[2]El not only signified a ram, but also a lamb, or any other kind of sheep. The vernal equinoxial sign, for instance, of the Persians was a lamb, while that of the Egyptians was a ram.
[2]El not only signified a ram, but also a lamb, or any other kind of sheep. The vernal equinoxial sign, for instance, of the Persians was a lamb, while that of the Egyptians was a ram.
Baal-gad (בעלגד) was the god of Fortune, Gad being a Babylonian deity representing fortune, which was placed at the foot of Hermon for public worship. From this deity G D (גד) are derived the English words God and Good, the German Gott and Gut, the Danish and Swedish Gud, and the Wesleyan Methodist Gawd. Baal-Peor was the Phallic deity (Deus Vulvæ), god of the opening, worshipped largely by the Hebrews, who, as General Forlong points out, “had a strong solo-phalik fire-and-serpent cult. They all had Baal, Nebu, and Peor on their high places; Yachavah or Yahuê, the ‘Grove,’ or Asherah [Ashtoreth] and fire in their central groves.” Baal Zephon was the god Typhon; Baal Hermon was another name for Gad, god of Fortune; Baal Hazor was the god Hathor; and Baal Hamon (בעלאמון) was the god Amen, or Jupiter Ammon. The word Yahouh, in various terminal forms, was frequently used to designate the sun at different times and seasons—as Joseph, the lamented Yah; Jehu, Yahouh himself; and, according to Gesenius, Jehozabad, Yeho the giver; Jehohanan, Yeho is good; Jehoiada, Yeho is knowing; Jehoshua, or Joshua; Jehoshaphat; Jehoiakim; Hoshea; Zedekiyah, etc. Yahoshua (Joshua) was the Canaanitish name for the Phoenician Yēs or Iēs, and Egyptian Mises, and became in Latin Josue, or Jesus, according to whether the Romans referred to the Phenician or Canaanitish Bacchus, whose histories, though similar in the main, differed considerably in details. The Egyptian Mises became also the Jewish law-giver and leader, Moses, and is described in Ex. xxxiv. as being horned like Bacchus (videmy “Popular Faith Unveiled”). The Adonis myth occurs over and overagain in fragments throughout the Bible, the Babylonish name Adon frequently being found in that form (אדן), in its Hebrew rendering Adonai (אדני), and occasionally in its Aramæan form of Tammuz. It occurs alone, as in Psalm cx. 1, “Yahouh said to Adonis, sit at my right hand;” in Isaiah vii. 14, “Therefore our Adonis himself shall give you a sign;” and in conjunction with Yahouh, as in Isaiah vii. 7, “Thus saith Yahouh, our Adonis,” and numerous other places. It also occurs with different terminations, to signify different forms and positions of the sun-god—as Adoniyah or Adonijah, Adonis is Yahouh; Adoni-zedek, the liberated Adonis; Adoni-bezek, the rising Adonis; etc. The old Semitic sun-god Shamsh remained, as of old, the Hebrew שמש (Shemosh), signifying the sun; and his Greekalter ego, Hercules, the sun-hero, was not forgotten either, for we find a very poor attempt to reproduce him in the history of Samson. Moloch, Dagon, and other Semitic deities are also introduced into the Jewish Scriptures. There is one other deity frequently met with which must now be named, and that is the Egyptian Amen—the Zeus Amen (Ζευς Αμην·) of the Greeks, and the Jupiter Ammon of the Romans. This god Ammon (אמן or אמון) was worshipped by the Jews as the equal in power to, and the very counterpart of, Yahouh, and was called by the very same names by which he was known to the Egyptians—viz., the hidden god, true and faithful witness (which epithet gave origin to the Greek adverb, Αμην, truly), and saviour of the world, or regenerator of nature. In Isaiah xlv. 15 we read, “Truly thou art the hidden god of Israel, the saviour;” and, again, in chapter lxv. 16, “He who blesses himself on earth shall bless himself by his god Ammon (אלהיאמן); and he who sweareth in the earth shall swear by the god Ammon, because the former troubles are delivered to oblivion, and because they are hidden from mine eyes.” This hidden or occult god, Ammon, or Amen, is frequently addressed in the Psalms and other places, and is there identified with Yahouh and Adonis. In Psalm xxvii. 8, 9, we read, “Seek ye my face. My heart said to thee, Thy face, O Yahouh, will I seek. O hide not thy face from me;” and Psalm x. 1, “And why standest thou so far off, Yahouh, and hidest thy face in the needful time of trouble?” Psalm lxxxix. 46 says, “Yahouh, how long wilt thou hide thyself?” Verses 49, 50, “O our Adonis, where are thy loving kindnesses of old, which thou swearest to David in thy truth?” and verse 52, “Blessed be Yahouh for evermore (who is) Ammon, even Ammon.” In Isaiah i. 15 we also read, “When ye spread forth your hands I will hide myself from you; yea, when ye make many prayers I will not hear you.” We find the same god also in the New Testament Scriptures of the later Christian sect of Eclectic Egyptian Jews. In the Apocalypse, for instance, the word Αμην is rendered “Amen” in the authorisedversion, and is sometimes met with as a Greek noun, Ὁ Αμην (never heard of in the classics), when it is rendered “the Amen,” which senseless rendering is no doubt intended to conceal the real and obvious meaning. In Rev. i. 18 we read, “I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I, Ammon, am alive for evermore,” the word Αμην being rendered “Amen;” and in chap. iii. 14, “These things saith Ammon [“the Amen” in the authorised version], the true and faithful witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” As the celestial ram or lamb,Aries, Amen is again mentioned in chap. xiii. 8, “The lamb which has been slain from the foundation of the world”—that is, each year at the vernal equinox, when the occult god rose from his hiding-place in the lower hemisphere to bring salvation to the world.
This concludes the examination of the old sun-myth religions; but there are yet three very important religious systems to be dealt with—viz., Confucianism, Mohammedanism, and Christianism.
Confucianism took its birth in the sixth centuryB.C., at a time when the old solar myth was very extensively believed in China and the neighbouring countries, and was, strictly speaking, a system of morality and conduct. Its author, Confucius (Kong-fu-tse), was bornB.C.550, in Lu, a province of China, and at a very early age commenced to preach a higher and purer morality among the Chinese people, many of whom became regular followers of the young reformer, and followed his good example by likewise teaching the people at every favourable opportunity. He was strongly opposed to all false show, hypocrisy, and deceit, and abhorred the life of a hermit as unnatural and mischievous. He preferred not to speak of heaven as a personal being, as was the habit of his countrymen, but was exceedingly fond of quoting its example as the preserver of order, frequently alluding to its commands, ordinances, and purposes. He attached no value to prayer, preached the doctrine that good and evil are rewarded on the earth by prosperity and adversity, and expressed his disbelief in special revelations to men. The canonical books of the Confucians are known as the fiveKings(the historicalShu-King, the psalms of theShi-King, and the ritual of theLi-ki, the chronicles of theTshun-tsiew, and the magicalYi-King), and the three volumes containing the remarkable and benevolent utterances of the master Confucius himself—viz., theLun-yu, theTa-hio, and theTshung-yung. In theTa-hiooccur those celebrated and beautiful moral passages which have so justly immortalised the name of Confucius. The one is the 24th moral: “Do unto another what you would he should do to you, and do not to another what you would should not be done to you. Thou needest this law alone; it is the foundation and principle of all the rest.” The other is the 53rd moral:“Acknowledge thy benefits by return of other benefits, but never avenge injuries.” Notwithstanding the great persecution of Confucians in b.c. 212, by the Ts’in rulers, and other smaller attempts to destroy the new system of morality in favour of the sun-gods, the moral code of Confucius was publicly permitted to be used inA.D.57, and since the seventh century has almost entirely taken the place of god-worship, a few only of the more uneducated classes still professing to worship Fo-hi.
Mohammedanism, or Islamism, the reformed faith of Arab polytheists, arose in the sixth century of our era. Mahomet, or Mohammed, was a young religious enthusiast, a camel-driver of Mecca, who determined to uproot the idolatry and superstition of the Arab tribes, and was singularly successful in his arduous undertaking. He had a powerful aversion to all kinds of priestcraft, sacrifices, and superstitious ordeals, and boldly preached the unity of God, declaring that “there is but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet.” Of all the religions of the world, perhaps none has been more successful than this; and, certainly, not one ever spread so rapidly over the face of the earth. In less than 100 years after the decease of the prophet the Khalifs of Islamism were masters of the whole of Northern Africa, Spain, and part of France, besides a great portion of Asia; which vast territories they retained possession of for about 600 years, encouraging the while philosophical and scientific studies, establishing libraries, schools, and universities, and otherwise benefitting the human race. At the present day upwards of 100,000,000 people embrace this faith, whose God is Allah, the great unity, whose prophet is Mahomet, and whose Bible is the Koran.
We now come to Christianism, that widely-spread faith, whose cradle was Alexandria, whose nursery was Rome, and whose workshop was Europe. The founder of this religion, if he ever lived at all, about which there is considerable doubt, was a young ascetic monk belonging to the Essenes—a Syrian branch of the large order of Therapeutæ—whose headquarters were in Alexandria. His name was Yahoshua ben Pandira and Stada; he was born aboutB.C.120, in the reign of Alexander Jannæus; and he preached the doctrines of Confucius, declaring publicly that the priests were liars and hypocrites, and inculcating communistic and socialistic theories. He gained many lowly followers, who followed him about preaching in the open air, and begging their bread from day to day, and, at last, was publicly executed for his seditious conduct.
At the same time a remarkable mental revolution was taking place in Greece and Egypt, the natural homes of mythology; the University of Alexandria and the Academic Groves of Athens were fast sending to the right-about-face the old superstitions, much to the dismay of the priests and religious fanatics, who were driven to their wits’ end to knowhow to counteract this dangerous tendency of the age towards infidelity and science. The idea struck them of utilising for their purpose the new sect of religious reformers, who lived according to the teaching of the young socialist, Yahoshua; they boldly declared that this man was, when on earth, an incarnate deity, and proceeded to attribute to him all the miraculous performances that had been previously imputed to the sun-god Bacchus; and commenced forthwith to prepare their documentary evidences ready for the ignorant and credulous multitudes. A new sect of the Therapeut monks of Alexandria came into existence, called Eclectics, whose mission was to collect all that was good and useful in the religions of their neighbours, and commit them to manuscript for the use of their monasteries and the priestly class generally. It did not take long to fabricate a very imposing story of the young man Yahoshua, whom they now called Iesous (Ιησους, a name used by the Greeks to signify a hero personification of the sun-god Bacchus, the Phœnician Ιης), Greek being at that time the prevailing language of Lower Egypt. The performances of the ancient sun-gods of Egypt, Persia, Arabia, India, Greece, Phœnicia, and Italy were recalled to the minds of these Eclectic monks, by diligent search among their old musty MSS., and, after carefully and judiciously collating the fables, they were enabled to clothe their new Iesous, or Jesus, with all the leading characteristics of these various deities. He was born of a virgin at midnight between December 24th and December 25th, as were all the sun-gods: his birth, like that of Mithra and that of Krishna, was foretold: a star pointed out the place of his nativity, as in the case of Mithra: his birth-place was a manger in a stable, as in the case of Hercules; or, according to another account, a cave, as in the case of Mithra and Horus: he cured the sick, as did Æsculapius: he fasted in the wilderness, as did Buddha: he performed miracles, as did Bacchus, Hercules, and others: he turned water into wine, as did the Egyptian Bacchus, and as was done at the Bacchanalian orgies: he was crucified, as were also Krishna, Osiris, and Prometheus: he rose from the dead after having been in the grave three days and three nights, as did all the sun-gods: he descended to hell, as did all the sun-gods: he was called Saviour (Σωτηρ, Gr., and Saotès, Egyp.) and Lamb of God (Agnus Dei), as were all the sun-gods (Ζευς Σωτηρ, Mises Saotès, etc.); Amen, as was Jupiter Ammon (Ζευς Αμην); Christ, or the Anointed (χριστος), as was Osiris; Son of God, as were Plato’s Logos (λογος), Bacchus, Mithra, and Horus; Holy Word (of Plato and Philo), as also was Horus; God of Love, as were Adonis, Mithra, and Krishna; Light of the World, as were all the sun-gods; and, like hisalter ego, Krishna, The Resurrection, The Incarnate, The Beginning and the End, Existing before All Things, Chief of Prophets, and Messenger of Peace: he was theincarnation of one third of a trinity, as were also Horus, Krishna, and Plato’s Logos: his day was called the Day of the Sun: his followers were called Christians, and his priests Bishops of Christ, just as were those of Osiris: his priests absolved sins, received confessions, and practised celibacy, as did the priests of Bacchus, Adonis, Mithra, Krishna, Buddha, etc.: his feast was called the Lord’s Supper and the Mystery of the Night, as were those of Bacchus, Adonis, and Osiris: these suppers became, in course of time, obscene midnight orgies, as did those of Bacchus and Adonis: at these suppers the insignia over the table were the letters Ι Η Σ (the Phœnician name of Bacchus, in Greek capitals), surrounded by the rays of light and surmounted by a crucifix and a bleeding lamb, precisely as was the case with the Bacchanalian orgies: at the Lord’s Supper bread and wine were transubstantiated into the body and blood of Jesus, exactly as was done in the case of Bacchus and Osiris: and lights were used at these feasts just as they were at the Bacchanalian orgies.
These fables were carefully compiled together, attributed to various imaginary authors, and finally issued to the people as an appendix, or New Testament, to the volume of the old Jewish Scriptures, or Old Testament. Thus were gathered together by the Alexandrian Eclectics the principal essentials of all the old mythological cults, and thus came into existence the huge and powerful system of religion called Christianism, which has been the great curse of Europe for well nigh two thousand years. From the brutal murder of Hypatia, in a Christian church, by the fanatical mob of a Christian bishop, down to the last poor wretch burnt alive at the stake by the orders of the Church of Jesus, the story of Christian infamy is not relieved by one bright spot. Humanity stands aghast, and shudders at the hideous tale of crime which the history of Christian Europe unfolds. It is one long wail of anguish, poured forth by suffering man, finding relief only in the silence of the grave—that stronghold of peace within which neither god, devil, priest, nor tyrant can wreak their diabolical vengeance further. How terrible have been the sufferings of poor Humanity under the ghastly shadow of the Cross is beautifully expressed in Shelley’s “Queen Mab,” in the dialogue between the spirit of Ianthe and the Fairy Queen:—
Spirit.I was an infant when my mother wentTo see an Atheist burned. She took me there:The dark-robed priests were met around the pileThe multitude was gazing silently;And as the culprit passed with dauntless mien,Tempered disdain in his unaltering eye,Mixed with a quiet smile, shone calmly forth:The thirsty fire crept round his manly limbs;His resolute eyes were scorched to blindness soon;His death-pang rent my heart! the insensate mobUttered a cry of triumph, and I wept.Weep not, child! cried my mother, for that manHas said, There is no God.Fairy.There is no God!Nature confirms the faith his death-groan seal’d:Let heaven and earth, let man’s revolving race,His ceaseless generations, tell their tale;Let every part depending on the chainThat links it to the whole, point to the handThat grasps its term! Let every seed that falls,In silent eloquence unfold its storeOf argument: infinity within,Infinity without, belie creation;The exterminable spirit it containsIs Nature’s only God; but human prideIs skilful to invent most serious namesTo hide its ignorance.The name of GodHas fenced about all crime with holiness,Himself the creature of his worshippers,Whose names and attributes and passions change,Seeva, Buddh, Foh, Jehovah, God, or Lord,Even with the human dupes who build his shrines,Still serving o’er the war-polluted worldFor desolation’s watchword; whether hostsStain his death-blushing chariot wheels, as onTriumphantly they roll, whilst Brahmins raiseA sacred hymn to mingle with the groans;Or countless partners of his power divideHis tyranny to weakness; or the smokeOf burning towns, the cries of female helplessness,Unarmed old age, and youth, and infancy,Horribly massacred, ascend to heavenIn honour of his name; or, last and worst,Earth groans beneath religion’s iron age,And priests dare babble of a God of peace,Even while their hands are red with guiltless blood,Murdering the while, uprooting every germOf truth, exterminating, spoiling all,Making the earth a slaughter-house!
Spirit.I was an infant when my mother wentTo see an Atheist burned. She took me there:The dark-robed priests were met around the pileThe multitude was gazing silently;And as the culprit passed with dauntless mien,Tempered disdain in his unaltering eye,Mixed with a quiet smile, shone calmly forth:The thirsty fire crept round his manly limbs;His resolute eyes were scorched to blindness soon;His death-pang rent my heart! the insensate mobUttered a cry of triumph, and I wept.Weep not, child! cried my mother, for that manHas said, There is no God.Fairy.There is no God!Nature confirms the faith his death-groan seal’d:Let heaven and earth, let man’s revolving race,His ceaseless generations, tell their tale;Let every part depending on the chainThat links it to the whole, point to the handThat grasps its term! Let every seed that falls,In silent eloquence unfold its storeOf argument: infinity within,Infinity without, belie creation;The exterminable spirit it containsIs Nature’s only God; but human prideIs skilful to invent most serious namesTo hide its ignorance.The name of GodHas fenced about all crime with holiness,Himself the creature of his worshippers,Whose names and attributes and passions change,Seeva, Buddh, Foh, Jehovah, God, or Lord,Even with the human dupes who build his shrines,Still serving o’er the war-polluted worldFor desolation’s watchword; whether hostsStain his death-blushing chariot wheels, as onTriumphantly they roll, whilst Brahmins raiseA sacred hymn to mingle with the groans;Or countless partners of his power divideHis tyranny to weakness; or the smokeOf burning towns, the cries of female helplessness,Unarmed old age, and youth, and infancy,Horribly massacred, ascend to heavenIn honour of his name; or, last and worst,Earth groans beneath religion’s iron age,And priests dare babble of a God of peace,Even while their hands are red with guiltless blood,Murdering the while, uprooting every germOf truth, exterminating, spoiling all,Making the earth a slaughter-house!
Spirit.I was an infant when my mother wentTo see an Atheist burned. She took me there:The dark-robed priests were met around the pileThe multitude was gazing silently;And as the culprit passed with dauntless mien,Tempered disdain in his unaltering eye,Mixed with a quiet smile, shone calmly forth:The thirsty fire crept round his manly limbs;His resolute eyes were scorched to blindness soon;His death-pang rent my heart! the insensate mobUttered a cry of triumph, and I wept.Weep not, child! cried my mother, for that manHas said, There is no God.
Spirit.I was an infant when my mother went
To see an Atheist burned. She took me there:
The dark-robed priests were met around the pile
The multitude was gazing silently;
And as the culprit passed with dauntless mien,
Tempered disdain in his unaltering eye,
Mixed with a quiet smile, shone calmly forth:
The thirsty fire crept round his manly limbs;
His resolute eyes were scorched to blindness soon;
His death-pang rent my heart! the insensate mob
Uttered a cry of triumph, and I wept.
Weep not, child! cried my mother, for that man
Has said, There is no God.
Fairy.There is no God!Nature confirms the faith his death-groan seal’d:Let heaven and earth, let man’s revolving race,His ceaseless generations, tell their tale;Let every part depending on the chainThat links it to the whole, point to the handThat grasps its term! Let every seed that falls,In silent eloquence unfold its storeOf argument: infinity within,Infinity without, belie creation;The exterminable spirit it containsIs Nature’s only God; but human prideIs skilful to invent most serious namesTo hide its ignorance.The name of GodHas fenced about all crime with holiness,Himself the creature of his worshippers,Whose names and attributes and passions change,Seeva, Buddh, Foh, Jehovah, God, or Lord,Even with the human dupes who build his shrines,Still serving o’er the war-polluted worldFor desolation’s watchword; whether hostsStain his death-blushing chariot wheels, as onTriumphantly they roll, whilst Brahmins raiseA sacred hymn to mingle with the groans;Or countless partners of his power divideHis tyranny to weakness; or the smokeOf burning towns, the cries of female helplessness,Unarmed old age, and youth, and infancy,Horribly massacred, ascend to heavenIn honour of his name; or, last and worst,Earth groans beneath religion’s iron age,And priests dare babble of a God of peace,Even while their hands are red with guiltless blood,Murdering the while, uprooting every germOf truth, exterminating, spoiling all,Making the earth a slaughter-house!
Fairy.There is no God!
Nature confirms the faith his death-groan seal’d:
Let heaven and earth, let man’s revolving race,
His ceaseless generations, tell their tale;
Let every part depending on the chain
That links it to the whole, point to the hand
That grasps its term! Let every seed that falls,
In silent eloquence unfold its store
Of argument: infinity within,
Infinity without, belie creation;
The exterminable spirit it contains
Is Nature’s only God; but human pride
Is skilful to invent most serious names
To hide its ignorance.
The name of God
Has fenced about all crime with holiness,
Himself the creature of his worshippers,
Whose names and attributes and passions change,
Seeva, Buddh, Foh, Jehovah, God, or Lord,
Even with the human dupes who build his shrines,
Still serving o’er the war-polluted world
For desolation’s watchword; whether hosts
Stain his death-blushing chariot wheels, as on
Triumphantly they roll, whilst Brahmins raise
A sacred hymn to mingle with the groans;
Or countless partners of his power divide
His tyranny to weakness; or the smoke
Of burning towns, the cries of female helplessness,
Unarmed old age, and youth, and infancy,
Horribly massacred, ascend to heaven
In honour of his name; or, last and worst,
Earth groans beneath religion’s iron age,
And priests dare babble of a God of peace,
Even while their hands are red with guiltless blood,
Murdering the while, uprooting every germ
Of truth, exterminating, spoiling all,
Making the earth a slaughter-house!
There is no God! What, then, caused this mighty universe? To be caused implies a cause, certainly; and that cause must, in the very nature of things, be adequate for the production of the effect manifested. But, inasmuch as cause and effect are but relative terms, the cause could not exist independently of the effect, andvice versâ. Therefore, as far as the human mind is capable of mentating, the universe could nothave been caused. It is, therefore, eternal. What that inherent power of matter is that hides itself so mysteriously behind the phenomena of nature we cannot tell, farther than that, being the inherent property of eternal matter, it also is eternal. This point is the limit of the human understanding, beyond which it is apparently impossible at present for the mind of man to soar. In the words of Mr. Herbert Spencer, “there is a power behind humanity and behind all things; a power of which humanity is but a small and fugitive product; a power which was, in the course of ever-changing manifestations, before humanity was, and will continue through all other manifestations when humanity has ceased to be.” This power, of which matter and motion, thought and volition, are but the phenomenal manifestations, and which regulates the varied movements of those myriads of stellar systems interspersed throughout the infinity of space—this exhaustless power of life and energy is to the human mind, as at present constituted, unknowable. Call it Law; call it Gravity; call it the Mysterious Unknown; but call it not God, that word which has brought so much bitter anguish to humanity, and which blighted the beauty of nature, causing hate where love should be, and tears to fall where smiles should gladden the heart of man. Whether or not the mind of man in future ages will be able to lift the veil that at present lies between him and the Great Unknown time alone can tell.
At present we are at the mercy of an imperfectly-developed nervous organisation, with its five special senses, which, though very far superior to the lowly nervous development of our remote ancestors of millions of centuries back in the history of life, is perfectly inadequate for the solution of the great problem of existence. But a time will probably arrive in the dim and misty future when other and more important senses will be evolved within the human frame, which may bring man nearer the elucidation of this greatest of all mysteries. Meanwhile let us apply ourselves boldly to the uprooting of the old Upas tree of religious faith—that pernicious development of the god-idea that has been the constant blight of all ages, stifling reason by fostering blind faith and gross credulity, robbing the race of all that is noble, manly, and honest, by the propagation of those canker worms, hypocrisy and cant, and retarding the temporal salvation of man by the substitution of the vain and foolish theory of future rewards and punishments.
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