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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: taken seriously. Even if powerful historical credentials were
put forward in his favor, we would not look at them. Once, on
the contrary, his cruel appetites were of themselves credentials.
They positively recommended him to men's imaginations in ages
when such coarse signs of power were respected and no others
could be understood. Such deities then were worshiped because
such fruits were relished.
Doubtless historic accidents always played some later part, but
the original factor in fixing the figure of the gods must always
have been psychological. The deity to whom the prophets, seers,
and devotees who founded the particular cult bore witness was
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