The way in which a tribe or nation accounts for day and night,
the change of seasons, the fall of snow and rain, the flight of
birds, the origin of the rainbow, the peculiarities of animals, the
dreams of sleep, the visions of the insane, the existence of
earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, lightning and the thousand things
that attract the attention and excite the wonder, fear or
admiration of mankind, may be called the philosophy of that tribe
or nation. And as all phenomena are, by savage and barbaric man
accounted for as the action of intelligent beings for the
accomplishment of certain objects, and as these beings were
supposed to have the power to assist or injure man, certain things
were supposed necessary for man to do in order to gain the
assistance, and avoid the anger of these gods. Out of this belief
grew certain ceremonies, and these ceremonies united with the
belief, formed religion; and consequently every religion has for
its foundation a misconception of the cause of phenomena.Robert Green Ingersoll – “Some Mistakes of Moses” (1879)
