After all it is but the physiological effect of an educational training, the development of the faculties and the evolution of the imagination; the brain functions in proportion to the progress made in the culture in general, harmonizing with the times, circumstances, and conditions of the period in which we live.
Every age has its turn in the evolution of the mental faculties, and it must go through its stage. The visionary period, the result of a theological hallucination of an over-exalted imagination, can occur only under certain favorable conditions, viz., on the one hand a highly susceptible nervous temperament, a strongly biased educational training, and an enthusiastic excitability, and on the other, an ignorant, bigoted, poor, and helpless population.
SHADES OF INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT.
FROM BARBARISM TO CIVILIZATION, MULTIPLICITY OF GODS TO NATURE, DARKNESS TO LIGHT.
| Barbarism, savagery, ignorance, idolatry. MANY GODS. PHYSICAL GOD. Very little light. | Chaldaism. Astronomy. (Paganism 766,312,000 remaining). Hebrewism, 6,000,000. | Women degraded slaves. |
| Barbarians. | 200 B.C. A.D. 1893. 1921–450 B.C. |
| Physiology, science, mathematics, mythology, women honored science breaking. Greecea nation. | 1921–500–0 B.C. | ||||
| Ignorance, superstition. Uncivilization (to our notion). Caste rule. | Buddhism, 320,000,000. Confucianism. Brahmanism, 120,000,000. Philosophy, 320,000,000 gods. | 1100 B.C. | |||
| ONE GOD. Polygamy. | Mohammedanism, 166,000,000. | Tyrants. | A.D. 600. | ||
| FIVE GODS. Father, Son, and Ghost, Virgin, saints, relics, etc. Idolatry, figure-painting, ignorance,intolerance, non-progression, superstition, bigotry. | Roman Catholic Christianity, 200,000,000. Greek Christianity, 80,000,000. | Still degraded. | A.D. 325. A.D. 800. | ||
| Dark Ages. | A.D. 325 to 1517. | ||||
| THREE GODS. Class Rule. Progression, toleration, superstition, bigotry, civilization, selfishness, greed. | Protestantism—Luther, Calvin—100,000,000. Episcopalianism. Presbyterianism. Baptists. Methodism. Wesley. | Women subordinate. | 200 to 300 sects. | A.D. 1517. A.D. 1693. A.D. 1572. A.D. 1730. | |
| ONE GOD. Enlightened, advancing. | Universalism. Unitarianism. Ethical Culture. | A.D. 1691. | |||
| DOUBTFUL GOD. Latest theological metamorphosis. | A.D. 1550. A.D. 1870. | ||||
| NO GOD. | Science, nature, fact, truth. Manhood, womanhood. Intellectual development. | ||||
In modern times, if a man should attempt to rave after the style of John, he would certainly be declared a fit candidate for an insane asylum.
What was possible on the Isle of Patmos by John would be an utter impossibility to-day. It is not because we have not religious fanatics enough, but education, reason, and science have advanced, so that such extravagant fire-works of the imagination would be declared evidence of an insane condition of the mind.
On the following page a diagram of various shading shows the growth of intelligence and enlightenment of the various religious denominations, indicating the beginning of actual progress with the Reformation, and how little there is left of the entire religious fabric that has been handed down these many centuries.
The darkness of ignorance is still hiding the truth. The church is doing its utmost to train the young in the pernicious doctrine of superstition and falsehood of antiquity. The clergy would stop our public school system, if they could drag humanity back into the mire of brutality.
The sooner the Bible, with its God, Jehova, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, the prophets and the apostles, with all the angels, heaven, and hell, are placed under a glass case to be viewed and admired as a matter of antique curiosity the better.