CHAPTER XIII. -The coming Race

In Chapter XIII of “The Coming Race,” the narrator describes the unique aspects of the religious beliefs and practices of the advanced underground civilization he has discovered, the Vril-ya. Central to their faith is the universal worship of a divine Creator and Sustainer of the universe, which is deeply intertwined with their understanding and use of the mysterious energy called vril. The Vril-ya stand out for two primary reasons: their unanimous belief and consistent practice of their religion’s teachings. Unlike many other religious societies, the Vril-ya unanimously believe in their creed and diligently adhere to its precepts, signifying a harmonious concord between faith and practice.

One of the distinctive beliefs of the Vril-ya is that the all-permeating force of vril conveys every conceivable thought directly to the divine essence, reflecting a profound connection between the individual and the divine. They hold that the capacity to conceive of a deity and the ensuing spiritual contemplation is a unique privilege granted to humanity. This leads them to conclude that prayer and gratitude are both natural and necessary acts of worship, beneficial for human development. Their religious observances, carried out both privately and in communal settings, are deliberately simple and brief, aimed at preventing fanaticism or hypocrisy, acknowledging the human mind’s limitations in sustaining prolonged periods of intense devotion.

Furthermore, the Vril-ya critique ancient practices of writing extensively on the nature of the deity, arguing that such endeavors often led to divisiveness and theological discord. Attempting to define the divine, they surmise, only mires the discourse in human frailties and limitations, potentially undermining the very notion of divinity itself. Through the voice of his host, the narrator conveys the Vril-ya’s wisdom: the endeavor to encapsulate the infinite within finite terms invariably fails, either by obscuring the divine essence or by distorting it with human imperfections. Through this exposition, the chapter reflects on the profound relationship between belief, practice, and the nature of divinity in the worldview of the Vril-ya, offering a critique of theological speculation and an advocacy for simplicity and unity in religious practice.