what are the theories of the origin of religion?

Answer 1

depends on the religion

Answer 2

Do you mean your own personal theories or general theories? My theory which isn't much of a theory is this.
Religion has been and always will be a creation of man. For thousands and thousands of years through many different cultures man has used religion to explain things he didn't know or understand. If you study the history of man then you will see many many different religious and belief structures. Men would fight and die and be sacrafised for that they believed in..much like today. Christianity is so popular because it is the religion of this time period. Who knows what people will believe 3000 years from now.

Answer 3

There are two quite different sorts of theory.

Firstly, religious people think that we know about religion because God has imparted this knowledge to us.

Secondly, biological and social scientists see religious ideas as being enabled by the way we think (psychologists) and of human culture (anthropologists and sociologists). These types of explanation are not necessarily incompatible with religious belief as God may have cause our psychology and social life to be as they are.

If there is a God presumably there is religion, and indeed if God is eternal religion in this regard has no origin but is also eternal.

Answer 4

One dark night, some caveman or woman looked up the stars and realized how small we are and how we have no control over nature. Fire protected him from cold and cooked his food so he came to worship fire as a sacred being, Animals, while often dangerous, fed him, so he honored them as well. Long before god was thought of as male, it was observed that women created; they gave birth. So the supreme deity in many groups was deemed female.Long before people settled on the one God theory, people believed in gods of the air, water, trees, and animals. All natural phenomena was believed to be supernatural and magic. In time the Y chromosome ( among other factors) sought out its own piece of the action, so that for thousands of years religion has involved chicanery, repression of women, and wholesale slaughter. Rabbis, priests, ministers, and spiritual and faith healers, though quite human, are often elevated to the position of celebrities and are supported by their worshipful, naive followers.Its tragic that a means of human comfort has be turned into an open market in which liars and con artists of all kinds make their money off of the desperate yearnings of the poor and ignorant. God of course has nothing to do with that; human greed and gullibility does.

Answer 5

I'm guessing, but I think the fear of death is the leading reason people invent or seek out existing religions. I think of the myth of Adam, the Judeo-Christian story of the first man as a metaphor for early people who first realized that they would indeed die and cease to exist. When our early "thinking brain" must have started to really comprehend the world, death must have just about drove us crazy. Other animals just don't have to go there.

My personal problem with that myth (which Jews, Christians, and Muslims all share) is that it strangley places the fault of death on the woman.

Something needs to quell the unbearable thought of this future we all face. Religion is about all people seem to have. I am ok with just realizing I have no idea what will happen when I die.

Answer 6

Religion is given only by God, the Supreme Person. It is confirmed in the Srimad Bhagavatam (6.3.19) as follows

dharmam tu saksad bhagavat-pranitam
na vai vidur rsayo napi devah
na siddha-mukhya asura manusyah
kuto nu vidyadhara-caranadayah

"Real religious principles are enacted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Although fully situated in the mode of goodness, even the great rsis [sages]* who occupy the topmost planets cannot ascertain the real religious principles, nor can the demigods or the leaders of Siddhaloka [inhabitants of a higher planet who have mistic powers], to say nothing of the asuras [atheists, demons], ordinary human beings, Vidyadharas and Caranas [angel-like beings from higher planets]."

*text in [ ] is added by me

www.srimadbhagavatam.com

Answer 7

the origin of religion co insides with the origin of dreams.

Answer 8

The FSM is in simple terms as valid because of the fact the christian fantasy!! certainly possibly extra so considering the fact that spaghetti would be proved to exist!! Now try the reality on christians claims!! only academia states that interior the absence of evidence of the existence of a few thing it is going to be deemed to no longer exist till verifiable evidence is discovered - subsequently god is held to no longer exist pending some style of verifiable data. there is no longer one unmarried point out of Jesus interior the completed Roman checklist - it is nice - no longer one!!! on a similar time as he became into meant to have been around there have been rather some Jews claiming to be the messiah - all of whom are nicely recorded!! He became into meant to have been a extensive undertaking to the Romans and produced surprising miracles yet nonetheless no longer one present day checklist? Even the bible mentions of him like countless different references weren't written till some years after his meant dying!! Pilot is recorded interior the Roman checklist as a rather lack luster guy yet no point out of a Jesus, a tribulation or crucifixion that would desire to truly have been used to make him look brighter!! At perfect he became into an amalgam of those others!! The Roman Emperor Constantine produced the bible and he became right into a pagan no longer god!!! He additionally prepared Christianity into the Holly Roman Catholic Church!! no longer in Israel or any of the countries of meant foundation yet completely Italian!! no longer one word of it is present day with the era and became into no longer written till some years after the era the story is desperate in!! How did the apostles write their books long as quickly as they have been lifeless? What a ask your self finished disinformation and deception marketing campaign he waged against his Christian enemies - so good in reality that Christians are nonetheless following the deception to in the present day!!! the 1st guy or woman to offer a shred of verifiable data for God will exchange into worldwide renowned and mega wealthy!! Ain't happened yet and it by no ability will!! yet spaghetti makers are earning an excellent volume of money are they no longer?!!

Answer 9

"Religion" was created by man, by the church.
In the olden days there were people called "gods" but that had nothing to do with religion. They were simply the people in charge.
Then man created the church so it could be in charge.

Answer 10

Religion was invented by a Neanderthal by the name of Boge Natz. He also invented the wheel, bow & arrow and discovered the use of fire.