The Gods And Their Grand Design [antikvár]

/ Legendary Times!'We should not fear those who hold different opinions, but those who hold different opinions and are too cowardly to say so.'Napoleon 1 (1769-1821)Reality is more fantastic than any fantasy.Before I can follow a trail that was laid many thousands of years ago, I must tell you about an astounding but controversial event that took place in America in the first third of the last century. It leads us back to that ancient trail.Among the immigrants who streamed into the New World from Germany, Scandinavia, Ireland and England was the Smith family from Scotland, who lived in the small town of Palmyra in New York State.The district in which the Smiths lived was still barely civilized. Day-to-day existence demanded hard physical toil from the immigrants. The American War of Independence from 1776 to 1783 already lay fifty years behind, but the vast country was still very sparsely inhabited and the settlers had to maintain running battles with the indigenous Indians.The new arrivals from Europe were hard-working. Not only did they bring tools and goodwill with them, but also the many and varied religions of their homelands, which they sought to propagate with missionary zeal. Sects and religious groups spread like weeds. The apostles of salvation of countless different faiths vied with each other in making extravagant promises and capturing souls with sinister threats about the hereafter. Chapels, temples and churches shot up like mushrooms, as though the devil himself had discovered how to confuse the minds of the settlers in their new homeland.111'. !11 I'