THE ORIGINS OF RELIGION All living organisms constantly compete for limited resources. Organisms that are better equipped then others in coping with their environment, have a better chance of surviving and thus replicating themselves and their genes. This mechanism is the essence of evolution. Evolution, in turn, is one of the three essential ingredients of life itself. Life on earth began with the process of evolution. Without evolution, there can be no life. The evolution of man conveyed to him advanced traits that positioned him above other animals on the ladder of evolution. His primary battle for survival, comfort and prosperity involved constant competition and conflict with his untamed environment, with nature. He perpetually faced danger, not only by competing human beings, but also by adverse natural events such as floods, hurricanes, droughts, thunderstorms and many other perils of nature. Man was able to cope successfully with some adversities, but he felt powerless to deal with many other events in nature that filled him with fear and awe. A thunderstorm often turned out to be the precursor of more serious events such as rains, floods or hail. Thunder and lightning made primitive man wonder if superior beings inhabited an invisible world in the sky and invoked various cataclysmic events. It would be natural for humanoids to appeal to such superior beings in the sky in order to solicit their help. It seemed reasonable to assume that these powerful, superior beings, these gods, were punishing humans for unknown reasons or merely for their pleasure. From this viewpoint, it required little imagination to try to appease these gods by appealing to them by means of prayers or by sacrifices of men or beasts. Sometimes these prayers and sacrifices seemed to bear fruit and sometimes they did not show any results whatsoever. Due to his lack of knowledge, it was difficult for primitive man to distinguish between miracles and cause/effect relationships. He merely presumed that prayers were sometimes effective in appealing to the gods. When a violent storm eased, he attributed the event more to the effect of his prayers, than to the fact that dry air had just replaced a cold front. Man had no insight in the processes of nature. He lacked knowledge, science and rationality. Since prayers and sacrifices seemed to be effective at times, man ascribed their lack of effectiveness at other times to improper or insufficient prayers or sacrifices. Unpredictable responses to his prayers generated feelings of fear and awe and strengthened his submission to his newly created gods. We can trace the origins of religion to the prehistoric development of man between 500,000 and 100,000 years B.C. It was during this long period of human evolution that religious emotions and motivations became hard-wired into the human brain and genes. During subsequent periods of human evolution, from hominoids to Neanderthal man to Cro-Magnon man, these primitive forms of religion imbedded themselves ever more firmly into the genes of human beings. These genes for susceptibility to religion and superstition remain among of the most pervasive and powerful motivators of man. By means of prayers and alleged miracles, religion provides the illusion of security and comfort in this life and the promise of a splendiferous life after death, What more could man ask for?
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 07:12:55 +0000
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