Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 224
THE CONCEPT OF GOD AMONG. THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA it contained did not eternally coexist with the Supreme. Creator. . Many anthropologists dispute the origin and purpose of the concept of God amongst the Aborigines. They doubt that the Australian High Gods*, is the same as the Supreme. Being known elsewhere among traditional religions, because it is difficult for them to believe that savages or inferior people, as the primitive Australians were, could hold such advanced conceptions. . The utter absurdity of their position is self-evident. . Because they could not believe something to have happened, so it could not have happened, is the crux of their argument. This further exposes their prejudicial attitude. If a society as primitive as the Aborigines of. Australia is found to have believed in one God, right from the beginning of their history, then there is nothing left for sociologists but to admit ideas of God did not evolve from primitive superstitious myths. Instead all we have from them is a childish sulky response: we cannot believe because it could not have happened. . In an attempt to avoid this embarrassment, E. B. Tylor has discovered another evasive excuse to discredit the. Australian evidence. In his article Limits of Savage Religion in the Journal of Anthropological Institute (1891), he proposes the novel idea that High Gods is the product of influences from the Christian missionaries on Australian religion. An absurd proposition, as it is, it is completely belied by the facts of history. . A. W. Howitt, another evolutionist, roundly disproves. Tylor's claim pointing out that in some tribes in the South*. The term 'High Gods' is not plural as it appears. In Aborigine terminology it invariably refers to a Single Supreme Creator. It is out of respect perhaps that He is referred to in plural. 220