Is religion a basic instinct?

Question

Is it basic instinct when we praise and thank God? Or is it just a thing we've learned to do? So, if a person was born without knowing a thing about God and religion..Do you think that person would praise and thank God?

If a person was born in a remote area..where he had no education whatesoever. How would that person be able to even reach to that level of thinking and think about his own existence? Does that make us thinkers naturally or even smart?

Answer 1

Hot sex with a beautiful girl with a nice belly button is a basic instinct.....conversing with imaginary beings not so much

Answer 2

This is not a question that one needs to think about. The evidence is already in and it is clear.

Every group of people, no matter when they were discovered or how isolated they were were found to have a religious system... a recognition that there is something beyond themselves who is more powerful, more awesome than themselves and deserves their praise and worship.

This phenomenon is spoken about in Romans 1. You might be interested in reading it as it may help explain some of your questions.

It is only when people come to the arrogant notion that they themselves are the end of all things that thoughts that there is or may not be a god begin to creep into their minds. They spout about how advanced we are with science and knowledge and that there now remains no need for belief in a god. But what they fail to realize is that this notion of "no God" isn't new. The Psalmist wrote about it more than 3000 years ago when he wrote, "The fool has said in his hear: No God." This person was a fool then and nothing has changed on that front.

Good luck in your search for the truth.

Answer 3

You would have to "buy" the theory that man is an animal in order to ask this question in the first place.
This "theory" was originated less than 100 years ago by a professor of Physiology from Leipzig in Germany. His name was Professor Wundt. He never prooved his theory (man is no different from a rat or a frog) but it was promoted anyway and now forms the basis of what we call modern psychology here in the Western world.

If you do your research properly you will find that primitive tribes cut off from any modern "civilization" have actually a well developed awareness of their spiritual nature, and that spiritual powers exist , even if they do not know about the various religions of the outside word.

This has nothing what so ever to do with "animal instinct."
No matter what form it may take.

Answer 4

It is my opinion that yes, we are born with a natural desire to seek and worship God.
Since the beginning of man as we know it, whether by religious studies or even by archaological studies, we have come to find that at some level there has always been some type of God that man worshipped. If religion was just a fallacity as some say, it would not have been such a deeply rooted and important part of our history as mankind. Even in the remotest of places we can find societies giving sacrifice to a diety, praising or worshipping that diety, living by certain standards set by that diety. Look to thereligion of the Native Americans, the Hindus, the diverse African native religions... In almost every religion you will find that even among many gods, there is usually one diety that stands out as a creator or sustainor of the universe, one who oversees all; God, Allah, Yhwh, Brahman, and such.

As we grow older and are taught different things, we may change our beliefs, yet most of us still have the inclination to adopt a belief involving God or a god.

Answer 5

Yes, I believe it is a basic instinct to praise/respect/fear some higher power. Go to any culture in the world, no matter how remote and you'll find religion of some sort practiced, the most basic form being animist(the belief in spirits).

Answer 6

If you were living in India, you would be Hindu. If you lived in Saudi Arabia, you would be Muslim. If you had been born into certain South American tribes, you'd be an animist (believing that all natural things have a spirit). In other words, yes, your religion is something that you learned. If you had been born into a culture that had no religion at all, neither would you, and you would see no reason to worship a god since you wouldn't have knowledge of one.

Answer 7

No, religion is not instinctive. If it were, babies would be born religious believing the One True Religion.

Religion is a mental virus that spreads itself for no purpose other than to spread itself. It exploits features of the human psyche to do that. The primary features it exploits are:

- willingness to obey authority (tribal instinct and learned behavior)
- weak reasoning skills (these must generally be learned)
- fear, and self interest
- the tendency to anthropomorphicize (extends from the empathy section of the brain that causes us to see other people as people instead of objects)

Answer 8

Yes, I think so. Look at the history of man, throughout time men have strived in their understanding of why they are here and what is their purpose. People know how fallible they are and how there is no true peace apart from God. Drugs, s_x, alcohol....it's all attempts to provide relief from the need for fulfillment. This insatiable desire is only fulfilled through a relationship with Jesus Christ and His indwelling spirit, those who have found this have come to know what true peace and joy really is.

Answer 9

I think a person who wasn't taught a certain idea of God would form his/her own idea of a creative intelligence responsible for the world around them (and maybe for their own existence, too).

Beyond that, I don't know. People have changed since the days when all the gods were invented.

Answer 10

Judging simply by the number of religions and the fact that only 2% of the world population is Atheist, I'd have to say yes. Do you really believe that only 2% of the world population has strong reasoning skills?

Answer 11

It's not an instinct, and it's not something "we've learned to do." It's something that most of us were forced to do, usually by our own unwitting and well meaning parents, family and friends.