s; and that they have acted against
their own most important interests,--all in the name of religion. There
is nothing in religion itself which antagonizes sensuality, cruelty, and
other base elements in human nature. Religion has its independent origin
in supposed interests, and makes its own demands on men. The demands of
religion are sacrifices and ritual observances. The whole religious
system is evolved within the circle of interests, ideas, and mores which
the society possesses at the time. Religion also finds adjustment and
consistency with all other interests and tastes of the group at the
time. A father of many daughters would use the temple service as a way
to provide for one of them.[1901] Religion is also extremely persistent.
Therefore it holds and carries over to later ages customs which once
were beneficial, but which at the later time are authoritative but
harmful. If parents threw their children into the furnace to Molech, why
should they not devote their daughters to Ishtar? If they once practiced
sympathetic magic to make rice grow, religion might carry the customs
over to a time when they would be shocking and abominable. Although the
survival of these customs became sensual and corrupting, it is certain
that it was not their original purpose to serve sensuality. They were
not devices to cultivate or gratify licentiousness. We know of no case
of a primitive custom with such a purpose. The provisions in the laws of
Hammurabi are as simple and matter-of-fact as possible. They are
provisions for actual interests which, it seemed, ought to be provided
for. Another proof of the innocence of the customs is that in
independent cases the same customs were established. The customs were
responses of men to the great agents who (as they thought they
perceived) wrought things in nature. The methods and means used by the
agents were revered. They could not be despised or disapproved by men.
Therefore reproduction was religious and sex was consecrated. The whole
realm was one of mystery and wonder. Men became as gods by knowledge of
it. From that knowledge they acquired power to make things grow and so
got food and escaped want. The interest in sex, and the customs
connected with it, was revivified in connection with agriculture. The
mode of fructifying the date palm was a very great discovery in natural
science. Primitive men would turn it into a religious fact and rule. The
inference that women should be consecrat