2006-12-01 06:22:37 · 25 answers · asked by themistocles 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Priests. Most of the inspiration came from great souls (mahatmas?) who had no idea that they were starting a religion, or desire to start one. Buddha and Jesus, for example. Priests followed, interpreting these mahatmas, becoming intermediaries, creating institutions.
2006-12-02 00:28:50 · answer #1 · answered by invisible_man_books 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Read Joseph Campbell sometime.
Religion was probably started by people who were ignorant. They had no answers to problems (death, eclipses, whatever) so they invented an answer.
When people were ignorant, that was good enough, but as we learned more about the world, religion should have been dropped. Instead, along the way, those were annointed as "priests" saw the wealth and power that came with religion. Why give up something you're benefitting from, even if you know it's a load of codswallop?
Unfortunately, such selfishness allowed religion to be perpetuated, and now ignorance is embraced instead of knowedge.
.
2006-12-01 14:32:05 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
There are two broad groups of theories about the origin of religion.
Faith based: According to David Barrett et al, editors of the "World Christian Encyclopedia: A comparative survey of churches and religions - AD 30 to 2200," there are 19 major world religions which are subdivided into a total of 270 large religious groups, and many unique faith groups. 1 Among this great religious diversity, there are probably hundreds of different religious creation stories which describe how humans, other species of life, the Earth, and the rest of the universe came to be. Many of these stories describe the origins of their particular religion. It was typically a revelation from one or more deities.
Science based: Anthropologists, evolutionary biologists and other researchers have reached a near consensus that humans of the species homo sapiens evolved from a species of proto-humans who originated somewhere in Africa. (This statement probably upsets any white supremacists who are reading this essay. That can't be helped; scientists consider the evidence to be conclusive; ultimately, we are all descended from Africans.) These proto-humans walked upright, and had an opposing thumb and little finger. Their internal brain structure represented a major advance over those of previous animals in terms of its flexibility, its ability to reason, and its ability to plan for the future. This gave proto-humans an improved ability to pass on their accumulated knowledge to their descendents, to form more advanced societies, and ultimately to create religions.
2006-12-02 00:18:47 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The human mind. The questions we naturally ask about our world which have no answers. Ancient religions answered these questions the best they knew how. The trend toward answering questions continued and newer religions developed. Eventually people learned how to use science to discover truth and explain the world. Science is the new religion.
2006-12-01 14:25:54 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
can you please first explain about what is religion. why you want to know the origin. do you want to disprove some concept based on this knowledge.
those who are giving answers are really seers? we are having 5 gross senses, 3 subtle senses. all these senses are imperfect. so the knowledge what we received also imperfect.
without touching the Vedas(perfect knowledge), you will not find any good solutions.
one thing you should not forget, you can speculate about god limitlessly. but that will not give perfect solutions.
approach a perfect spiritual master, surrender unto him and ask this question to him. he will surely lead you.
2006-12-03 22:32:58 · answer #5 · answered by wisdom 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Fear and ignorance of man are the origin of religion.
2006-12-01 14:42:41 · answer #6 · answered by Infinity 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Worship, or religion, has been around since man's sense of being began to stir eons ago. He deduced that a Deity must be responsible for the wonders around him, the seasons, sun,rain and the animals that fed him.
2006-12-01 14:31:13 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Doubt, confusion, need, but also thought. Religion is a possible answer to an unanswerable question.
2006-12-05 00:15:04 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's the original con-game.
2006-12-01 14:25:52 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
religion is faith philosophy of life .I think everybody thinks in his own way . as mahatmaGandhi quoted famous poem 'when 7 blind men wanted to see elephant they touched diff rent parts of body of elephant they thought in diff rent ways .the man who touched his trunk he said ...elephant is just like a big serpent..and so on . just like is religion tribal people think God is like big loin or ghost
2006-12-02 04:19:51 · answer #10 · answered by ratan r 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋