178. The faith of any church is like a seed, from which spring all its dogmas. It may be compared to the seed of a tree, from which grow all its parts up to and including its fruit; and to the human seed from which are procreated offspring and, generation by generation, families. Therefore if one knows what is the leading faith, which is from its dominant role called necessary for salvation, one can know what kind of church it is. The following example will serve to illustrate this.
Suppose the faith is that nature is the creator of the universe. it follows from this that the universe is what is called God, and that nature is its essence; that the ether is the supreme God, whom the ancients called Jupiter, and the air is a goddess, whom the ancients called Juno, and made Jupiter's wife; that the ocean is a god of lower rank, who following the ancients can be called Neptune; and because the divinity of nature reaches right to the centre of the earth, that there is a god there too, who following the ancients can be called Pluto; that the sun is the meeting-house of all the gods, where they assemble when Jupiter summons a council; moreover, fire is life from God, and thus birds fly in a god, animals walk in a god, and fishes swim in a god; [2] further, thoughts are mere modifications of the ether, just as the speech which expresses thoughts is a modulation of the air; and the affections of love are changes of state occasioned by the radiation of sunlight impinging on them. This also involves the idea that life after death, together with heaven and hell, is a tale devised by the clergy in pursuit of honours and profit, but it is none the less a useful tale, not to be made fun of in public, because it serves the civic need to keep the minds of ordinary people rigidly obedient to the magistrates. Yet those who are hooked on religion are out of touch with reality, their thoughts are wild imagination, their behaviour ridiculous, and they are lackeys of the priests, believing what they cannot see and seeing things far beyond the reach of their minds. All these consequences, and many more of the same sort, are contained in that faith that nature is the creator of the universe, and emerge from it when it is laid open. This demonstration has been given so that people may know that the faith of the present-day church which is inwardly in three Gods, though outwardly in one, contains battalions of falsities. From this can be extracted as many falsities as there are tiny spiders in one ball produced by a female spider. Is there anyone, whose mind has become truly rational under the enlightenment the Lord gives, who does not see this? But how can anyone else see it, when the door leading to that faith and its offshoots is barred by the rule that it is unlawful for the reason to enquire into its mysteries?
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church