Why is it that the idea of god has existed on all of the inhabited continents, even before Christianity ..?

Question

spread across the globe? This is no smoking gun question, but why is it that a good majority of the cultures before imperialism and globalization had a belief in god? How can there be such a widespread belief, with many beliefs having very similar core beliefs. Also, why is it that most cultures have the same core moral values (ie murder, stealing, adultry, and lying)?

All inhabited continents are Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America. Every single one of these continents had groups that believed in a god of some sort. Learned that in a world literature class that had us read the creation stories from around the world.

Answer 1

Why is it that all Gods are different - single vs. multiple, males vs. female vs. neutered, all powerful vs. gods of rain and war, in-man's-image vs. not, always-was vs. out-of-a-turtle-shell, fighting-for-my-side vs. fighting-for-your-side, involved-in-every-detail vs. very-remote, *my god* is true - *your god* is false, etc.? ... There are *no* Gods.

And cite, for your "all continents", please? (Sweden, Norway, Vietnam, Japan, North Korea, Denmark, China, Russia...)

Because "murder, stealing, adultry, and lying" are *not nice*, don'cha know? ... Note low crime in Sweden, Norway, Japan...

[Edit]: Re Add. Dtls... Ahhh! so atheism in each continent counters your "argument", then, huh? And have you read the Haida RAVEN AND THE CLAM creation story? How similar (dissimilar) is *that* to your "God"?

Answer 2

Wow. I guess that really proves God exists.

Or maybe there is another explanation. Perhaps even primitive man didn't need to be told by a supernatural being that when someone steals his food, steals his woman, etc., that he's being cheated. When you try to steal a bone from a dog it growls at you. Is this because God has told the dog that stealing is a sin?

I'm sure you've noticed that their is a direct correlation between the Greek and Roman gods. What you probably don't know is that the same correlation also exists connecting the pantheons of Egypt, India, and Sumeria too. The evolution of God occurred side by side with the evolution of man. And as mankind spread out and separated into diverse groups, their belief in god followed them. Most non-oriental religions have a common origin. But that proves nothing about the origin being anything other than grounded in a common mythology.

Answer 3

Sorry, that's not true. The idea of "god"--one god, not multiple gods--has been around for a relatively short time. Rather, each culture has their own notion of what causes different events in the world--which we can now explain with science. Example: the Maka in Cameroon believe that illness can be caused by a person's "djambe," a force that lives in the belly of some humans in the form of a small animal, like a mouse or crab. The Azande in central Africa believe that some people inherit a "mangu," a substance that lives in their small intestine, which can emanate misfortune. Mangu and djambe are credited with many events in villagers' lives. These tribes are relatively "pure" from the effects of globalization, yet they never developed the idea of a monotheistic god.

More? The Akha in Burma and Thailand believe in "zah," which is like a religion and a set of rules governing everything from planting crops to healing the sick. Since being converted by missionaries, they now practice "Jesus zah." They did not come up with Christianity on their own, nor do they practice it as it is practiced in the West.

As you can see if you study anthropology, no beliefs are universal. Rather, people understandably look for explanations of what causes birth, death, fertility, good harvest, etc.

As for the core values that you describe, those are a product of civilization and not of religion. Rather, religion is used to ENFORCE those values, because, after all, nobody likes to be screwed.

Answer 4

All peoples and cultures started out on a fairly primitive level and they all needed a way to explain natural phenomenon to make the world feel comprehensible and therefore safe and livable. Without science, they had to resort to magical explanations. Some would say that magic is basically unexplained science.
The reason that most cultures have the same core moral values against murder, stealing, adultery and lying is because these things interfere with reasonably safe and peaceful earthly life. Why is murder prohibited across the board? People don't want to be murdered. Laws against murder have survival value.

Answer 5

Supernatural explanations were invented for natural phenomena that couldn't be explained at the time. Supernatural concepts were invented by many primitive societies, because many primitive societies had trouble explaining things scientifically. It's not that complicated.
As for moral values, if someone doesn't want to be murdered it's natural to oppose murder. And if you go into a bit more depth, there's considerable variation even with those 'core' moral values. For example, some societies practice polygamy while others consider that to be a form of adultery. Some societies allow capital punishment, while others consider that to be a form of murder. Some societies allow the seizing of property by the government (or king, chief, etc.) without compensation, while others consider that to be stealing.

Answer 6

Whenever humans have wondered where everything came from, the rational amongst them realised that any thing could not come out of nothing, and so there had to be one originator ;
The founder of Christianity was born, lived and died long after the universe was formed.
Various cultures have similar core beliefs because the wise amongst them decided on some rules and rights that were practical and beneficial to all.

Answer 7

Well, cultures that can generally keep people from murder, stealing, adultry, and lying will be more successful and have a better survival rate.

I would say that the idea of a god (as loosely defined as that is) was probably present before man first left Africa.

Answer 8

It is because there really is a God, and he tries his best to reveal himself to everyone. But it is kind of look the blind men who wanted to see an elephant. Each felt a different part and came away with a different understanding of what an elephant was. So different culture have gotten different parts of the understanding of God.

What was needed was for God himself to come down among man and make himself fully known. He did that in the person of Jesus Christ. (And he did more by also bring salvation).

So the reason every culture has believed in God, and had similar rules is that they all come from the same source - God Himself.

Answer 9

It's hardwired into humans to feel at all times as if someone is watching. How it passes notice that the someone in question is yourself, is beyond me. But that's what leads people all through history believe in some form of god. And on some level, that perception is not unlike an idiot savante. On a level unimagined by primitives, and by ourselves for we will surely be considered primitive 1000 years from now, I suspect that the God idea is true. Just not in the way we currently perceive it. Our understanding of God is mostly wrong, but the data will one day prove the truth of the concept and fill out the details. This I prophecy.

Answer 10

The idea of God did exist in many cultures before Christianity, but they differed greatly. Natives in New Guinea believe in ancestors as evil spirits, and don't have a concept of God. The Greeks believed in multiple Gods, Hittites believed in Baal, Egyptians believe in multiple Gods, Hindus believe in multiple gods, Buddhists believe in human achievement.

The idea of a God probably formed in an underdeveloped brain millions of years ago, and we are only now starting to evolve away from it.

Natives in Africa used to think that Airplanes were Gods, that doesn't mean that airplanes are gods. They were just underinformed.

That explains multiple cultures believing in differing versions of deities.

If you are trying to make a connection between the existence of God and uniform belief in deities, I think, it is more reasonable to state that a general commonality in belief structure points to a common ancestor more so than it does a God.

Dewcoon, stating that an all powerful being is unable to reveal himself directly and with clarity doesn't make sense.

Answer 11

The Bible recognises the existence of the Canaanite god Ba'al in distinct places. the actuality is that Christian monotheism originated contained in the deserts of Egypt which replaced into in the previous Polytheist. subsequently the early followers were on very close protect for the former impacts. In later circumstances the Egyptian techniques were tempered with the techniques of Zoroastrianism with its bi-polar proper/incorrect mentality which remains the lynchpin of Christian morality to as we talk. formerly that it replaced into straightforward obedience subsequently Commandments, Deuteronomy etc.