The cause of religion

created by ANTMakko

(idea) by lakeonfire (7.3 y) (print) ? (I like it!) 1 C! Sat Nov 18 2000 at 4:07:32

The very title of this node is flamebait, but it deserves good writeups. I'll try to add one, because I'm sure we can get a good discussion going here without resorting to sniping at ANTMakko; S/He must not have seen Avoid Highly Subjective Writeups camped over there in the right hand margin. I, however, have, but I'm venturing into fire and brimstone territory anyways.

Personally, at this point in my life, I think that religion exists because humans exist. Religion exists because the world outside of humans exists. Religion exists because people don't want to belive that they are alone. Sure, there are those who use religion as a justification to control, to hurt, and/or to kill. And then there are those who use religion as a justification to do good, to learn more about themselves and others, and/or to help them live a good life. Like any other polarizing force, religion can be manipulated, expanded, shrunken, destroyed, or created. Religion will always be controversial, but it will also always be necessary. Even atheism is a form of spirituality, because in deciding not to believe in (a) Supreme Being/s, you acknowledge that you have in the very least thought about the Supreme Being/s. (Please let me know if my ignorance shines bright enough to blind when it comes to that previous point. My understanding of atheism is limited, which is probably highly obvious. I am extremely open to discussing the matter. Feel free to /msg me and certainly to add your own views to this w/u.)

I think that the genesis (yes, that was a bad, bad, bad, bad pun) of religions is impossible to pinpoint. Just look at the sheer variety of religions and deities. And even if a few religions were created with the express purpose of herding sheep to the slaughter (again, another bad pun) I'm sure that the vast majority were created to help answer the questions that most people ask. (Who am I? Why am I here? Where did my pants go?) And religion, or at the very least spirituality, will always exist, because until humans become omnitient, omnipresent, and eternal, those questions will continue to be asked.

I realize that this node blatantly draws upon my Judeo-Christian upbringing. My religious background biases this writeup and my RL, so I apologize if I offended anyone; it was completely unintentional. I'm really interested in what other people have to say on the matter. Please, contribute.

(idea) by nieken (5.2 y) (print) ? (I like it!) 1 C! Sat Nov 18 2000 at 5:39:15

Taken from an anthropological perspective (as all inquiries into humanity should), religion is a set of explanations for the environment, human and animal activity, life, and death. Religions reflect the social, political, and environmental surroundings they are founded in, and are damn near always tossed out or amended when those qualities change. It would be impossible to date the first religious experiences of early man, but it probably existed in some form by the time Homo erectus walked the Earth, or around 2 million years ago.

Religion, like philosophy, is great at answering questions. Religion, unlike science, works just as well (if not better) when there is little or no information on the subject. Religion is concerned primarily with life and death, and other issues of major importance to humans. These things concerned primitive humans as much as they do modern humans. As soon as we grew intelligent and social enough to notice and care when others died, we began to wonder about the nature of death. From that, I presume, early humans started to wonder about the nature of life. What we would call "religion" arose as mythologies and rituals that were developed to explain death, life, and the natural world.

Significantly, those explanations reflected the environments they sprang up in. I'll avoid a lengthy tangent on the technological evolution ("complexity," as anthropologists say) of societies. Suffice it to say, there are four or five stages a society can go through before they are what we would call "modern."

Hunter-gatherer is considered the most "primitive" stage, and is probably close to how the earliest humans lived. Hunter-gatherers live in small bands of 100 people or less. They do not have what we would call a government, although there are part-time leaders and elders who can arbitrate disputes or make group decisions (where next to migrate, etc.) The hunter-gathers get their food (obviously) from hunting and gathering. They do not practice agriculture in any capacity, instead relying on the bounty of the earth to provide for them. As a rule, these societies practice a type of religion known as animism. It imbues every living thing with a spirit, and stresses respect for all things, living and dead. There is almost never a prime deity in control of the universe. There may be gods, there may be a Great Spirit, but it is not worshiped or seen as the focus of religious experiences.

Horticultural-pastoral is the next level of cultural complexity. At this point, the society has domesticated plants and animals, and lives in semi-permanent settlements. They have not discovered the plow, so their crop yields cannot account for the majority of their diet. They are more self reliant then the hunter-gatherers, although they are still at the mercy of weather, disease, and general misfortune. Settlements will typically not exceed several hundred to a thousand, with a cheifdom or council of elders. These cultures often practice elaborate burial ceremonies for their dead, and remember their dead ancestors. Horticultural-pastoral peoples tend to practice a form of animism that includes the concept of ghosts and the spirits of their dead relatives. There is still no prime deity in control of the universe and all human experience.

Intensive agricultural societies can exist after the discovery of the plow. Animals have already been domesticated, providing cheep labor, but without the plow crop yields are meager. After, food returns are so great people actually experience a food surplus. And with a food surplus the society can grow far, far larger. Cities and other permanent settlements develop. Societies can expand to around 10,000. There is a permanent, full-time class of priests and rulers. Suddenly, polytheism blossoms. The key part of that being "theism." When the society grows beyond 10,000, a State is formed. Monotheism is developed. There can be no singular creator deity responsible for all human events until there is a State.

Clearly, religion evolves with the rest of society. It reflects the food source and social makeup --but mostly the government-- of the society. When you forage around the woods all day looking for roots and berries, or hunting bears and elephants, you tend to think in terms of plants and animals. When you live with many relatives for long periods of time, and they suddenly die, you wonder if they still have any effect on you. When you live by a ruling class of priests and governors, you think in terms of untouchable and all powerful gods who can smite you as easily as you kill a fly. When you live in a world of kings, emperors, presidents, generals, and the like, is it any wonder we assume the universe is governed by a single omnipotent entity who alone created you and everything else, and who alone must be worshiped and given sacrifices?

So what does this mean? Do leaders and priests manipulate religion to keep the masses in line? I doubt it. Religion and its social effects can only be understood with the quite modern trident of sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Indeed, I would suspect the rulers and priests to have believed the local religions as much as the peasants. Instead, religion is a part of humanity. It is invented again and again around the world, not unlike language or art. We need religion to explain our world to us, to answer why we are here, why we die, and what happens to us when we die.

We can not be human without wondering about these things. We can not be human without trying to explain them.

(idea) by Castalia (1 wk) (print) ? (I like it!) Sat Nov 18 2000 at 5:56:46

Religion is a form of refuge and explanation. The purpose of it is to give people an explanation of our existence for it is only a figment of our imagination. It is a theory for all things. Why are we here? God created us for some great purpose in his divine plan. Why is this happening to me? God is testing you. Why am I unhappy? You have not been faithful to God. What will happen after death? You will either go to heaven or hell. Why should I not commit crimes? God will send you to hell. It is also a refuge from the real world. People feel safe around a church because of a belief that they are protected by a greater being. Religion may also be called a "placebo" to life. A church is just another place, why does it protect us? or a better question, how? All of this is part of human nature, to turn to something or someone, that is why religion exists at all. Different cultures have different religions, but at the end, they're all the same. Most religions say don't do bad, do good and good things will happen to you. Most religions say there is a God or greater being that created us all and we should praise it.

Throughout the course of history, many people go to war because of difference in religion. But their religions are pretty much the same, so why do we do these stupid things? And if God (if there is one) and he is so powerful, why does he cause us to fight each other? My explanation is that religion and God is just all in our minds, it doesn't exist, WE do all the stupid things that we do because it's human nature and that's that.

(idea) by lagrange (1.1 y) (print) ? (I like it!) Sat Nov 18 2000 at 6:40:23

I disagree with ANTMakko that religion was begun as a form of social control. I certainly believe that some people have since used it as such. But that's a whole other string of nodes.

Personally, I feel that all human beings have certain unanswered questions about the way the world works. Why am I here? Why do bad things happen? Is there some meaning to it all? It's extremely discomforting to think that there might not be any answers. Thus, the human brain, in its infinite wisdom, decided that all will become clear after we die. The psyche introduced this concept as a pacifying mechanism to prevent itself going insane.

Later, the concept got formalised and handed over to a bunch of corrupt Italian guys (in the case of Christianity) and whatnot, and everything went screehee. But it was a nice thought.

(idea) by Jaez (1.1 wk) (print) ? (I like it!) Mon Apr 30 2001 at 20:16:58

This is one of those nodes that requires consideration before adding a write up...

I think that neiken got it a bit mixed up, I think it is because we evolve our morals, that we are able to sustain larger societies, and thus better standards of living. After all the realization of our limits implies there are things beyond them, and while we may reflect our social and cultural patterns in our explanation of these things, we also transcend these to create a better world. Society isn't about taking after all, it is about giving, hunter-gatherers were more about taking than we are. I imagine that future societies will be more about giving to each other than we are still, and that there will be greater co-operation than now, and that this will be in part because of the morality we are creating now.

printable version
chaos

Your radical ideas about religion as a mechanism of social control have already occurred to others	There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy	How can a thinking, rational adult be a monotheist?	Nicene Creed
Avoid highly subjective writeups	I'm white, upper-middle-class in the richest country in the world-what need have I for God?	Losing my religion	Massacre at Wounded Knee
Secular Humanism	hunter-gatherer	Cheers	social control
Who am I?	Hornblower	Russell S. Ohl	Apologize
Genesis 23	Economic Globalization, Democracy and World War III	National Park	contribute
Yin and Yang	Animism	PC	spirituality

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