The origins of religion

[loverofhumanity]

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.

Baha’u’llah says that religion always existed and His Son said there are beings on other planets capable of worshipping God so we are not the only ones in existence to belueve in God or have a religion.

 

[Vinayaka]

I go with 'Nobody knows' . Too many experts for me. How is the history of religion useful to the way a person behaves?

 

[Vinayaka]

Baha’u’llah says that religion always existed and His Son said there are beings on other planets capable of worshipping God so we are not the only ones in existence to belueve in God or have a religion.

Maybe less than 0.1% of people on this wonderful planet will take this as fact. It's your belief, sure.

 

[Forever_Catholic]

at what point did humans go from having no religion to conceiving that such a thing might be possible.

Looks like It goes back 300,000 years or more -- probably more. Fossils of Neanderthals have been found in graves along with stone tools, animal bones, and flowers. The flowers have been disputed by some because only the pollen has been detected so far, not the flowers themselves. This is still under debate because other parts of flowers such as petals and stems would have decayed quickly in the soil. It would be the same with other parts of animals, for that matter. In any case, it is obvious that Neanderthals respected their dead. It appears as though they believed in an afterlife, which would also suggest that they believed in a creator, as mankind has naturally believed throughout recorded history.

According to Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447 - 1510), every soul is created with an innate knowledge of God's existence that she called the Beatific Instinct.

 

[InChrist]

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

And where did the first ones who were born blank learn spiritual and religious ideas from?

 

[loverofhumanity]

Maybe less than 0.1% of people on this wonderful planet will take this as fact. It's your belief, sure.

Before world travel no one thought there were other lands with people, cultures and religions so with that in mind, the probability that there exists life throughout the universe since the beginning that has no beginning and that there always has been religions is a very high percentage.

It was the 0.1% back then that turned out to have their facts right.

 

[ChristineM]

And where did the first ones who were born blank learn spiritual and religious ideas from?

Where does a cell get its nourishment? You are not thinking in terms of life but of humanity.

 

[Augustus]

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

And the Award for Most Irrational Cliche spouted by an Atheist goes to...

 

[Vinayaka]

It was the 0.1% back then that turned out to have their facts right.

In other words, "I'm right and you're wrong." That sounds rather cultish to proclaim the Baha'i as the only people who have it right.

 

[Jung]

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?

It is conceivable that in the course of evolution when humans developed a more sophisticated desire for survival that the natural progression desired life to continue beyond the grave. So this desire for immortality became part of our evolutionary make-up.

 

[loverofhumanity]

In other words, "I'm right and you're wrong." That sounds rather cultish to proclaim the Baha'i as the only people who have it right.

I didn’t mean it that way. Apologies. All I meant to say was the people of the past believed the world was flat and that if one went beyond the horizon they fell of the earth and that It was the minority who proved these views to be incorrect.

With regards to religion and Prophets before Adam and even on other planets, I believe that it is more likely than unlikely because of the huge unexplored places. Once we are able to reach the stars I think we will find many other civilizations and that we are not alone in believing in a God or having religions.

 

[Remté]

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.

Antilopes don't have a religion, do they? That is to say, the claim that religion is something required to build large societies is fictive.

 

[Remté]

I'm sure it goes hand in hand with the development of the brain.

 

[Augustus]

Antilopes don't have a religion, do they? That is to say, the claim that religion is something required to build large societies is fictive.

Herds are not the same as societies.

Better to look at primates than antelopes or bees if you want something that replicates human society..

 

[Remté]

Herds are not the same as societies.

Better to look at primates than antelopes or bees if you want something that replicates human society..

What's the difference?

 

[Augustus]

What's the difference?

Degree of hierarchy, interaction and social cooperation.

 

[Looncall]

And the Award for Most Irrational Cliche spouted by an Atheist goes to...

What's irrational about it? Even today, much religion is clearly a scam operated for the benefit of clergy. Just look at the american megachurch phenomenon. Just think of the buzz that mullahs must get when they send thousands to do murder.

As for the rest it's more like a chain letter where most of the perpetrators are victims themselves. Even when the originators of the scams have been dust for millemia.

 

[Remté]

What's irrational about it? Even today, much religion is clearly a scam operated for the benefit of clergy. Just look at the american megachurch phenomenon. Just think of the buzz that mullahs must get when they send thousands to do murder.

As for the rest it's more like a chain letter where most of the perpetrators are victims themselves. Even when the originators of the scams have been dust for millemia.

Can you go into details about these examples?

 

[Remté]

Degree of hierarchy, interaction and social cooperation.

And what do those have to do with religion?

 

[Vinayaka]

I didn’t mean it that way. Apologies. All I meant to say was the people of the past believed the world was flat and that if one went beyond the horizon they fell of the earth and that It was the minority who proved these views to be incorrect.

With regards to religion and Prophets before Adam and even on other planets, I believe that it is more likely than unlikely because of the huge unexplored places. Once we are able to reach the stars I think we will find many other civilizations and that we are not alone in believing in a God or having religions.

I believe on other planets having life as well. I don't believe there is life on every planet, as Baha'is do, but somewhere, sure. But as to the nature of perception of God out there, who knows? I dislike projcting beliefs onto other people here, let alone to other planets. I think this life form we're experiencing here on this planet to be relatively unique, and we'd need a planet quite similar to this one to have similar experiences as the soul gets here in these dense physical bodies.