God Arises
Challenge of Modern Knowledge
~ 20 ~
The Hebrew picture of an all-powerful deity
who could only be placated by complete
submission and protestations of devotion, no
matter how unjust his acts might appear, was
a direct outgrowth of this general Semitic
family situation. Another product of the
exaggerated superego to which it gave rise
was the elaborate system of taboos relating to
every aspect of behaviour. One system of this
sort has been recorded and confided in the
Laws of Moses. All Semitic tribes had similar
series of regulation differing only in content.
Such codes provided those who kept them
with a sense of security, comparable to that of
the good child who is able to remember
everything that his father ever told him not to
do and carefully abstains from doing it. The
Hebrew Yahveh was a portrait of the Semitic
father with his patriarchal authoritarian
qualities abstracted and exaggerated. Such a
judicial concept which believes in God being a
political authority has occupied a central place
not only in Judaism, but is also incorporated
in the religious concepts of Christianity and
Islam as well.
5
