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In these Nature-worships there may be discerned three fairly independent streams of religious or quasi-religious enthusiasm: that connected with the phenomena of the heavens, the movements of the Sun, planets and stars, and the awe and wonderment they excited; that connected with the seasons and the very important matter of the growth of vegetation and food on the Earth; and that connected with the mysteries of Sex and reproduction.
Higher strata of the people worshipped the various powers of nature, the sun, the moon, the stars, after much the same fashion in vogue among their kindred Semites. Even the revolting rites of the surrounding nature-worships were not lacking in Israel.
For year he assigned the date which we now adopt, and for day and month he adopted the 25th December a date which had been in popular use since about 350 B.C., and the very date, within a day or two, of the supposed birth of the previous Sungods. From that fact alone we may fairly conclude that by the year 530 or earlier the existing Nature-worships had become largely fused into Christianity.
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