To the Entoans Andûmana̤, the Supreme One, is absolutely perfect, yet his perfection admits of righteous anger against his willfully offending children whom He, for their own good, chastises until, realizing their culpability, they make atonement for their sinfulness. In bygone times the atonement for sin against their Creator demanded human sacrifice, or, perhaps an offering of their most valued possessions, against which no one dared offer a protest.
Gods and Goddesses who are Andûmana̤'s Ministers and Messengers, He created less perfect than Himself, and to appease their anger or to secure their favor sacrifices and offerings without number have been, and are, laid upon the altars of Temples and Istoiras.
VALSĒTA̤
Certainly such beliefs are very childish, very superstitious, but childhood conceives of childish fancies, and man on Ento and on Earth, spiritually, is yet in swaddling clothes.
Beyond the limits of his present unfoldment his infinite possibilities are as little understood as are abstruse utterances by a lisping child, but intuitively, within his being, he perceives godlike attributes, and ever he is impelled toward higher spiritual unfoldment, which is but another expression for what is termed civilization.
On Ento, as on Earth, the Priesthood stem the tide of human progress. Always the Priesthood are conservative, holding tenaciously to old traditions, rites and ceremonies, and, as a rule, they are sincere in their professions, for it is a fact that through their constant affirmations of the tenets of their various faiths they become so self-psychologized as to be unable to perceive beyond their established views. Never are the Priesthood in advance of the people. It is only when the multitudes demand larger views of truth that they yield to the necessity of moving forward, and always under protest.
Yes, certainly, to be religious is a natural impulse; natural, because man is a spiritualized being, the expression of Infinite Intelligence and Infinite Energy in form.
You will allow me to repeat that notwithstanding certain features, the Entoans as a whole are more highly evolved spiritually, hence more highly civilized, than are the peoples of Earth. In the arts, their attainments are productive of most excellent results. As much may be said of the sciences, in which, with two notable exceptions, of which presently we shall speak, they are far more learned than are Earth's scientists. But they are dominated and restricted by their Holy Writings, which declare that Audûmana̤, the Supreme One, ever has been, and ever will be. That in a remote time he said, "I no longer will dwell alone and in silence." So, out of himself he created Astranola̤, a beautiful realm beyond the clouds. A realm ever abloom with loveliest flowers and watered by flowing streams as sweet as nectar. A realm where deep darkness never comes and its dim twilight is irradiated by the innumerable lamps of the Deific Ones, which Ento's children may behold gleaming in the quiet night sky. A realm where storms, sickness and death are unknown and where the air is filled with sweetest perfumes and the land is bathed by dews which fall like clouds of silvery mist. A realm where birds of wonderfully beautiful plumage fill the air with melodious songs, and where no noisome thing exists.
When the creation of Astranola̤ was completed Andûmana̤ contemplated the expression of His will and was satisfied. Then he spoke into existence Gods and Goddesses, who should dwell in this realm and who should be his Ministers and Messengers, and then he created Ento, which, in the beginning, was as beautiful as the children of His love whom He also spoke into existence and for whom he declared Ento should be a home for evermore. Through his Messengers he gave to them a revelation of His will, which instructed them as to their duties toward their Creator, toward his Messengers, toward each other, and toward all living creatures whom He had created for their uses and pleasure. And it was specially enjoined upon them that no eye should ever attempt to penetrate the cloud veil falling between them and the abode of the dwellers in Astranola̤. Should any one presume to disobey this commandment, swift vengeance would be visited upon the offender. To a people entertaining no conception of a continuity of existence and to whom death is an ever present terror, curiosity is not a powerful enough incentive to induce the Entoans to risk their chiefest treasure, life, or to bring upon them and theirs the wrath of the offended deities of Astranola̤. Thus, as a science, astronomy is unknown to the Entoans.