The origins of religion

[Stevicus]

Other threads have prompted some random thoughts on this subject.

I look back on my own Catholic upbringing and consider how much influence it had over my perspective for many years while growing up. A lot of ideas about God and religion were drilled into me at an early age - as it has been for generations for thousands of years. So, with many of us, it just becomes part of our upbringing and the overall culture around us.

Of course, some people overcome this and do not believe in the existence of some supernatural deity or deities.

I'll admit I'm no expert on the history of religion, but I was wondering at what point did humans go from having no religion to conceiving that such a thing might be possible. I'm not thinking of any particular religion today, but more along the lines of ancient religions which have possibly fallen into the dustbins of history.

I can see how it might happen, perhaps when early humans were faced with natural phenomena they couldn't understand or explain. And humans can be very creative and imaginative. Humans make stuff up.

Someone in another thread asked where the universe came from, because (in the OP's opinion) "it must have had a starting point." I guess I'm asking the same thing about religion.

Was religion even necessary in human social and cultural development? Would human civilization be more advanced today if religion never existed?

 

[Orbit]

Other threads have prompted some random thoughts on this subject.

I look back on my own Catholic upbringing and consider how much influence it had over my perspective for many years while growing up. A lot of ideas about God and religion were drilled into me at an early age - as it has been for generations for thousands of years. So, with many of us, it just becomes part of our upbringing and the overall culture around us.

Of course, some people overcome this and do not believe in the existence of some supernatural deity or deities.

I'll admit I'm no expert on the history of religion, but I was wondering at what point did humans go from having no religion to conceiving that such a thing might be possible. I'm not thinking of any particular religion today, but more along the lines of ancient religions which have possibly fallen into the dustbins of history.

I can see how it might happen, perhaps when early humans were faced with natural phenomena they couldn't understand or explain. And humans can be very creative and imaginative. Humans make stuff up.

Someone in another thread asked where the universe came from, because (in the OP's opinion) "it must have had a starting point." I guess I'm asking the same thing about religion.

Was religion even necessary in human social and cultural development? Would human civilization be more advanced today if religion never existed?

Judging by hunter gatherers, the earliest form of religion is animism; the first religious specialists were tribal shamans.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Animists...who experienced things, including the real waking world--which included unseen causes and influences--as well as dreams and visions...and so they believed in unseen things as well as those that they saw...waking or in altered states of consciousness...

 

[Hockeycowboy]

We were created with a spiritual need, a desire to seek a higher authority.

Many try to suppress it...others look to the leaders of science or politics, to provide a path and something to believe in.

 

[loverofhumanity]

Other threads have prompted some random thoughts on this subject.

I look back on my own Catholic upbringing and consider how much influence it had over my perspective for many years while growing up. A lot of ideas about God and religion were drilled into me at an early age - as it has been for generations for thousands of years. So, with many of us, it just becomes part of our upbringing and the overall culture around us.

Of course, some people overcome this and do not believe in the existence of some supernatural deity or deities.

I'll admit I'm no expert on the history of religion, but I was wondering at what point did humans go from having no religion to conceiving that such a thing might be possible. I'm not thinking of any particular religion today, but more along the lines of ancient religions which have possibly fallen into the dustbins of history.

I can see how it might happen, perhaps when early humans were faced with natural phenomena they couldn't understand or explain. And humans can be very creative and imaginative. Humans make stuff up.

Someone in another thread asked where the universe came from, because (in the OP's opinion) "it must have had a starting point." I guess I'm asking the same thing about religion.

Was religion even necessary in human social and cultural development? Would human civilization be more advanced today if religion never existed?

I do not believe that religion ever had a beginning but has always existed whether here or on other planets. Also I believe that just because our records don’t go back farther than Adam doesn’t mean there weren’t other religions and Prophets Who came before Him. But the remoteness of time and the languages used back then are lost to us by all the changes that have taken place in our world.

Some quotes on this topic

Abdu’l-Bahá stated there are other worlds than ours which are inhabited by beings capable of knowing God.
(Shoghi Effendi, The Light of Divine Guidance v II, p. 79)

And now regarding thy question, “How is it that no records are to be found concerning the Prophets that have preceded Adam, the Father of Mankind, or of the kings that lived in the days of those Prophets?” Know thou that the absence of any reference to them is no proof that they did not actually exist. That no records concerning them are now available, should be attributed to their extreme remoteness, as well as to the vast changes which the earth hath undergone since their time.

Moreover such forms and modes of writing as are now current amongst men were unknown to the generations that were before Adam. There was even a time when men were wholly ignorant of the art of writing, and had adopted a system entirely different from the one which they now use. (Baha’u’llah)

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Other threads have prompted some random thoughts on this subject.

I look back on my own Catholic upbringing and consider how much influence it had over my perspective for many years while growing up. A lot of ideas about God and religion were drilled into me at an early age - as it has been for generations for thousands of years. So, with many of us, it just becomes part of our upbringing and the overall culture around us.

Of course, some people overcome this and do not believe in the existence of some supernatural deity or deities.

I'll admit I'm no expert on the history of religion, but I was wondering at what point did humans go from having no religion to conceiving that such a thing might be possible. I'm not thinking of any particular religion today, but more along the lines of ancient religions which have possibly fallen into the dustbins of history.

I can see how it might happen, perhaps when early humans were faced with natural phenomena they couldn't understand or explain. And humans can be very creative and imaginative. Humans make stuff up.

Someone in another thread asked where the universe came from, because (in the OP's opinion) "it must have had a starting point." I guess I'm asking the same thing about religion.

Was religion even necessary in human social and cultural development? Would human civilization be more advanced today if religion never existed?

I believe so. From what I studied in art history, gods/deities-like humans I think were more in the Greek and Roman (and a few civilizations back or so). I was into astrology for once month couple months ago. I don't know when it became modernized, but years ago they plotted the planets, moon, and sun to dictate human events and cure illnesses. A lot of it was for agricultural means. With astronomy and mathematics etc.

Using our natural environment to understand things. As for the beginning of religion, or the structure of these things probably when the first beliefs as above became political and government civilizations to do this or that.

I think religion became "spiritual" years later. I don't know. Since religion was mostly political governing everything and people, it took awhile for it to really take form.

But, my guess is there was no religion as we known it back then. So, no gods in the deity sense of the term. Just what they saw in their natural environment.

That's a guess

 

[Hockeycowboy]

...because our records don’t go back farther than Adam....

You know, it really pleases me that you are inferring the Bible provides a reliable record!

I believe that, too!

 

[IndigoChild5559]

Other threads have prompted some random thoughts on this subject.

I look back on my own Catholic upbringing and consider how much influence it had over my perspective for many years while growing up. A lot of ideas about God and religion were drilled into me at an early age - as it has been for generations for thousands of years. So, with many of us, it just becomes part of our upbringing and the overall culture around us.

Of course, some people overcome this and do not believe in the existence of some supernatural deity or deities.

I'll admit I'm no expert on the history of religion, but I was wondering at what point did humans go from having no religion to conceiving that such a thing might be possible. I'm not thinking of any particular religion today, but more along the lines of ancient religions which have possibly fallen into the dustbins of history.

I can see how it might happen, perhaps when early humans were faced with natural phenomena they couldn't understand or explain. And humans can be very creative and imaginative. Humans make stuff up.

Someone in another thread asked where the universe came from, because (in the OP's opinion) "it must have had a starting point." I guess I'm asking the same thing about religion.

Was religion even necessary in human social and cultural development? Would human civilization be more advanced today if religion never existed?

I believe it happened before we were even human.

Religion has its roots in experiencing the transcendent in nature, feeling as if there is "something more." Reasoning out a spiritual realm from there, and having things evolve into monotheism takes the evolution of a higher brain and a lot of time for trial and error, cultural change, and perhaps even a little divine intervention (if you go for that sort of thing).

We know that chimps have rudimentary religious experiences. Or at least they are doing things that if human beings were doing them we would be saying that the humans were practicing religion. Things like building rock cairns at what might be called sacred trees, and doing ecstatic dances at places and times of natural wonder. This is where it starts.

 

[RoaringSilence]

 

[ratiocinator]

We were created with a spiritual need, a desire to seek a higher authority.

Or evolved with hyperactive agent detection: Agent detection

 

[Spirit of Light]

Other threads have prompted some random thoughts on this subject.

I look back on my own Catholic upbringing and consider how much influence it had over my perspective for many years while growing up. A lot of ideas about God and religion were drilled into me at an early age - as it has been for generations for thousands of years. So, with many of us, it just becomes part of our upbringing and the overall culture around us.

Of course, some people overcome this and do not believe in the existence of some supernatural deity or deities.

I'll admit I'm no expert on the history of religion, but I was wondering at what point did humans go from having no religion to conceiving that such a thing might be possible. I'm not thinking of any particular religion today, but more along the lines of ancient religions which have possibly fallen into the dustbins of history.

I can see how it might happen, perhaps when early humans were faced with natural phenomena they couldn't understand or explain. And humans can be very creative and imaginative. Humans make stuff up.

Someone in another thread asked where the universe came from, because (in the OP's opinion) "it must have had a starting point." I guess I'm asking the same thing about religion.

Was religion even necessary in human social and cultural development? Would human civilization be more advanced today if religion never existed?

Often when a spiritual path arise, like Christinity or Buddhism, Daoism they are not called same as what we know them to be today, example What we know today as Buddhism Buddha him self called it Dhamma/Dharma And it means teaching. At that time it was not a religion, it was called cultivation path, the difference is that Religion is only based on belief while cultivation path is based on deeper teachings of how to become enlighten, it has deeper wisdom in the teachings.
The religious practices of today has lost a lot of the deeper wisdom, why? because between the time of the start of a a path and now, people found the cultivation to very difficult to do, and they made some changes in the teaching so it would be more "easy" to follow as a belief system or religion. but does the Cultivation of the path still exist? yes in some few ares of the world there is still masters who teach the true teaching of most every paths that now is a religion.

Himlaya is one of the areas where this still can be found. But often you do not find the teacher, the teacher will find you there

But spiritual practice is as old as time

 

[Augustus]

Was religion even necessary in human social and cultural development? Would human civilization be more advanced today if religion never existed?

Let alone being more advanced, there would likely be no human civilisation to speak of if religion (in the broadest sense) had never existed.

While it arose out of basic functions of human cognition, it thrived because it created a mechanism through which humans could create bonds of fictive kinship which allowed ever larger societies to form.

Also by making bonds that existed on a metaphysical level, that allowed a greater flexibility to exist at the level of everyday interactions. People can disagree on everyday events, yet still belong to the same community via religion.

Also by adopting 'strange' religious beliefs that act as a point of difference, these become clear markers of group membership/non-membership.

 

[pearl]

I can see how it might happen, perhaps when early humans were faced with natural phenomena they couldn't understand or explain. And humans can be very creative and imaginative. Humans make stuff up.

From the earliest times there was a sense of a Wholly other, and explain through myth.

 

[PureX]

Other threads have prompted some random thoughts on this subject.

I look back on my own Catholic upbringing and consider how much influence it had over my perspective for many years while growing up. A lot of ideas about God and religion were drilled into me at an early age - as it has been for generations for thousands of years. So, with many of us, it just becomes part of our upbringing and the overall culture around us.

Of course, some people overcome this and do not believe in the existence of some supernatural deity or deities.

I'll admit I'm no expert on the history of religion, but I was wondering at what point did humans go from having no religion to conceiving that such a thing might be possible. I'm not thinking of any particular religion today, but more along the lines of ancient religions which have possibly fallen into the dustbins of history.

I can see how it might happen, perhaps when early humans were faced with natural phenomena they couldn't understand or explain. And humans can be very creative and imaginative. Humans make stuff up.

Someone in another thread asked where the universe came from, because (in the OP's opinion) "it must have had a starting point." I guess I'm asking the same thing about religion.

Was religion even necessary in human social and cultural development? Would human civilization be more advanced today if religion never existed?

My guess would be that spiritual cognition developed right along with consciousness. There was no specific 'starting point', as there was with the universe and the Big Bang.

 

[wellwisher]

Other threads have prompted some random thoughts on this subject.

I look back on my own Catholic upbringing and consider how much influence it had over my perspective for many years while growing up. A lot of ideas about God and religion were drilled into me at an early age - as it has been for generations for thousands of years. So, with many of us, it just becomes part of our upbringing and the overall culture around us.

Of course, some people overcome this and do not believe in the existence of some supernatural deity or deities.

I'll admit I'm no expert on the history of religion, but I was wondering at what point did humans go from having no religion to conceiving that such a thing might be possible. I'm not thinking of any particular religion today, but more along the lines of ancient religions which have possibly fallen into the dustbins of history.

I can see how it might happen, perhaps when early humans were faced with natural phenomena they couldn't understand or explain. And humans can be very creative and imaginative. Humans make stuff up.

Someone in another thread asked where the universe came from, because (in the OP's opinion) "it must have had a starting point." I guess I'm asking the same thing about religion.

Was religion even necessary in human social and cultural development? Would human civilization be more advanced today if religion never existed?

According to Atheism and Science, the gods of religion are imaginary. My guess is religion started when the pre-human imagination became very active. This change was connected to the formation of a second center of consciousness; ego, differentiating from the primary center; inner self. The secondary or ego center became a second POV, from which content from the unconscious mind and inner self, could be differentiated via its projections.

As an analogy, if you ever watched a kitten play, you will notice that their brains appear to play training films, that project onto reality. They may chase an imaginary prey, around the house, going full out. All a cat has, is an inner self, so they instinctively go along with the play and give it 100% as though real, without questioning the source.

When human developed the secondary center, they became able to use this second POV, to differentiate unconscious content, such as projection overlay onto sensory reality. It is similar to the kitten all of a sudden realizing the training projection, is not tangible, but nevertheless is there as an overlay.

Religion appears as a way to coexist and deal with the unconscious projections factors, that were there to evolve the newly forming ego. Religion is the IT of the brain and personality firmware.

Mythology is a projection of the make-up of the unconscious psyche. The inner self is the sun around which the planets; firmware, revolve. It is interesting to see how mythology change with time, since it reflects updates in the firmware as well as in the ego. This data is useful for mapping the modern human psyche via inference extrapolation.

 

[Marcion]

The origins of religion lie in the fears and the awe which our ancestors felt for the overwhelming and unpredictable forces of nature which their shamans explained by presuming spirits or gods behind the scenes that could supposedly be appeased.

Gradually in many religions this was replaced by a single God or Cosmic Spirit behind the scenes.
The connection to one's own mind was only made after Tantric people started experimenting with the powers of their own minds which was then linked to the Cosmic Mind behind or within the creation.

That is how religion evolved from primitive beginnings towards more effective spiritual paths. Much of religion is however still stuck half way.

 

[RESOLUTION]

Other threads have prompted some random thoughts on this subject.

I look back on my own Catholic upbringing and consider how much influence it had over my perspective for many years while growing up. A lot of ideas about God and religion were drilled into me at an early age - as it has been for generations for thousands of years. So, with many of us, it just becomes part of our upbringing and the overall culture around us.

Of course, some people overcome this and do not believe in the existence of some supernatural deity or deities.

I'll admit I'm no expert on the history of religion, but I was wondering at what point did humans go from having no religion to conceiving that such a thing might be possible. I'm not thinking of any particular religion today, but more along the lines of ancient religions which have possibly fallen into the dustbins of history.

I can see how it might happen, perhaps when early humans were faced with natural phenomena they couldn't understand or explain. And humans can be very creative and imaginative. Humans make stuff up.

Someone in another thread asked where the universe came from, because (in the OP's opinion) "it must have had a starting point." I guess I'm asking the same thing about religion.

Was religion even necessary in human social and cultural development? Would human civilization be more advanced today if religion never existed?

The origin of religion... it appears there is a wide belief in many countries that a flood took place and God was the author of it. God was there at the beginning according to religions and we see that as God withdrew physically man lost his way. I look at the cave man aspect of creation and I know none would survive the elements and the age old question is also asked. Which first man or baby?

Common sense tells me that man was not an accident. I know that our existence is not accident. Ancient tribes which have been isolated through history have religions believing in a creator passed from ancestors. The tower of babel and the flood explain a lot of differences. Whether religious or not, presented with the possibilities then mankind did not come about by accident or of their own volition. I believe creation to be the only answer.

 

[Looncall]

According to Atheism and Science, the gods of religion are imaginary. My guess is religion started when the pre-human imagination became very active. This change was connected to the formation of a second center of consciousness; ego, differentiating from the primary center; inner self. The secondary or ego center became a second POV, from which content from the unconscious mind and inner self, could be differentiated via its projections.

As an analogy, if you ever watched a kitten play, you will notice that their brains appear to play training films, that project onto reality. They may chase an imaginary prey, around the house, going full out. All a cat has, is an inner self, so they instinctively go along with the play and give it 100% as though real, without questioning the source.

When human developed the secondary center, they became able to use this second POV, to differentiate unconscious content, such as projection overlay onto sensory reality. It is similar to the kitten all of a sudden realizing the training projection, is not tangible, but nevertheless is there as an overlay.

Religion appears as a way to coexist and deal with the unconscious projections factors, that were there to evolve the newly forming ego. Religion is the IT of the brain and personality firmware.

Mythology is a projection of the make-up of the unconscious psyche. The inner self is the sun around which the planets; firmware, revolve. It is interesting to see how mythology change with time, since it reflects updates in the firmware as well as in the ego. This data is useful for mapping the modern human psyche via inference extrapolation.

You might be over thinking this.

I suspect that religion arose when prehistoric scoundrels found they could escape the daily grind of survival by pretending to talk to gods.

Religions have become more complex, but they are still scams.

 

[GoodbyeDave]

Unless you have a time machine, you can say nothing about early religion. Homo sapiens goes back at least 400,000 years. What may (or may not) be religious artefacts go back at least 30,000 years, but obviously documentary evidence only starts with the invention of writing 5,000 years ago.

The explanation of religious activity is obviously that people experienced gods. The atheists among us will obviously deny this, ignoring the possibility that no god thinks them worth talking to.

 

[ChristineM]

We were created with a spiritual need, a desire to seek a higher authority.

Many try to suppress it...others look to the leaders of science or politics, to provide a path and something to believe in.

We are born blank, spiritual and religious thought are learned from parents, friends, schooling etc.