The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c11.s3.25

v1.c11.s3.25

While many authorities are content to hold that in the interworking of these two forces, nature- and spirit-worship, there may be found the explanation of the origin of religion, others, conspicuous among whom is von Schroeder,⁷ urge that a further source is essential, and that its existence is supported by an impartial examination of the account of observers of the religions of primitive tribes. This source is the belief in a highest being whose nature is goodness; the Australian tribes, the Andaman islanders, the savages of the Tierra del Fuego, among others, are held to believe in such a being, whose commands are the moral principles which they obey. In other cases this belief has become faint and blurred, but it reveals itself in the ordeal which is an appeal to the decision of such a power. In some cases the belief in this deity pictures him as creator of the world and of men. Religion involves essentially the recognition of the existence of such a being, of man's dependence on him, and the desire to enter into relations with him. The conception is obviously not primitive; it is due to reflection by man on the fact of the self-sacrificing instinct which is seen among animals in the love for offspring and which manifests itself in an increasing number of ways with the advance of man. The existence of this impulse can be explained by man only on the theory that there must be one whose will it is that men should so act, a view which easily is added to by the conception of that one as the creator. When, whether after a long period or possibly comparatively early through the effort of a specially gifted intellect, this idea came into being, it may be said that man was truly born as man, religion truly came into being and with it morality. Inevitably, of course, this conception blends with the other two sources of religion; thus in India Rudra, in von Schroeder's view a spirit in origin, assumes both the features of a god of nature and of the high god; similarly Viṣṇu, a god of nature, assumes the characteristics of the high god and of a spirit.