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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 85
THE ORIGINS OF WORSHIP
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PRIMITIVE religion had a biologic origin, a natural
evolutionary development, aside from moral associations
and apart from all spiritual influences. The higher
animals have fears but no illusions, hence no religion.
Man creates his primitive religions out of his fears and
by means of his illusions.
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In the evolution of the human species, worship in its
primitive manifestations appears long before the mind of
man is capable of formulating the more complex concepts
of life now and in the hereafter which deserve to be
called religion. Early religion was wholly intellectual
in nature and was entirely predicated on associational
circumstances. The objects of worship were altogether
suggestive; they consisted of the things of nature which
were close at hand, or which loomed large in the
commonplace experience of the simple-minded primitive
Urantians.
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When religion once evolved beyond nature worship, it
acquired roots of spirit origin but was nevertheless
always conditioned by the social environment. As nature
worship developed, man's concepts envisioned a division
of labor in the supermortal world; there were nature
spirits for lakes, trees, waterfalls, rain, and hundreds
of other ordinary terrestrial phenomena.
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At one time or another mortal man has worshiped
everything on the face of the earth, including himself.
He has also worshiped about everything imaginable in the
sky and beneath the surface of the earth. Primitive man
feared all manifestations of power; he worshiped every
natural phenomenon he could not comprehend. The
observation of powerful natural forces, such as storms,
floods, earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, fire, heat,
and cold, greatly impressed the expanding mind of man.
The inexplicable things of life are still termed "acts
of God" and "mysterious dispensations of Providence."
1. WORSHIP OF STONES AND HILLS
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The first object to be worshiped by evolving man was a
stone. Today the Kateri people of southern India still
worship a stone, as do numerous tribes in northern
India. Jacob slept on a stone because he venerated it;
he even anointed it. Rachel concealed a number of sacred
stones in her tent.
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Stones first impressed early man as being out of the
ordinary because of the manner in which they would so
suddenly appear on the surface of a cultivated field or
pasture. Men failed to take into account either erosion
or the results of the overturning of soil. Stones also
greatly impressed early peoples because of their
frequent resemblance to animals. The attention of
civilized man is arrested by numerous stone formations
in the mountains which so much resemble the faces of
animals and even men. But the most profound influence
was exerted by meteoric stones which primitive humans
beheld hurtling through the atmosphere in flaming
grandeur. The shooting star was awesome to early man,
and he easily believed that such blazing streaks marked
the passage of a spirit on its way to earth. No wonder
men were led to worship such phenomena, especially when
they subsequently discovered the meteors. And this led
to greater reverence for all other stones. In Bengal
many worship a meteor which fell to earth in A.D. 1880.
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All ancient clans and tribes had their sacred stones,
and most modern peoples manifest a degree of veneration
for certain types of stones -- their jewels. A group of
five stones was reverenced in India; in Greece it was a
cluster of thirty; among the red men it was usually a
circle of stones. The Romans always threw a stone into
the air when invoking Jupiter. In India even to this day
a stone can be used as a witness. In some regions a
stone may be employed as a talisman of the law, and by
its prestige an offender can be haled into court. But
simple mortals do not always identify Deity with an
object of reverent ceremony. Such fetishes are many
times mere symbols of the real object of worship.
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The ancients had a peculiar regard for holes in stones.
Such porous rocks were supposed to be unusually
efficacious in curing diseases. Ears were not perforated
to carry stones, but the stones were put in to keep the
ear holes open. Even in modern times superstitious
persons make holes in coins. In Africa the natives make
much ado over their fetish stones. In fact, among all
backward tribes and peoples stones are still held in
superstitious veneration. Stone worship is even now
widespread over the world. The tombstone is a surviving
symbol of images and idols which were carved in stone in
connection with beliefs in ghosts and the spirits of
departed fellow beings.
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Hill worship followed stone worship, and the first hills
to be venerated were large stone formations. It
presently became the custom to believe that the gods
inhabited the mountains, so that high elevations of land
were worshiped for this additional reason. As time
passed, certain mountains were associated with certain
gods and therefore became holy. The ignorant and
superstitious aborigines believed that caves led to the
underworld, with its evil spirits and demons, in
contrast with the mountains, which were identified with
the later evolving concepts of good spirits and deities.
2. WORSHIP OF PLANTS AND TREES
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Plants were first feared and then worshiped because of
the intoxicating liquors which were derived therefrom.
Primitive man believed that intoxication rendered one
divine. There was supposed to be something unusual and
sacred about such an experience. Even in modern times
alcohol is known as "spirits."
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Early man looked upon sprouting grain with dread and
superstitious awe. The Apostle Paul was not the first to
draw profound spiritual lessons from, and predicate
religious beliefs on, the sprouting grain.
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The cults of tree worship are among the oldest religious
groups. All early marriages were held under the trees,
and when women desired children, they would sometimes be
found out in the forest affectionately embracing a
sturdy oak. Many plants and trees were venerated because
of their real or fancied medicinal powers. The savage
believed that all chemical effects were due to the
direct activity of supernatural forces.
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Ideas about tree spirits varied greatly among different
tribes and races. Some trees were indwelt by kindly
spirits; others harbored the deceptive and cruel. The
Finns believed that most trees were occupied by kind
spirits. The Swiss long mistrusted the trees, believing
they contained tricky spirits. The inhabitants of India
and eastern Russia regard the tree spirits as being
cruel. The Patagonians still worship trees, as did the
early Semites. Long after the Hebrews ceased tree
worship, they continued to venerate their various
deities in the groves. Except in China, there once
existed a universal cult of the
tree of life.
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The belief that water or precious metals beneath the
earth's surface can be detected by a wooden divining rod
is a relic of the ancient tree cults. The Maypole, the
Christmas tree, and the superstitious practice of
rapping on wood perpetuate certain of the ancient
customs of tree worship and the later-day tree cults.
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Many of these earliest forms of nature veneration became
blended with the later evolving techniques of worship,
but the earliest mind-adjutant-activated types of
worship were functioning long before the newly awakening
religious nature of mankind became fully responsive to
the stimulus of spiritual influences.
3. THE WORSHIP OF ANIMALS
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Primitive man had a peculiar and fellow feeling for the
higher animals. His ancestors had lived with them and
even mated with them. In southern Asia it was early
believed that the souls of men came back to earth in
animal form. This belief was a survival of the still
earlier practice of worshiping animals.
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Early men revered the animals for their power and their
cunning. They thought the keen scent and the farseeing
eyes of certain creatures betokened spirit guidance. The
animals have all been worshiped by one race or another
at one time or another. Among such objects of worship
were creatures that were regarded as half human and half
animal, such as centaurs and mermaids.
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The Hebrews worshiped serpents down to the days of King
Hezekiah, and the Hindus still maintain friendly
relations with their house snakes. The Chinese worship
of the dragon is a survival of the snake cults. The
wisdom of the serpent was a symbol of Greek medicine and
is still employed as an emblem by modern physicians. The
art of snake charming has been handed down from the days
of the female shamans of the
snake love cult,
who, as the result of daily snake bites, became immune,
in fact, became genuine venom addicts and could not get
along without this poison.
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The worship of insects and other animals was promoted by
a later misinterpretation of the golden rule -- doing to
others (every form of life) as you would be done by. The
ancients once believed that all winds were produced by
the wings of birds and therefore both feared and
worshiped all winged creatures. The early Nordics
thought that eclipses were caused by a wolf that
devoured a portion of the sun or moon. The Hindus often
show Vishnu with a horse's head. Many times an animal
symbol stands for a forgotten god or a vanished cult.
Early in evolutionary religion the lamb became the
typical sacrificial animal and the dove the symbol of
peace and love.
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In religion, symbolism may be either good or bad just to
the extent that the symbol does or does not displace the
original worshipful idea. And symbolism must not be
confused with direct idolatry wherein the material
object is directly and actually worshiped.
4. WORSHIP OF THE ELEMENTS
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Mankind has worshiped earth, air, water, and fire. The
primitive races venerated springs and worshiped rivers.
Even now in Mongolia there flourishes an influential
river cult. Baptism became a religious ceremonial in
Babylon, and the Greeks practiced the annual ritual
bath. It was easy for the ancients to imagine that the
spirits dwelt in the bubbling springs, gushing
fountains, flowing rivers, and raging torrents. Moving
waters vividly impressed these simple minds with beliefs
of spirit animation and supernatural power. Sometimes a
drowning man would be refused succor for fear of
offending some river god.
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Many things and numerous events have functioned as
religious stimuli to different peoples in different
ages. A rainbow is yet worshiped by many of the hill
tribes of India. In both India and Africa the rainbow is
thought to be a gigantic celestial snake; Hebrews and
Christians regard it as "the bow of promise." Likewise,
influences regarded as beneficent in one part of the
world may be looked upon as malignant in other regions.
The east wind is a god in South America, for it brings
rain; in India it is a devil because it brings dust and
causes drought. The ancient Bedouins believed that a
nature spirit produced the sand whirls, and even in the
times of Moses belief in nature spirits was strong
enough to insure their perpetuation in Hebrew theology
as angels of fire, water, and air.
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Clouds, rain, and hail have all been feared and
worshiped by numerous primitive tribes and by many of
the early nature cults. Windstorms with thunder and
lightning overawed early man. He was so impressed with
these elemental disturbances that thunder was regarded
as the voice of an angry god. The worship of fire and
the fear of lightning were linked together and were
widespread among many early groups.
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Fire was mixed up with magic in the minds of primitive
fear-ridden mortals. A devotee of magic will vividly
remember one positive chance result in the practice of
his magic formulas, while he nonchalantly forgets a
score of negative results, out-and-out failures. Fire
reverence reached its height in Persia, where it long
persisted. Some tribes worshiped fire as a deity itself;
others revered it as the flaming symbol of the purifying
and purging spirit of their venerated deities. Vestal
virgins were charged with the duty of watching sacred
fires, and in the twentieth century candles still burn
as a part of the ritual of many religious services.
5. WORSHIP OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES
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The worship of rocks, hills, trees, and animals
naturally developed up through fearful veneration of the
elements to the deification of the sun, moon, and stars.
In India and elsewhere the stars were regarded as the
glorified souls of great men who had departed from the
life in the flesh. The Chaldean star cultists considered
themselves to be the children of the sky father and the
earth mother.
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Moon worship preceded sun worship. Veneration of the
moon was at its height during the hunting era, while sun
worship became the chief religious ceremony of the
subsequent agricultural ages. Solar worship first took
extensive root in India, and there it persisted the
longest. In Persia sun veneration gave rise to the later
Mithraic cult. Among many peoples the sun was regarded
as the ancestor of their kings. The Chaldeans put the
sun in the center of "the seven circles of the
universe." Later civilizations honored the sun by giving
its name to the first day of the week.
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The sun god was supposed to be the mystic father of the
virgin-born sons of destiny who ever and anon were
thought to be bestowed as saviors upon favored races.
These supernatural infants were always put adrift upon
some sacred river to be rescued in an extraordinary
manner, after which they would grow up to become
miraculous personalities and the deliverers of their
peoples.
6. WORSHIP OF MAN
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Having worshiped everything else on the face of the
earth and in the heavens above, man has not hesitated to
honor himself with such adoration. The simple-minded
savage makes no clear distinction between beasts, men,
and gods.
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Early man regarded all unusual persons as superhuman,
and he so feared such beings as to hold them in
reverential awe; to some degree he literally worshiped
them. Even having twins was regarded as being either
very lucky or very unlucky. Lunatics, epileptics, and
the feeble-minded were often worshiped by their
normal-minded fellows, who believed that such abnormal
beings were indwelt by the gods. Priests, kings, and
prophets were worshiped; the holy men of old were looked
upon as inspired by the deities.
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Tribal chiefs died and were
deified.
Later, distinguished souls passed on and were
sainted.
Unaided evolution never originated gods higher than the
glorified, exalted, and evolved spirits of deceased
humans. In early evolution religion creates its own
gods. In the course of revelation the Gods formulate
religion. Evolutionary religion creates its gods in the
image and likeness of mortal man; revelatory religion
seeks to evolve and transform mortal man into the image
and likeness of God.
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The ghost gods, who are of supposed human origin, should
be distinguished from the nature gods, for nature
worship did evolve a pantheon -- nature spirits elevated
to the position of gods. The nature cults continued to
develop along with the later appearing ghost cults, and
each exerted an influence upon the other. Many religious
systems embraced a dual concept of deity, nature gods
and ghost gods; in some theologies these concepts are
confusingly intertwined, as is illustrated by Thor, a
ghost hero who was also master of the lightning.
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But the worship of man by man reached its height when
temporal rulers commanded such veneration from their
subjects and, in substantiation of such demands, claimed
to have descended from deity.
7. THE ADJUTANTS OF WORSHIP AND WISDOM
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Nature worship may seem to have arisen naturally and
spontaneously in the minds of primitive men and women,
and so it did; but there was operating all this time in
these same primitive minds the sixth adjutant spirit,
which had been bestowed upon these peoples as a
directing influence of this phase of human evolution.
And this spirit was constantly stimulating the worship
urge of the human species, no matter how primitive its
first manifestations might be. The spirit of worship
gave definite origin to the human impulse to worship,
notwithstanding that animal fear motivated the
expression of worshipfulness, and that its early
practice became centered upon objects of nature.
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You must remember that feeling, not thinking, was the
guiding and controlling influence in all evolutionary
development. To the primitive mind there is little
difference between fearing, shunning, honoring, and
worshiping.
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When the worship urge is admonished and directed by
wisdom -- meditative and experiential thinking -- it
then begins to develop into the phenomenon of real
religion. When the seventh adjutant spirit, the spirit
of wisdom, achieves effective ministration, then in
worship man begins to turn away from nature and natural
objects to the God of nature and to the eternal Creator
of all things natural.
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Presented by a Brilliant Evening Star of Nebadon.
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