r system.

+966+. The great civilizations of the ancient world arose and were
developed under polytheism--many noble human characters and customs and
institutions were created under the dominance of this system in
Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and elsewhere--that is to say, human
instincts and aspirations developed freely under a theistic organization
that satisfied in general the intellectual and moral needs of the time.
The different polytheistic cults of the world differed considerably in
intellectual and moral value. These differences pertain to the diversity
of characteristics among the nations of the world and are to be studied
in connection with the histories of the various peoples. Here it is
sufficient to note the general position which polytheism has occupied in
the whole religious development of the world.[1762]

+967+. At a relatively early time, however, dissatisfaction arose with
the discordances of the polytheistic conception. It raised many problems
and failed to account for many phenomena, and efforts were made to
systematize and simplify the conceptions of the divine government of the
world. These efforts took the shape of dualism, monotheism, pantheism,
Buddhism, Confucianism, and later tended to regard the supernatural in
the world as Ultimate Force or as Moral Ideal. These tendencies may be
examined in the order just given.

DUALISM

+968+. In all the religious systems so far considered the existence of
human suffering is assumed. The sole object of religious practices, in
all cults except the highest, has been to secure extrahuman or
superhuman aid and comfort in the ills of life. There has been the
conviction, for the most part implicit, that man is not in harmony with
his surroundings. We have now to consider those systems of religious
thought in which the existence of this disharmony is more or less
distinctly announced and the effort is made to discover its source.

The conception of two sets of Powers in the world, one helpful and the
other harmful, is suggested by human experience and by the larger
observation of natural phenomena, and it is found all over the world,
among low communities as well as high, perhaps in all tribes of
men.[1763] Possibly there are some low groups, such as the Fuegians and
the African Pygmies in which the conception does not exist; but as the
religious ideas of these low groups are yet imperfectly understood, we
cannot say what their position on this point