Religion represents man’s endeavor to apprehend and interpret the unseen; that “something more” and “something beyond” the visible, the sensuous, and the tangible.
It is this conscious awareness of something more and something beyond the visible and the tangible, that furnishes man with a conception of God and of the human soul. This is a natural intuition, inseparable from the awareness of self. It lies at the foundation like man’s self-conscious identity, and can neither be explained nor explained away.
Here lies the root of all religions. The imagery of man’s imagination, in his effort to apprehend the unseen, and to formulate the unknown, gives rise to myths, allegory, tradition, folklore, and in the end, to superstition, creed, and dogma.
Then come priestcraft, oppression, persecution. The death of religion, the deification of the revealer or Avatar, and the substitution of the priesthood as of divine authority, in place of the revealer or the revelation.
Jove, Orpheus, Jehovah, and at last Jesus, are enthroned beyond the clouds, and priest or church assume the earthly prerogative, speak in their place, assume dogmatic authority, promise heaven and happiness for obedience, and dire penalties for disobedience, and resort to persecution to maintain their authority.
The traditions, mythologies, and folklore of all the past have thus arisen. The creeds and dogmas of the present constitute the effort of man to assume exclusive dominion, and to exercise divine authority over the masses of mankind. It is only another form of the ambition of individuals for wealth, fame or power, lifting them to a “class” above the toiling, suffering, and sorrowing masses.
There are exceptional individuals all along the way, who conceive, hold, and exercise the spirit of the Master, and sink self in the service of man, and but for these the organized priesthood would be execrated by mankind long before.
The organized church deifies, where the true disciple humanizes and helps mankind in the name and in the spirit of the Master.
This is the spirit, the origin, the genius and the history of every Avatar, of Christna, and all the Buddhas, the Saviors and Redeemers of history.
The orthodox Christian of to-day, whether Catholic or Protestant, will be likely to admit the foregoing outline except as it applies to his own religion. Whereas it is abundantly proven to-day regarding his own religion as nowhere else in history.