Page 206 - A Historical Lie: The Stone Age
P. 206
A HISTORICAL LIE: THE STONE AGE
It is incontestably true that the sublimer portions of the Egyptian reli-
gion are not the comparatively late result of a process of development
or elimination from the grosser. The sublimer portions are demonstra-
bly ancient; and the last stage of the Egyptian religion, that known to
the Greek and Latin writers, heathen or Christian, was by far the
grossest and the most corrupt. 76
The anthropologist Sir Flinders Petrie says that superstitious,
polytheistic beliefs emerged through the gradual corruption of belief
in a single deity. In addition, he says that this process of corruption
The pharaoh Akhenaten be-
lieved in a single God and had
all idols destroyed. He ex-
pressed his belief in these
words in a hymn: How many
are Your deeds, though hid-
den from sight, o Sole God be-
side whom there is none! You
made the earth as You wished,
You alone, All peoples, herds,
and flocks; All upon earth that
walk on legs, all on high that
fly on wings...
Anthropological research
has shown that polytheis-
tic beliefs emerged along
with the distortion of
monotheistic faith. This is
one proof that no such
process as religious "evo-
lution" ever took place, as
some would have us be-
lieve.
204
