"When some primeval and forgotten Harvey discovered the physiological role of the father... It not only altered completely the fundamental structure of the family, and hence tribal government, and hence of human society in general; it also introduced a wholly new concept into the role of religion... the gods had started out as mere malign presences, with no visible purpose save to do evil; they had developed, step by step, into powers who could do both evil and good, and might be persuaded, by remonstrance and propitiation, to choose good; they had come to be personified, finally, in a beneficent mother-spirit, nourishing the needs and heeding the aspirations of man. Now they were ready to take the grandiose form of a gracious and all-powerful father—maker and guardian of heaven and earth."
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Treatise on the Gods
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