Evolution of religion

[RajputMaster24]

Is it true that religion in the 5 major civilizations--namely, Africa, Europe, Middle east, India and China went from being polytheistic ( as in the case of ancient classical civilization) to monotheistic?

 

[Rival]

It's never that simple.

 

[arthra]

Is it true that religion in the 5 major civilizations--namely, Africa, Europe, Middle east, India and China went from being polytheistic ( as in the case of ancient classical civilization) to monotheistic?

There's also evidence of an ancient monotheism that was supplanted by polytheism.

 

[paarsurrey]

There's also evidence of an ancient monotheism that was supplanted by polytheism.

It is very reasonable to maintain that the original form was monotheism/oneness.
I am interested in the evidence you have. Please
Regards

 

[URAVIP2ME]

Is it true that religion in the 5 major civilizations--namely, Africa, Europe, Middle east, India and China went from being polytheistic ( as in the case of ancient classical civilization) to monotheistic?

Apparently mankind's religious family tree's evolution can be traced back to ancient Babylon - Genesis 10:8-10
That is why we see so many similar overlapping religious practices or customs throughout the world today.
As the people migrated out of ancient Babylon they took with them their old religious-myth practices and ideas as spread them into a greater religious Babylon, or Babylon the Great.
Whereas the God of the Bible has always been one - Deuteronomy 6:4

 

[Neo Deist]

Apparently mankind's religious family tree's evolution can be traced back to ancient Babylon - Genesis 10:8-10
That is why we see so many similar overlapping religious practices or customs throughout the world today.
As the people migrated out of ancient Babylon they took with them their old religious-myth practices and ideas as spread them into a greater religious Babylon, or Babylon the Great.
Whereas the God of the Bible has always been one - Deuteronomy 6:4

Religion goes back a lot further than Babylon. There are civilizations that date beyond 8,000 BCE. The simplest form of religion was animalism, which many civilizations all over the world practiced thousands of years before Babylon.

 

[blue taylor]

Animism. The first religious beliefs all people.

 

[Sapiens]

Is it true that religion in the 5 major civilizations--namely, Africa, Europe, Middle east, India and China went from being polytheistic ( as in the case of ancient classical civilization) to monotheistic?

Religion, as we know it, is more an accidental "jimmying" of the lock than a key to anything. I think that religion is the predictable result of an Evolutionary Stable Solution, nothing more (and nothing less). This is the so-called "God Gene Hypothesis."

Religions exist at every stage of the development of human societies, all over the world. It is important to recognize that these religions are often in contradiction to one another. Religion appears to be an evolved behavior. It exists, not because there is a god, but because of natural selection. It exists, because it evolved prior to Homo sapiens ssp. moving out of Africa, because it provided early humans and their offspring with, "increased access to the gene pool of succeeding generations." [/QUOte]

Nicholas Wade (writing in the New York Time' Week in Review) observes that: "... it may seem threatening to think that the mind has been shaped to believe in gods, since the actual existence of the divine may then seem less likely.

But the evolutionary perspective on religion does not necessarily threaten the central position of either side. That religious behavior was favored by natural selection neither proves nor disproves the existence of gods. For believers, if one accepts that evolution has shaped the human body, why not the mind too? What evolution has done is to endow people with a genetic predisposition to learn the religion of their community, just as they are predisposed to learn its language. With both religion and language, it is culture, not genetics, that then supplies the content of what is learned."

Here I part company with Wade. If there were, in fact, a supernatural guiding hand behind this religious predisposition, then why the many, many, many different belief systems?

The drive to "have a religion" is now genetically programmed, but overcomeable, like so may inherited behaviors. It served mankind well in the days of the hunter-gatherers when urban cultures developed the power elites turned humans' genetic programming against the population, solidifying their power over the masses as priests or living gods.
[/QUOTE]

 

[metis]

Is it true that religion in the 5 major civilizations--namely, Africa, Europe, Middle east, India and China went from being polytheistic ( as in the case of ancient classical civilization) to monotheistic?

Probably because all of the religious writings and symbols prior to 3000 b.p., with the lone exception of the temporary influence of Pharaoh Akhenaten in Egypt, are polytheistic in nature. As b.t. mentioned above, they were likely spin-offs from animism if one goes back far enough, although even that changed over time in agricultural societies whereas new deities appeared, some others were enhanced, and yet some others were downgraded or dropped entirely.

Monotheism is actually a more complicated type of theology because of the much more complicated issue of "good" v "evil".

 

[Agondonter]

Religion per se has very little to do do with gods or God and everything do do with the human drive to pursue meaning (e.g., what does thunder mean? Impending rain?), values (e.g., is it to be feared or revered?) and structure (is it caused by an unseen entity using a hammer or mountain elves bowling?).

Advances in science threaten only anthropomorphic gods and the gods of superstition. As summarized by philosopher Simon Blackburn, structuralism is "the belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations. These relations constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the surface phenomena there are constant laws of abstract culture" (Wiki) Meaning is produced and reproduced within a culture through various practices, phenomena and activities which serve as systems of signification.

 

[metis]

Religion per se has very little to do do with gods or God and everything do do with the human drive to pursue meaning (e.g., what does thunder mean? Impending rain?), values (e.g., is it to be feared or revered?) and structure (is it caused by an unseen entity using a hammer or mountain elves bowling?).

They are largely intertwined. Religion very much has to do with god(s), and it seems that we are at least somewhat hard-wired to believe in them. The question therefore begs the chicken/egg syndrome: did humans invent religion to do what you say above or did god(s) make us so as to believe? You and I may have an opinion on that, but neither of us would be in a position to provide any convincing evidence one way or the other, which is why thread after thread here at RF or anywhere else cannot even get close to resolving this.

 

[Agondonter]

They are largely intertwined. Religion very much has to do with god(s), and it seems that we are at least somewhat hard-wired to believe in them. The question therefore begs the chicken/egg syndrome: did humans invent religion to do what you say above or did god(s) make us so as to believe? You and I may have an opinion on that, but neither of us would be in a position to provide any convincing evidence one way or the other, which is why thread after thread here at RF or anywhere else cannot even get close to resolving this.

A non sequitur. What's hard-wired is the impulse to pursue meaning, values and structure. Sometimes they leads us to believe in gods or God (structure), sometimes they don't; but always and anon there is some kind of structure--an unverifiable belief system.

 

[URAVIP2ME]

Animism. The first religious beliefs all people.

Satan did say to Eve that she would Not die ( Genesis 3:4 ) and the world's religions still promote that lie in the form of saying humans possess a death-proof soul.
That lie has been perpetuated world wide, and that is why we see such similar overlapping religious-myth teachings throughout the earth.

Adam ( all of Adam ) simply returned to the dust of the ground - Genesis 3:19
A person can Not ' return ' to a place he never was before.
So, at death 'all ' of a person returns going back to the ground.
The dead know nothing - Ecclesiastes 9:5

 

[metis]

A non sequitur. What's hard-wired is the impulse to pursue meaning, values and structure. Sometimes they leads us to believe in gods or God (structure), sometimes they don't; but always and anon there is some kind of structure--an unverifiable belief system.

And that's an assumption, not necessarily a fact. Try and give us one shred of objectively-derived evidence, and I guarantee you that you can't.

Secondly, when I said "hard-wired", I don't mean that this is any indication whatsoever that there's a god or gods, only that it is so widespread throughout all cultures that we seem to be hard-wired to lean in that direction. It may well be as you say, and I personally tend to lean in that direction, but the reality is that there logically is no way possible that we can tell for sure.

 

[Agondonter]

And that's an assumption, not necessarily a fact. Try and give us one shred of objectively-derived evidence, and I guarantee you that you can't.

I need only to point to your own words. Your statement is the product of the pursuit of meaning, value and structure.

 

[metis]

I need only to point to your own words. Your statement is the product of the pursuit of meaning, value and structure.

Bait & switch.

 

[Agondonter]

Bait & switch.

Irrelevant.

 

[Riverwolf]

Is it true that religion in the 5 major civilizations--namely, Africa, Europe, Middle east, India and China went from being polytheistic ( as in the case of ancient classical civilization) to monotheistic?

Since when are those the "5 major civilizations"? You've naming regions within the Afroeurasian supercontinent, none of which are exactly equal in population, technological sophistication, homogeneity, or geographic size.

In any case, like @Rival said, things aren't ever that simple.