hand, religion,
whether it be true or false, is in the nature of a discovery. However
crude or uninformed the thinking, the belief in God must be regarded as
the product of reflection. The situation is not unfairly described by
Dr. Jastrow:--

The various rites practiced by primitive society in order to ward
off evils, or to secure the protection of dreaded powers or
spirits, are based primarily on logical considerations. If a
certain stone is regarded as sacred, it is probably because it is
associated with some misfortune, or some unusual piece of good
luck. Someone sitting on the stone may have died; or on sleeping on
it may have seen a remarkable vision, which was followed by a
signal victory over a dangerous foe.... In all this, however,
ethical considerations are remarkable for their absence.... Taking
again so common a belief among all peoples as the influence for
good or evil exerted by the dead upon the living and the numerous
practices to which it gives rise ... it will be difficult to
discover in these beliefs the faintest suggestion of any ethical
influence. It is not the good but the powerful spirits that are
invoked; an appeal to them is not made by showing them examples of
kindness, justice, or noble deeds, but by bribes, flatteries, and
threats. (_The Study of Religion_; Ch. VI.).

So we have Tylor also endorsing this opinion by remarking that, "The
popular idea that the moral government of the universe is an essential
tenet of natural religion simply falls to the ground. Savage animism is
almost devoid of that ethical element which, to the educated, modern
mind, is the very mainspring of religion." And Hoffding says that, "In
the lowest forms of it with which we are acquainted religion cannot be
said to have any ethical significance. The gods appear as powers on
which man is dependent, but not as patterns of conduct or administrators
of an ethical world order.... Not till men have discovered ethical
problems in practical life and have developed an ethical feeling ... can
the figures of the gods assume an ethical character." ("Philosophy of
Religion"; pp. 323-4).

It is quite unnecessary to multiply evidence, the truth of the matter
would seem obvious. One cannot conceive man actually ascribing ethical
qualities to his gods before he becomes sufficiently developed to
formulate moral rules for his own guidance, and