Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the
dead calm of ignorance and faith. Banish me from Eden when you will;
but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge! Some
nations have borrowed their gods; of this number, we are compelled to
say, is our own. The Jews having ceased to exist as a nation, and
having no further use for a god, our ancestors appropriated him and
adopted their devil at the same time. This borrowed god is still an
object of some adoration, and this adopted devil still excites the
apprehensions of our people. He is still supposed to be setting his
traps and snares for the purpose of catching our unwary souls, and is
still, with reasonable success, waging the old war against our god.

To me, it seems easy to account for these ideas concerning gods and
devils. They are a perfectly natural production. Man has created them
all, and under the same circumstances will create them again. Man has
not only created all these gods, but he has created them out of the
materials by which he has been surrounded. Generally he has modeled them
after himself, and has given them hands, heads, feet, eyes, ears, and
organs of speech. Each nation made its gods and devils speak its
language not only, but put in their mouths the same mistakes in history,
geography, astronomy, and in all matters of fact, generally made by the
people.

No god was ever in advance of the nation that created him. The negroes
represented their deities with black skins and curly hair. The Mongolian
gave to his a yellow complexion and dark almond-shaped eyes. The Jews
were not allowed to paint theirs, or we should have seen Jehovah with a
full beard, an oval face, and an aquiline nose. Zeus was a perfect Greek
and Jove looked as though a member of the Roman senate. The gods of
Egypt had the patient face and placid look of the loving people who made