what was the second feature of the Roman soldier’s religious life? It was the worship of the protecting gods and the guardian spirit of their particular unit “as well as the gods brought from their native lands.” “Finally there were the cults followed by the individual. As long as a soldier fulfilled his obligations to the official cults he was free to worship any god he wished.” That sounds like a very liberal freedom-of-worship situation, but “exceptions were those religions, of which Druidism was one, whose practices were considered inhumane, and those whose loyalty to the State was suspect, for example Christianity.”—Compare Luke 20:21-25; 23:1, 2; Acts 10:1, 2, 22. Interestingly, in 1949 a temple to Mithras was discovered in a bog at Carrawburgh, quite close to Hadrian’s Wall. Archaeologists estimate that it was built about 205 C.E. It contains a sun-god image, altars, and a Latin inscription that states, in part, “To the invincible god Mithras.”
Egypt’s Gods and the Ten Plagues
Jehovah executed judgment on Egypt’s impotent gods by means of the Ten Plagues.—Exodus 7:14–12:32.
Plague Description
1 Nile and other waters turned to blood. Nile-god Hapi disgraced 2 Frogs. Frog-goddess Heqt powerless to prevent it 3 Dust turned to gnats. Thoth, lord of magic, could not help the Egyptian magicians 4 Gadflies on all Egypt except Goshen where Israel dwelt. No god was able to prevent it—not even Ptah, creator of the universe, or Thoth, lord of magic 5 Pestilence on livestock. Neither sacred cow-goddess Hathor nor Apis the bull could prevent this plague 6 Boils. Healer deities Thoth, Isis, and Ptah unable to help 7 Thunder and hail. Exposed the impotence of Reshpu, controller of lightning, and Thoth, god of rain and thunder 8 Locusts. This was a blow to the fertility-god Min, protector of crops 9 Three days of darkness. Ra, the preeminent sun-god, and Horus, a solar god, disgraced 10 Death of the firstborn including Pharaoh’s, who was considered to be a god incarnate. Ra (Amon-Ra), sun-god and sometimes represented as a ram, was unable to impede it

Mythology and Christianity
Worship of the mythical gods of ancient Greece and Rome was in full sway when Christianity came on the scene nearly two thousand years ago. In Asia Minor the Greek names still prevailed, which explains why the people of Lystra (in present-day Turkey) called the Christian healers Paul and Barnabas “gods,” referring to them as Hermes and Zeus respectively, rather than as the Roman Mercury and Jupiter. The account says that “the priest of Zeus, whose temple was before the city, brought bulls and garlands to the gates and was desiring to offer sacrifices with the crowds.” (Acts 14:8-18) Only with difficulty did Paul and Barnabas convince the crowd not to make sacrifices to them. It illustrates how seriously those people took their mythology back then.

Mankind's Search for God

Chapter 2

Religion—How Did It Begin?
THE history of religion is as old as the history of man himself. That is what archaeologists and anthropologists tell us. Even among the most “primitive,” that is to say, undeveloped, civilizations, there is found evidence of worship of some form. In fact The New Encyclopædia Britannica says that “as far as scholars have discovered, there has never existed any people, anywhere, at any time, who were not in some sense religious.”
2Besides its antiquity, religion also exists in great variety. The headhunters in the jungles of Borneo, the Eskimos in the frozen Arctic, the nomads in the Sahara Desert, the urban dwellers in the great metropolises of the world—every people and every nation on earth has its god or gods and its way of worship. The diversity in religion is truly staggering.
Logically, questions come to mind. From where did all these religions come? Since there are marked differences as well as similarities among them, did they start independently, or could they have developed from one source? In fact we might ask: Why did religion begin at all? And how? The answers to these questions are of vital importance to all who are interested in finding the truth about religion and religious beliefs.

Question of Origin
When it comes to the question of origin, people of different religions think of names such as Muḥammad, the Buddha, Confucius, and Jesus. In almost every religion, we can find a central figure to whom credit is given for establishing the ‘true faith.’ Some of these were iconoclastic reformers. Others were moralistic philosophers. Still others were selfless folk heroes. Many of them have left behind writings or sayings that formed the basis of a new religion. In time what they said and did was elaborated, embellished, and given a mystic aura. Some of these leaders were even deified.
Even though these individuals are considered founders of the major religions that we are familiar with, it must be noted that they did not actually originate religion. In most cases, their teachings grew out of existing religious ideas, even though most of these founders claimed divine inspiration as their source. Or they changed and modified existing religious systems that had become unsatisfactory in one way or another.
For example, as accurately as history can tell us, the Buddha had been a prince who was appalled by the suffering and deplorable conditions he found surrounding him in a society dominated by Hinduism. Buddhism was the result of his search for a solution to life’s agonizing problems. Similarly, Muḥammad was highly disturbed by the idolatry and immorality he saw in the religious practices around him. He later claimed to have received special revelations from God, which formed the Qur’ān and became the basis of a new religious movement, Islām. Protestantism grew out of Catholicism as a result of the Reformation that began in the early 16th century, when Martin Luther protested the sale of indulgences by the Catholic church at that time.
Thus, as far as the religions now in existence are concerned, there is no lack of information regarding their origin and development, their founders, their sacred writings, and so on. But what about the religions that existed before them? And the ones even before those? If we go back far enough in history, we will sooner or later be confronted with the question: How did religion begin? Clearly, to find the answer to that question, we must look beyond the confines of the individual religions.

Many Theories
The study of the origin and development of religion is a comparatively new field. For centuries, people more or less accepted the religious tradition into which they were born and in which they were brought up. Most of them were satisfied with the explanations handed down to them by their forefathers, feeling that their religion was the truth. There was seldom any reason to question anything, nor the need to investigate how, when, or why things got started. In fact, for centuries, with limited means of travel and communication, few people were even aware of other religious systems.
During the 19th century, however, the picture began to change. The theory of evolution was sweeping through intellectual circles. That, along with the advent of scientific inquiry, caused many to question established systems, including religion. Recognizing the limitations of looking for clues within existing religion, some scholars turned to the remains of early civilizations or to the remote corners of the world where people still lived in primitive societies. They tried to apply to these the methods of psychology, sociology, anthropology, and so forth, hoping to discover a clue as to how religion began and why.
What was the outcome? Suddenly, there burst upon the scene many theories—as many as there were investigators, it seemed—with each investigator contradicting the other, and each endeavoring to outdo the other in daring and originality. Some of these researchers arrived at important conclusions; the work of others has simply been forgotten. It is both educational and enlightening for us to get a glimpse of the results of this research. It will help us to gain a better understanding of the religious attitudes among people we meet.
A theory, commonly called animism, was proposed by the English anthropologist Edward Tylor (1832-1917). He suggested that experiences such as dreams, visions, hallucinations, and the lifelessness of corpses caused primitive people to conclude that the body is inhabited by a soul (Latin, anima). According to this theory, since they frequently dreamed about their deceased loved ones, they assumed that a soul continued living after death, that it left the body and dwelt in trees, rocks, rivers, and so on. Eventually, the dead and the objects the souls were said to inhabit came to be worshiped as gods. And thus, said Tylor, religion was born.
Another English anthropologist, R. R. Marett (1866-1943), proposed a refinement of animism, which he called animatism. After studying the beliefs of the Melanesians of the Pacific islands and the natives of Africa and America, Marett concluded that instead of having the notion of a personal soul, primitive people believed there was an impersonal force or supernatural power that animated everything; that belief evoked emotions of awe and fear in man, which became the basis for his primitive religion. To Marett, religion was mainly man’s emotional response to the unknown. His favorite statement was that religion was “not so much thought out as danced out.”
In 1890 a Scottish expert in ancient folklore, James Frazer (1854-1941), published the influential book The Golden Bough, in which he argued that religion grew out of magic. According to Frazer, man first tried to control his own life and his environment by imitating what he saw happening in nature. For example, he thought that he could invoke rain by sprinkling water on the ground to the accompaniment of thunderlike drumbeats or that he could cause his enemy harm by sticking pins in an effigy. This led to the use of rituals, spells, and magical objects in many areas of life. When these did not work as expected, he then turned to placating and beseeching the help of the supernatural powers, instead of trying to control them. The rituals and incantations became sacrifices and prayers, and thus religion began. In Frazer’s words, religion is “a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man.”
Even the noted Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), in his book Totem and Taboo, tried to explain the origin of religion. True to his profession, Freud explained that the earliest religion grew out of what he called a father-figure neurosis. He theorized that, as was true with wild horses and cattle, in primitive society the father dominated the clan. The sons, who both hated and admired the father, rebelled and killed the father. To acquire the father’s power, Freud claimed, ‘these cannibalistic savages ate their victim.’ Later, out of remorse, they invented rites and rituals to atone for their action. In Freud’s theory, the father figure became God, the rites and rituals became the earliest religion, and the eating of the slain father became the tradition of communion practiced in many religions.
Numerous other theories that are attempts to explain the origin of religion could be cited. Most of them, however, have been forgotten, and none of them have really stood out as more credible or acceptable than the others. Why? Simply because there was never any historical evidence or proof that these theories were true. They were purely products of some investigator’s imagination or conjecture, soon to be replaced by the next one that came along.

A Faulty Foundation
After years of struggling with the issue, many have now come to the conclusion that it is most unlikely that there will be any breakthrough in finding the answer to the question of how religion began. First of all, this is because bones and remains of ancient peoples do not tell us how those people thought, what they feared, or why they worshiped. Any conclusions drawn from these artifacts are educated guesses at best. Second, the religious practices of today’s so-called primitive people, such as the Australian Aborigines, are not necessarily a reliable gauge for measuring what people of ancient times did or thought. No one knows for sure if or how their culture changed over the centuries.
Because of all the uncertainties, the book World Religions—From Ancient History to the Present concludes that “the modern historian of religions knows that it is impossible to reach the origins of religion.” Regarding the historians’ efforts, however, the book makes this observation: “In the past too many theorists were concerned not simply to describe or explain religion but to explain it away, feeling that if the early forms were shown to be based upon illusions then the later and higher religions might be undermined.”
In that last comment lies the clue as to why various “scientific” investigators of the origin of religion have not come up with any tenable explanations. Logic tells us that a correct conclusion can be deduced only from a correct premise. If one starts off with a faulty premise, it is unlikely that one will reach a sound conclusion. The repeated failure of the “scientific” investigators to come up with a reasonable explanation casts serious doubts on the premise upon which they based their views. By following their preconceived notion, in their efforts to ‘explain religion away’ they have attempted to explain God away.
The situation can be compared to the many ways astronomers prior to the 16th century tried to explain the movement of the planets. There were many theories, but none of them were really satisfactory. Why? Because they were based upon the assumption that the earth was the center of the universe around which the stars and planets revolved. Real progress was not made until scientists—and the Catholic Church—were willing to accept the fact that the earth was not the center of the universe but revolved around the sun, the center of the solar system. The failure of the many theories to explain the facts led open-minded individuals, not to try to come up with new theories, but to reexamine the premise of their investigations. And that led to success.
The same principle can be applied to the investigation of the origin of religion. Because of the rise of atheism and the widespread acceptance of the theory of evolution, many people have taken for granted that God does not exist. Based on this assumption, they feel that the explanation for the existence of religion is to be found in man himself—in his thought processes, his needs, his fears, his “neuroses.” Voltaire stated, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him”; so they argue that man has invented God.
Since the many theories have failed to provide a truly satisfying answer, is it not time now to reexamine the premise upon which these investigations were based? Instead of laboring fruitlessly in the same rut, would it not be logical to look elsewhere for the answer? If we are willing to be open-minded, we will agree that to do so is both reasonable and scientific. And we have just such an example to help us see the logic behind this course.

An Ancient Inquiry
In the first century of our Common Era, Athens, Greece, was a prominent center of learning. Among the Athenians, however, there were many different schools of thought, such as the Epicureans and the Stoics, each with its own idea about the gods. Based on these various ideas, many deities were venerated, and different ways of worship developed. As a result, the city was full of man-made idols and temples.—Acts 17:16.
In about the year 50 C.E., the Christian apostle Paul visited Athens and presented to the Athenians a totally different point of view. He told them: “The God that made the world and all the things in it, being, as this One is, Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in handmade temples, neither is he attended to by human hands as if he needed anything, because he himself gives to all persons life and breath and all things.”—Acts 17:24, 25.
In other words, Paul was telling the Athenians that the true God, who “made the world and all the things in it,” is not a fabrication of man’s imagination, nor is he served by ways that man might devise. True religion is not just a one-sided effort by man to try to fill a certain psychological need or quell a certain fear. Rather, since the true God is the Creator, who gave man thinking ability and power of reason, it is only logical that He would provide a way for man to come into a satisfying relationship with Him. That, according to Paul, was exactly what God did. “He made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth, . . . for them to seek God, if they might grope for him and really find him, although, in fact, he is not far off from each one of us.”—Acts 17:26, 27.
Notice Paul’s key point: God “made out of one man every nation of men.” Even though today there are many nations of men, living all over the earth, scientists know that, indeed, all mankind is of the same stock. This concept is of great significance because when we speak of all mankind’s being of the same stock, it means much more than their being related just biologically and genetically. They are related in other areas as well.
Note, for instance, what the book Story of the World’s Worship says about man’s language. “Those who have studied the languages of the world and compared them with each other have something to say, and it is this: All languages can be grouped into families or classes of speech, and all these families are seen to have started from one common source.” In other words, the languages of the world did not originate separately and independently, as evolutionists would have us believe. They theorize that cave-dwelling men in Africa, Europe, and Asia started with their grunts and growls and eventually developed their own languages. That was not the case. Evidence is that they “started from one common source.”
If that is true of something as personal and as uniquely human as language, then would it not be reasonable to think that man’s ideas about God and religion should also have started from one common source? After all, religion is related to thinking, and thinking is related to man’s ability to use language. It is not that all religions actually grew out of one religion, but the ideas and concepts should be traceable to some common origin or pool of religious ideas. Is there evidence to support this? And if, indeed, man’s religions did originate in one single source, what might it be? How can we find out?

Different yet Similar We can get the answer in the same way that linguistic experts got their answers about the origin of language. By placing the languages side by side and noting their similarities, an etymologist can trace the various languages back to their source. Similarly, by placing the religions side by side, we can examine their doctrines, legends, rituals, ceremonies, institutions, and so on, and see if there is any underlying thread of common identity and, if so, to what that thread leads us.
On the surface, the many religions in existence today seem quite different from one another. However, if we strip them of the things that are mere embellishments and later additions, or if we remove those distinctions that are the result of climate, language, peculiar conditions of their native land, and other factors, it is amazing how similar most of them turn out to be.
For example, most people would think that there could hardly be any two religions more different from each other than the Roman Catholic Church of the West and Buddhism of the East. However, what do we see when we put aside the differences that could be attributed to language and culture? If we are objective about it, we have to admit that there is a great deal that the two have in common. Both Catholicism and Buddhism are steeped in rituals and ceremonies. These include the use of candles, incense, holy water, the rosary, images of saints, chants and prayer books, even the sign of the cross. Both religions maintain institutions of monks and nuns and are noted for celibacy of priests, special garb, holy days, special foods. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it serves to illustrate the point. The question is, Why do two religions that appear to be so different have so many things in common?
As enlightening as the comparison of these two religions turns out to be, the same can be done with other religions. When we do so, we find that certain teachings and beliefs are almost universal among them. Most of us are familiar with such doctrines as the immortality of the human soul, heavenly reward for all good people, eternal torment for the wicked in an underworld, purgatory, a triune god or a godhead of many gods, and a mother-of-god or queen-of-heaven goddess. Beyond these, however, there are many legends and myths that are equally commonplace. For example, there are legends about man’s fall from divine grace owing to his illicit attempt to achieve immortality, the need to offer sacrifices to atone for sin, the search for a tree of life or fountain of youth, gods and demigods who lived among humans and produced superhuman offspring, and a catastrophic flood that devastated nearly all of humanity.
What can we conclude from all of this? We note that those who believed in these myths and legends lived far from one another geographically. Their culture and traditions were different and distinct. Their social customs bore no relationship to one another. And yet, when it comes to their religions, they believed in such similar ideas. Although not every one of these peoples believed in all the things mentioned, all of them believed in some of them. The obvious question is, Why? It was as if there was a common pool from which each religion drew its basic beliefs, some more, some less. With the passage of time, these basic ideas were embellished and modified, and other teachings developed from them. But the basic outline is unmistakable.
Logically, the similarity in the basic concepts of the many religions of the world is strong evidence that they did not begin each in its own separate and independent way. Rather, going back far enough, their ideas must have come from a common origin. What was that origin?

An Early Golden Age Interestingly, among the legends common to many religions is one that says humankind began in a golden age in which man was guiltless, lived happily and peacefully in close communion with God, and was free from sickness and death. While details may differ, the same concept of a perfect paradise that once existed is found in the writings and legends of many religions.
The Avesta, the sacred book of the ancient Persian Zoroastrian religion, tells about “the fair Yima, the good shepherd,” who was the first mortal with whom Ahura Mazda (the creator) conversed. He was instructed by Ahura Mazda “to nourish, to rule, and to watch over my world.” To do so, he was to build “a Vara,” an underground abode, for all the living creatures. In it, there “was neither overbearing nor mean-spiritedness, neither stupidity nor violence, neither poverty nor deceit, neither puniness nor deformity, neither huge teeth nor bodies beyond the usual measure. The inhabitants suffered no defilement from the evil spirit. They dwelt among odoriferous trees and golden pillars; these were the largest, best and most beautiful on earth; they were themselves a tall and beautiful race.”
Among the ancient Greeks, Hesiod’s poem Works and Days speaks of the Five Ages of Man, the first of which was the “Golden Age” when men enjoyed complete happiness. He wrote:
“The immortal gods, that tread the courts of heaven,
First made a golden race of men.
Like gods they lived, with happy, careless souls,
From toil and pain exempt; nor on them crept
Wretched old age, but all their life was passed
In feasting, and their limbs no changes knew.”
That legendary golden age was lost, according to Greek mythology, when Epimetheus accepted as wife the beautiful Pandora, a gift from the Olympian god Zeus. One day Pandora opened the lid of her great vase, and suddenly there escaped from it troubles, miseries, and illness from which mankind was never to recover.
Ancient Chinese legends also tell of a golden age in the days of Huang-Ti (Yellow Emperor), who is said to have ruled for a hundred years in the 26th century B.C.E. He was credited with inventing everything having to do with civilization—clothing and shelter, vehicles of transportation, weapons and warfare, land management, manufacturing, silk culture, music, language, mathematics, the calendar, and so on. During his reign, it is said, “there were no thieves nor fights in China, and the people lived in humility and peace. Timely rain and weather resulted in abundant harvest year after year. Most amazing was that even the wild beasts did not kill, and birds of prey did no harm. In short, the history of China began with a paradise.” To this day, the Chinese still claim to be the descendants of the Yellow Emperor.
Similar legendary accounts of a time of happiness and perfection at the beginning of man’s history can be found in the religions of many other peoples—Egyptians, Tibetans, Peruvians, Mexicans, and others. Was it just by accident that all these peoples, who lived far from each other and who had totally different cultures, languages, and customs, entertained the same ideas about their origin? Was it just by chance or coincidence that all of them chose to explain their beginnings in the same way? Logic and experience tell us that this could hardly be so. On the contrary, interwoven in all these legends, there must be some common elements of truth about the beginning of man and his religion.
Indeed, there are many common elements discernible among all the different legends about man’s beginning. When we put them together, a more complete picture begins to emerge. It tells how God created the first man and woman and placed them in a paradise. They were very content and very happy at first, but soon they became rebellious. That rebellion led to the loss of the perfect paradise, only to be replaced by labor and toil, pain and suffering. Eventually mankind became so bad that God punished them by sending a great deluge of waters that destroyed all but one family. As this family multiplied, some of the offspring banded together and started to build an immense tower in defiance of God. God thwarted their scheme by confusing their language and dispersing them to the far corners of the earth.
Is this composite picture purely the result of someone’s mental exercise? No. Basically, that is the picture presented in the Bible, in the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis. While we will not go into a discussion of the authenticity of the Bible here, let it be noted that the Bible’s account of man’s early history is reflected in the key elements found in many legends. The record reveals that as the human race began to disperse from Mesopotamia, they carried with them their memories, experiences, and ideas everywhere they went. In time these were elaborated and changed and became the warp and woof of religion in every part of the world. In other words, going back to the analogy used earlier, the account in Genesis constitutes the original, crystal-clear pool from which stemmed the basic ideas about the beginning of man and worship found in the various religions of the world. To these they added their particular doctrines and practices, but the link is unmistakable.
In the following chapters of this book, we will discuss in greater detail how specific religions began and developed. You will find it enlightening to note not only how each religion is different from the others but also how it is similar to them. You will also be able to note how each religion fits into the time scheme of human history and the history of religion, how its sacred book or writings relate to the others, how its founder or leader was influenced by other religious ideas, and how it has influenced mankind’s conduct and history. Studying mankind’s long search for God with these points in mind will help you to see more clearly the truth about religion and religious teachings.