Contrast that with our theory. We say that early man, having no
knowledge of science, and more imagination than reason, would be
alarmed and puzzled by the phenomena of Nature. He would be afraid
of the dark, he would be afraid of the thunder, he would wonder at
the moon, at the stars, at fire, at the ocean. He would fear what
he did not understand, and he would bow down and pay homage to what
he feared.

Then, by degrees, he would personify the stars, and the sun, and the
thunder, and the fire. He would make gods of these things. He would
make gods of the dead. He would make gods of heroes. He would do
what all savage races do, what all children do: he would make legends,
or fables, or fairy tales out of his hopes, his fears, and his guesses.

Does not that sound reasonable? Does not history teach us that it is
true? Do we not know that religion was so born and nursed?

There is no such thing known to men as an original religion. All
religions are made up of the fables and the imaginations of tribes
long since extinct. Religion is an evolution, not a revelation.
It has been invented, altered, and built up, and pulled down, and
reconstructed time after time. It is a conglomeration and an
adaptation, as language is. And the Christian religion is no
more an original religion than English is an original tongue.
We have Sanscrit, Latin, Greek, French, Saxon, Norman words in
our language; and we have Aryan, Semitic, Egyptian, Roman, Greek,
and all manner of ancient foreign fables, myths, and rites in our
Christian religion.