when he stood “in the midst of Mars’ hill”, could have been addressed with equal appropriateness to the ancient Sumerians and Akkadians.  “I perceive”, he declared, “that in all things ye are too superstitious....  God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s hands as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things ... for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.  Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device."[78]

Babylonian temples were houses of the gods in the literal sense; the gods were supposed to dwell in them, their spirits having entered into the graven images or blocks of stone.  It is probable that like the Ancient Egyptians they believed a god had as many spirits as he had attributes.  The gods, as we have said, appear to have evolved from early spirit groups.  All the world swarmed with spirits, which inhabited stones and trees, mountains and deserts, rivers and ocean, the air, the sky, the stars, and the sun and moon.  The spirits controlled Nature:  they brought light and darkness, sunshine and storm, summer and winter; they were manifested in the thunderstorm, the sandstorm, the glare of sunset, and the wraiths of mist rising from the steaming marshes.  They controlled also the lives of men and women.  The good spirits were the source of luck.  The bad spirits caused misfortunes, and were ever seeking to work evil against the Babylonian.  Darkness was peopled by demons and ghosts of the dead.  The spirits of disease were ever lying in wait to clutch him with cruel invisible hands.

Some modern writers, who are too prone to regard ancient peoples from a twentieth-century point of view, express grave doubts as to whether “intelligent Babylonians” really believed that spirits came down in the rain and entered the soil to rise up before men’s eyes as stalks of barley or wheat.  There is no reason for supposing that they thought otherwise.  The early folks based their theories on the accumulated knowledge of their age.  They knew nothing regarding the composition of water or the atmosphere, of the cause of thunder and lightning, or of the chemical changes effected in soils by the action of bacteria.  They attributed all natural phenomena to the operations of spirits or gods.  In believing that certain demons caused certain diseases, they may be said to have achieved distinct progress, for they anticipated the germ theory.  They made discoveries, too, which have been approved and elaborated in later times when they lit sacred fires, bathed in sacred waters, and used oils and herbs to charm away spirits of pestilence.  Indeed, many folk cures, which were originally associated with magical ceremonies, are still practised in our own day.  They were found to be effective by early observers, although they were unable to explain why and how cures were accomplished, like modern scientific investigators.