Popular Aspects of Oriental Religion
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER I KOREA?SPIRIT LAND God rules, so hold your spirit even; He is impartial, all is well. ?Old Korean Hymn. CHAPTER I KOREA?SPIRIT LAND There is no tribe or people on the face of the earth without a religion. This fact frequently has been disputed by writers of prominence and classified as the unscientific statement of partisans trying to make a case for faith. Whatever truth there may be in such an arraignment of motive, we know to-day, as a result of most thorough scientific investigation, that the religious impulse is world-wide in its scope. In so far as history is recorded, this universality also characterizes the past as well as the present. Although it is a fact that some obscure tribes have seemed to be without religious instincts, yet in every instance this assumption, upon closer study, has
...been proven to be entirely erroneous. That there should be mistaken judgments in the matter, however, is not strange, for these would easily arise as a result of differences in definition. Does the term "religion" involve a belief in God and a carefully wrought- out system of doctrine and ethics, or may we consider a people religious where there is only a primitive belief in magic? Surely, our definition ought to be broad enough to embrace both of these conceptions, and under such a view we may inelude the entire human family. Difficulties also arise in securing information as to some obscure forms of religion. Concealment of these deep instincts is frequently a fundamental requirement among savage worshipers. Moreover, it is no easy task, because of the prejudices of the investigator and the obstacles and misunderstandings in the processes of translating terms, to get the real facts as to certain religious beliefs and customs. In spite of these difficulties, howeve...
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