"O God, the gem emerging from the lotus-flower." ... The attention of
the pilgrims is directed to a large box, or often a big bowl, where
they may deposit whatever offerings they can spare, and it must be
said that their religious ideas are so strongly developed that they
will dispose of a considerable portion of their money in this
fashion.... The Lamas are very clever in many ways, and have a great
hold over the entire country. They are ninety per cent of them
unscrupulous scamps, depraved in every way and given to every sort of
vice. So are the women Lamas. They live and sponge on the credulity
and ignorance of the crowds; it is to maintain this ignorance, upon
which their luxurious life depends, that foreign influence of every
kind is strictly kept out of the country.

#The Butcher-Gods#

In this last sentence we have summed up the fundamental fact about
institutionalized religion. Wherever belief and ritual have become the
means of livelihood of a class, all innovation will of necessity be
taken as an attack upon that class; it will be literally a
crime-robbing the priests of their age-long privileges. And of course
they will oppose the robber--using every weapon of terrorism, both of
this world and the next. They will require the submission, not merely
of their own people, but of their neighbors, and their jealousy of
rival priestly castes will be a cause of wars. The story of the early
days of mankind is a sickening record of torture and slaughter in the
name of ten thousand butcher-gods.

Thus, for example, we read in the Hebrew religious records how the
priests were engaged in establishing the prestige of a fetish called
"the ark"; and how the people of one tribe violated this fetish and