ey have to be faced as facts. The Gods,
in short belong to the region of belief, while morality belongs to that
of practice. It is in the nature of morality that it should be implicit
in practice long before it is explicit in theory. Morality belongs to
the group and is rooted in certain impulses that are a product of the
essential conditions of group life. It is as reflection awakens that men
are led to speculate upon the nature and origin of the moral feelings.
Morality, whether in practice or theory, is thus based upon what is. On
the other hand, religion, whether it be true or false, is in the nature
of a discovery--one cannot conceive man actually ascribing ethical
qualities to his Gods before he becomes sufficiently developed to
formulate moral rules for his own guidance, and to create moral laws for
his fellowmen. The moralization of the Gods will follow as a matter of
course. Man really modifies his Gods in terms of the ideal human being.
It is not the Gods who moralize man, it is man who moralizes the Gods."
(_Chapman Cohen: "Theism or Atheism."_)

In the formation of the Old Testament, the moralization of Yahveh led to
the creation of a god who coincided more with the morality of the later
writers, the God Elohim.

"Rather must we say that morality begins in human social relations and
passes from them to the relations maintained with the other life and
with the Gods. Or, if one prefers to consider ghosts and gods as
inseparable elements of the primary organism, then we should say that
morality is born in that all-embracing psychical atmosphere. But it does
not follow from that fact that the rise and development of morality are
conditioned by belief in Gods and in immortality. Merely human relations
are sufficient to the production of ethical appreciations. The invisible
ghosts and Gods would never have been thought interested in the morality
of the tribe, had not the leaders realized the importance of courage, of
loyalty, of respect for neighbors' possessions, and the other elementary
virtues. It is when the disastrous consequences of their absence became
evident that the Gods were made to sanction these virtues. God or no
God, immortality or no immortality, the essential morality of man would
have been what it is." (_J. H. Leuba: "Belief in God and Immortality."_)

The best that is in man is generated in the experiences of his daily
life. The attributing of moral qualities to the gods was a much later
devel