Is religion innate?

Question

I think Jung thought so. The reason I ask,I once worked with a mentally-handicapped man who had contructed his own religion around Hulk Hogan. I'm not joking - he really did. He prayed to Hulk every night below a big poster of Him and then lit a candle,bowed three times - never more - then blew out the candle and went to bed,murmering "Hulk Hogan Hulk Hogan" like a mantra or a Hail Mary. All the basic elements of belief and worship were there and he actually came up with all this on his own. This was at a group home,so he was incessantly trying to recruit members,including me. I never joined. But the point is,does a thing like that indicate merely that people are prone to inventing God or is the need to worship a personified ideal - higher than oneself - intrinsic to human nature,in which it's valid irrespective of objective truth,as Jung pointed out. Opinions?

Answer 1

The desire to understand the world is innate; using our brains (i.e., understanding our surroundings) was how we survived before our ascension to one of the most prolific species on the planet.

The person you mentioned was worshiping the Hulkster because it provided him with a way of understanding something...perhaps about himself, or perhaps about his surroundings. Something made sense when he performed his rituals, and thus he felt validated in doing them. It doesn't mean that his beliefs were factually correct; it means that his religion satisfied some part of his understanding-instinct.

When he tried to recruit others, he could have had several motivations, and probably did. Perhaps he wanted to spread his understanding. Perhaps, if a lot of other people began doing and thinking the things that he did, he would feel more secure in his beliefs. Perhaps he believed that it was wrong to have other people thinking differently, and sincerely wished to correct their erred decisions.

Answer 2

Intersting question...

What is important to note here (and this may come off as cruel) is that the man you worked with was mentally handicapped... So, developmentally challenged. Chances are, he has been exposed to forms of religion in the past, so he may have already been predisposed to believing in a deity - and latched onto what his mind could recall...

Have you ever heard of cargo cults of Papua New Guinea?? In WWII, we had a base there for refueling planes. What the natives saw was that when the men did certain "rituals", within minutes a metal bird would land and drop off "gifts" from the Gods... So, these primitive natives began to mimic these "rituals" - which was nothing more than preparing the area and going on routine marches!!! But, because they were already predisposed to belief in Gods, this was an easy leap for them....

So, I think that religion or the idea of a higher being comes to us from social interactions.

Again, great question.

Answer 3

it is true that religion originally developed by having multiple dieties, however, that form of religion was never as oppresive as the current religius views we have today. Today religion oppresses and confines the individual.

Everyone wants to have something greater than themselves, something they can belive in to give them meaning, weather that is Hulk Hogan, Jesus, Allah, or whomever , the end result is the same, it gives people the EXACT same satisfaction .

Dieties based on natrual phenomena didnt offer people an after life, and the majority of relgions today do, thats the one thing that people are complelty blind to, and religion provided this answer, so how could people not follow it. Reality is, a madman might have created christianity, but as long as it provided the answers people sought, it worked, and apparently is still working today.

People were around for many many many years b4 the though of any organized religion, and they somehow managed, to me this in its own sence is the immediate dissproval or religion, if the higher powers , God, or whatever you want to call it, really wanted people to follow a religion, then from day 1 thats what would have been made known to us.

Everyone always assumes that religion is equivalent to beliving in something greater than oneself, and its clearly not. You absolutley do not need organized religion to belive in a higher power.

Look at your example, to him, Hulk Hogan IS a higher power, to you he is just a mere mortal. But who is to say that just because the majority views him to be incorrect that in the grand scheme of things he actually IS incorrect?

Look up at the night sky, comprehend that the universe is boundless, then realize how tiny and inssignificant you are, and how tiny your brain is, you think you understand what a higher power is? you think you can comprehend how we got here? you think following your relgion explains everything? all that it shows is how truly stupid people are. We cant even send an austronaut to Pluto or cure cancer,... hell we cant even make anything to get to another galaxy, yet we have religion which apparently answers the meaning of life and gives us "rules" by which to live. Hulk Hogan and the religion that guy made up is just as good as Christianity is , its just not many people follow it so we dont reallly accept it.

People are stupid, as a whole, as a society, in the grand scheme of things, we dont know ANYTHING , so claiming to understand this greater power, this power that is supposedly so divine and so grand, it just makes absolutltye no sence if you even give it a moments though.

There is something out there, .... it might even be tiny green men with gigantic eyes, but whatever it is, religion is not the way to it.

Religion=human creation

you can not comprehend a higher power through something that was created by the human mind.

Answer 4

I believe that humans are predisposed towards religion by certain evolutionary forces, but that religion is not innate. Dawkins covers this nicely in "the God Delusion". And I believe Dennett's "Breaking the Spell" covers much of the same stuff from a philosophical perspective.

Answer 5

As babies we are forced to rely upon the deitic presence that is our parents. Growing up means that we realise that our parents are not as omnipotent as we once believed them to be, but the urge to rely on a greater power still prevails. Perhaps this is where our need to look towards an Almighty Power comes from and why religion seems innate.

Answer 6

There is a study that showed people who were in the top 2% of IQ's were 98% not religious and people who were in the bottom 2% of IQ's were 98% religious.

Answer 7

We all need God, weather or not he is a real being.

Evolution would favor children who were obedient to thier parent and able to worship a higher being.

I'm a Christian who believes in evolution.

Answer 8

You are overlooking atheists. We believe there is no god, and I don't think of anything as a "higher" force.

Answer 9

No, religion first evolved as polytheistic to explain natural phenomena.

Answer 10

Religion is crutch for the mentally weak.