Man's early attempts to buy off ill luck by bribery evolved into a more positive effort to win good luck, eventually leading to the development of schemes to compel spirit co-operation in his evolving religious practices. [1] The erroneous, barbarous idea of propitiating a wrathful God through blood sacrifice is unworthy of an enlightened age of science and truth. [2] The positive form of propitiation involved praise, flattery, and entertainment, while renunciation was the negative form. [3] Life rendered miserable by ceremonies of spirit propitiation, a heavy burden passed down from generation to generation. [4] The evolution of religious observances progressed from avoidance, placation, and exorcism to sacrificial rites of conciliation and propitiation. [5]