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88:2.1 It was a supposed [[preference]] of [[ghosts]] to indwell some object which had belonged to them when alive in the [[flesh]]. This [[belief]] explains the efficacy of many [[modern]] [[relics]]. The [[ancients]] always revered the bones of their [[leaders]], and the skeletal remains of saints and [[heroes]] are still regarded with [[superstitious]] [[awe]] by many. Even today, [[pilgrimages]] are made to the tombs of great men.
88:2.2 [[Belief]] in [[relics]] is an outgrowth of the [[ancient]] [[fetish]] [[cult]]. The relics of [[modern]] [[religions]] [[represent]] an attempt to [[rationalize]] the fetish of the savage and thus elevate it to a place of [[dignity]] and respectability in the [[modern]] religious [[systems]]. It is heathenish to believe in [[fetishes]] and [[magic]] but supposedly all right to accept [[relics]] and [[miracles]].
88:2.3 The [[hearth]]—fireplace—became more or less of a [[fetish]], a [[sacred]] spot. The [[shrines]] and [[temples]] were at first fetish places because the dead were buried there. The fetish [[hut]] of the [[Hebrews]] was elevated by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses Moses] to that place where it harbored a superfetish, the then existent [[concept]] of the [[law]] of [[God]]. But the Israelites never gave up the peculiar Canaanite [[belief]] in the stone [[altar]]: "And this stone which I have set up as a pillar shall be God's house."[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Genesis#Chapter_.28] They truly believed that the [[spirit]] of their [[God]] dwelt in such stone [[altars]], which were in reality [[fetishes]].
88:2.4 The earliest images were made to preserve the [[appearance]] and [[memory]] of the illustrious dead; they were really [[monuments]]. [[Idols]] were a refinement of [[fetishism]]. The [[primitives]] believed that a [[ceremony]] of [[consecration]] caused the spirit to enter the image; likewise, when certain objects were [[blessed]], they became [[charms]].
88:2.5 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses Moses], in the addition of the second commandment to the [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_66#66:7._LIFE_IN_DALAMATIA ancient Dalamatian moral code], made an [[effort]] to control fetish [[worship]] among the [[Hebrews]]. He carefully directed that they should make no sort of image that might become consecrated as a [[fetish]]. He made it plain, "You shall not make a graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters of the earth."[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Exodus#Chapter_.20] While this commandment did much to retard [[art]] among the Jews, it did lessen [[fetish]] [[worship]]. But [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses Moses] was too [[wise]] to attempt suddenly to displace the olden fetishes, and he therefore consented to the putting of certain [[relics]] alongside the [[law]] in the combined [[war]] [[altar]] and religious shrine which was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_of_the_covenant the ark].
88:2.6 [[Words]] [[eventually]] became [[fetishes]], more especially those which were regarded as [[God]]'s words; in this way the [[sacred]] [[books]] of many [[religions]] have become [[fetishistic]] prisons incarcerating the [[spiritual]] [[imagination]] of man. Moses' very [[effort]] against fetishes became a supreme [[fetish]]; his commandment was later used to stultify [[art]] and to retard the enjoyment and [[adoration]] of the [[beautiful]].
88:2.7 In olden times the [[fetish]] [[word]] of [[authority]] was a [[fear]]-[[inspiring]] [[doctrine]], the most terrible of all [[tyrants]] which [[enslave]] men. A doctrinal fetish will lead [[mortal]] man to betray himself into the clutches of [[bigotry]], [[fanaticism]], [[superstition]], intolerance, and the most atrocious of barbarous cruelties. [[Modern]] respect for [[wisdom]] and [[truth]] is but the recent [[escape]] from the fetish-making tendency up to the higher levels of [[thinking]] and [[reasoning]]. Concerning the accumulated [[fetish]] [[writings]] which various religionists hold as [[sacred]] [[books]], it is not only believed that what is in the book is true, but also that every [[truth]] is contained in the [[book]]. If one of these sacred books happens to speak of the [[earth]] as being [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland flat], then, for long [[generations]], otherwise sane men and women will refuse to accept positive [[evidence]] that the [[planet]] is [[Sphere|round]].
88:2.8 The [[practice]] of opening one of these [[sacred]] [[books]] to let the eye [[chance]] upon a passage, the following of which may determine important life [[decisions]] or projects, is nothing more nor less than arrant fetishism. To take an [[oath]] on a "holy book" or to swear by some object of supreme [[veneration]] is a form of refined fetishism.
88:2.9 But it does [[represent]] real evolutionary [[progress]] to advance from the [[fetish]] [[fear]] of a savage chief's fingernail trimmings to the [[adoration]] of a superb collection of [[letters]], [[laws]], [[legends]], allegories, [[myths]], poems, and chronicles which, after all, [[reflect]] the winnowed [[moral]] [[wisdom]] of many centuries, at least up to the time and [[event]] of their being assembled as a "sacred book."
88:2.10 To become fetishes, [[words]] had to be considered [[inspired]], and the invocation of supposed divinely inspired [[writings]] led directly to the [[establishment]] of the [[authority]] of the church, while the [[evolution]] of [[civil]] forms led to the fruition of the authority of the [[state]].
<center>[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_88 Go to Paper 88]</center>
<center>[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Urantia_Text_-_Contents Go to Table of Contents]</center>
[[Category:Paper 88 - Fetishes, Charms, and Magic]]
88:2.1 It was a supposed [[preference]] of [[ghosts]] to indwell some object which had belonged to them when alive in the [[flesh]]. This [[belief]] explains the efficacy of many [[modern]] [[relics]]. The [[ancients]] always revered the bones of their [[leaders]], and the skeletal remains of saints and [[heroes]] are still regarded with [[superstitious]] [[awe]] by many. Even today, [[pilgrimages]] are made to the tombs of great men.
88:2.2 [[Belief]] in [[relics]] is an outgrowth of the [[ancient]] [[fetish]] [[cult]]. The relics of [[modern]] [[religions]] [[represent]] an attempt to [[rationalize]] the fetish of the savage and thus elevate it to a place of [[dignity]] and respectability in the [[modern]] religious [[systems]]. It is heathenish to believe in [[fetishes]] and [[magic]] but supposedly all right to accept [[relics]] and [[miracles]].
88:2.3 The [[hearth]]—fireplace—became more or less of a [[fetish]], a [[sacred]] spot. The [[shrines]] and [[temples]] were at first fetish places because the dead were buried there. The fetish [[hut]] of the [[Hebrews]] was elevated by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses Moses] to that place where it harbored a superfetish, the then existent [[concept]] of the [[law]] of [[God]]. But the Israelites never gave up the peculiar Canaanite [[belief]] in the stone [[altar]]: "And this stone which I have set up as a pillar shall be God's house."[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Genesis#Chapter_.28] They truly believed that the [[spirit]] of their [[God]] dwelt in such stone [[altars]], which were in reality [[fetishes]].
88:2.4 The earliest images were made to preserve the [[appearance]] and [[memory]] of the illustrious dead; they were really [[monuments]]. [[Idols]] were a refinement of [[fetishism]]. The [[primitives]] believed that a [[ceremony]] of [[consecration]] caused the spirit to enter the image; likewise, when certain objects were [[blessed]], they became [[charms]].
88:2.5 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses Moses], in the addition of the second commandment to the [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_66#66:7._LIFE_IN_DALAMATIA ancient Dalamatian moral code], made an [[effort]] to control fetish [[worship]] among the [[Hebrews]]. He carefully directed that they should make no sort of image that might become consecrated as a [[fetish]]. He made it plain, "You shall not make a graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters of the earth."[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Book_of_Exodus#Chapter_.20] While this commandment did much to retard [[art]] among the Jews, it did lessen [[fetish]] [[worship]]. But [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses Moses] was too [[wise]] to attempt suddenly to displace the olden fetishes, and he therefore consented to the putting of certain [[relics]] alongside the [[law]] in the combined [[war]] [[altar]] and religious shrine which was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_of_the_covenant the ark].
88:2.6 [[Words]] [[eventually]] became [[fetishes]], more especially those which were regarded as [[God]]'s words; in this way the [[sacred]] [[books]] of many [[religions]] have become [[fetishistic]] prisons incarcerating the [[spiritual]] [[imagination]] of man. Moses' very [[effort]] against fetishes became a supreme [[fetish]]; his commandment was later used to stultify [[art]] and to retard the enjoyment and [[adoration]] of the [[beautiful]].
88:2.7 In olden times the [[fetish]] [[word]] of [[authority]] was a [[fear]]-[[inspiring]] [[doctrine]], the most terrible of all [[tyrants]] which [[enslave]] men. A doctrinal fetish will lead [[mortal]] man to betray himself into the clutches of [[bigotry]], [[fanaticism]], [[superstition]], intolerance, and the most atrocious of barbarous cruelties. [[Modern]] respect for [[wisdom]] and [[truth]] is but the recent [[escape]] from the fetish-making tendency up to the higher levels of [[thinking]] and [[reasoning]]. Concerning the accumulated [[fetish]] [[writings]] which various religionists hold as [[sacred]] [[books]], it is not only believed that what is in the book is true, but also that every [[truth]] is contained in the [[book]]. If one of these sacred books happens to speak of the [[earth]] as being [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland flat], then, for long [[generations]], otherwise sane men and women will refuse to accept positive [[evidence]] that the [[planet]] is [[Sphere|round]].
88:2.8 The [[practice]] of opening one of these [[sacred]] [[books]] to let the eye [[chance]] upon a passage, the following of which may determine important life [[decisions]] or projects, is nothing more nor less than arrant fetishism. To take an [[oath]] on a "holy book" or to swear by some object of supreme [[veneration]] is a form of refined fetishism.
88:2.9 But it does [[represent]] real evolutionary [[progress]] to advance from the [[fetish]] [[fear]] of a savage chief's fingernail trimmings to the [[adoration]] of a superb collection of [[letters]], [[laws]], [[legends]], allegories, [[myths]], poems, and chronicles which, after all, [[reflect]] the winnowed [[moral]] [[wisdom]] of many centuries, at least up to the time and [[event]] of their being assembled as a "sacred book."
88:2.10 To become fetishes, [[words]] had to be considered [[inspired]], and the invocation of supposed divinely inspired [[writings]] led directly to the [[establishment]] of the [[authority]] of the church, while the [[evolution]] of [[civil]] forms led to the fruition of the authority of the [[state]].
<center>[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Paper_88 Go to Paper 88]</center>
<center>[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Urantia_Text_-_Contents Go to Table of Contents]</center>
[[Category:Paper 88 - Fetishes, Charms, and Magic]]
