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How did religion start? Was it all made up to keep people under the control of the elites? Where does the notion of a ‘soul’ come from if it is not real? Why all this talk of god(s) if none of them are real? |
4.3 Conclusions from Early Religious
Traditions (Statement
23)
Religion evolved as people evolved
and learned to talks and think in language, and became more conscious of their
place in the world.
● Humans became aware that they, and other animals, moved
when the intention to do so was formed in their mind. So it seemed reasonable that other moving
things, such as the sun and moon, trees, wind and water were also motivated by
similar minds, or ‘spirits’. Early
humans appealed to these ‘spirits’ to make their lives easier, just as they
appealed to other people.
● Sometimes people were asleep or unconscious and did not
move, which can be explained as their ‘spirit’ leaving their body. It is a small step to conclude that these
‘spirits’ can exist independently of any body, that they are disembodied minds,
and that a person’s ‘spirit’ continues to live even after the death of the body. So it seemed reasonable to talk to the ‘spirits’
of the ancestors even though we can’t see them.
● As humans formed hierarchical organizations, and observed
leaders in animal herds and packs, so it seemed reasonable that these ‘spirits’
had hierarchies, and the senior ‘spirits’ became gods.
● Polytheism is seeing gods and spirits everywhere. Pantheism is seeing god in everything.
● Shamanism is a typical religion of hunter gatherers, in
which the shaman (or witch doctor) has contact with the animal spirits,
provides stories to help us connect to nature, and perhaps asks the animal gods
to forgive us for killing them for food.
Shamanism is still practiced by millions of people.
● Shinto, the state religion of
● The Yoruba religion, which began in south west
● Now science gives much better explanations of these
phenomena and we don’t believe in ‘spirits’.
But the idea of communing with nature is still attractive to most
people.
Pantheism
– seeing god(s) everywhere in nature – like polytheism – believing in many
god(s) – probably seemed sensible to early hunter gatherers, soon after humans
learned to use language to talk about it.
Humans and animals appeared to them to have some kind of ‘spirit’ which
willed them to move, so they may have guessed the moving sun, moon, wind,
clouds, trees and water also had ‘spirits’ motivating them, so why not almost
stationary rocks, which also move under some circumstances. Now we understand the forces of nature move
these things so we don’t need to believe in these ‘spirits’.
Shamanism,
the primitive religion of hunter gatherers, in which the shaman (or witch
doctor) has contact with the animal spirits, provides stories to help us
connect to nature, perhaps ask the animal gods to forgive us for killing them
for food, and possibly some useful herbal remedies, but the spirits Shamanism
is based on do not exist;
There are
many inspiring and many less inspiring stories in so called “primitive”
religions, which are still practiced by many “indigenous” people, those who
lived there before the great Eurasian invasions. Some of these are creation stories,
explaining how things came to be as they are.
Many involve god like beings interacting with humans, effectively
showing us how to behave. Some are like
historical narratives, explaining how various peoples or individuals
interacted.
Shinto,
the state religion of Japan, is based loosely on ancestor worship and local
spirits and provides some inspiration and roles models, but is based on false
beliefs in ancestor ‘spirits’;
The Yorůbá religion
(according to Wikipedia) comprises the indigenous religion of the Yoruba people.
Its homeland is in south western