Religion

This world of ours is a world of opposites. There is light and shade, there is heat and cold, there is good and evil, there is God and the Devil

I hope that the readers of this book will find in it some little contribution to our knowledge of the history of thought-not of Jewish thought alone, but of human thought. For superstition and magic are universal and uniform in their manifestations, and constitute an important chapter in the progress of man's ideas; those minor variations that appear here and there are but reflections of the infinite variety and ingenuity of the human mind.

THE Koran admittedly occupies an important position among the great religious books of the world. Though the youngest of the epoch-making works belonging to this class of literature, it yields to hardly any in the wonderful effect which it has produced on large masses of men. It has created an all but new phase of human thought and a fresh type of character. It first transformed a number of heterogeneous desert tribes of the Arabian peninsula into a nation of heroes, and then proceeded to create the vast politico-religious organisations of the Muhammedan world which are one of the great forces with which Europe and the East have to reckon to-day.

Very few Christians even know there is suspicion that the last verses of Mark were tampered with. Mark was not a 'favorite' of the Catholic Church, and I have no doubt that Mark's original writings were rewritten to satisfy the 'altered' christianity of the church. This author goes to great lengths to prove that all of Mark is authentic.

The reason for this criticism seems to be, that while one small set of students is interested in, and familiar with the themes examined in the first part (namely the psychological characteristics of certain mental states from which, in part, the doctrine of spirits is said to have arisen), that set of students neither knows nor cares anything about the matter handled in the second part.

The main purpose of our existence on earth-aside from the sacred and paramount duty of securing our salvation-is undoubtedly to make ourselves masters of the tangible world around us, as it stands revealed to our senses, and as it was expressly made subject to our will by the Creator.

A look at the witchcraft and its adherents in Salem, Massachusetts, that led to the infamous witch trials and burning at the stake, in the name of religion and god.