THE GREAT KELIGIONS OF THE WORLD.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4934, 1 November 1884, Page 1

THE GREAT KELIGIONS OF THE WORLD.

(To the Editor of the Evening Stab.) Sib,—ln ordinary language the word Religion is used in three different senses —first, as the object of belief; secondly, as the power of believing ; and thirdly, as manifestation of belief. Subjectively it expresses a state of mind, but of what that state of mind consists there have been as many conflicting explanations as there have been writers on the svbject. Christians and all other religionists will not admit that there is any true religion but their own, all others they maintain are merely superstitions; oblivions of the fact that there must be some point of agreement between them, or otherwise they could not be compared. The q«ea« lion which interests most minds upon this subject, and which it was thought the reverend and learned iecturer would have enlightened the people upon, he has not thought proper to mention. It is, what is the essence of the great religions of the world —or of abstract; religion, or the mental faculties which lie at the root of all forms of religion, true or false P Is it a likeness to the Deity according to man's ability, or a feeling of absolute dependence P Is it a consciousness or wishing manifesting itself in prayer, sacrifice, and faith ? or is it in the reality of the Creator, with a state of mind and mode of life in accordance with that faith ? May it be defined as the recognition of the mutual relations between the Divinity and the world P or the recognition of a super* human casuality it the human mind and life P Is it faith founded on feeling in the realities of the ideal P or the observance of the moral law as a divine institution P Is it faith in the moral order of the nni* verse P or morality become conscious of the free universality of the concrete essence ? or the union of the finite with the infinite ? or the divine energy coming to self-consciousness in the world ? May the religious sentiment be described as the worship of humanity ? or ?oluntary obedience to divine laws? or a mental faculty which, independent of, or even in spite of, sense and reason, enables man to apprehend the infinite under different names and under various disguises? Whatever definitions may be given to the word religion, it is quite evident that the faculty is at any rate analogous to man's other intellectual faculties, and thence assumes different phases of development as mankind advances from a state of barbarism through all the stages of civilization. It changes continually as man's knowledge of nature increases, for it originated iv the natural tendency of the human mind to explain the surrounding phenomena of nature, thence at different stages or amongst people amid different surround-* ings, and differently educated, it assumes the form of Fetishism, Dualism, Polytheism, and Monotheism. Hinduism, Buddhism, the Hebrew religion, Christianity, and Mohammedanism, may be regarded as Religions developed in different creeds,each with so many professed adherents. The lecturer upon the great religions of the world has demonstrated that a highly civilised nation existed on this earth 13.000 years since. It may therefore be concluded that the whole human family could not have descended from one nan and one woman 6,000 years ago. The theory of the origin of the human race from Adam and Jive, and their fail, «on> stitute the corner stone and fabric of the Christian system of religion, for the doctrines of the atonement and redemption are based upon it. Are we then at liberty to conclude that these doctrines are founded upon unauthentio history? —I am, &0., Cbedekda.