Uncharted Knowledge Wisdom From Previous Realities
View as JSON for agents & LLMs

ETC Sacred Texts

Bygone Beliefs

Connected to
Animism: Preface Similar meaning (71%) Pagan Christs: Chapter I. The Naturalness of all Belief: § 8. His Contradictory Doctrine of the Conditions of the Survival of Religion Similar meaning (56%)
Summary only - full text stays on its own separately-gated source. Read the full text at the source »
IN the earliest days of his upward evolution man was satisfied with a very crude explanation of natural phenomena--that to which the name "animism" has been given. In this stage of mental development all the various forces of Nature are personified: the rushing torrent, the devastating fire, the wind rustling the forest leaves--in the mind of the animistic savage all these are personalities, spirits, like himself, but animated by motives more or less antagonistic to him. I suppose that no…

Related pages View as graph →