What in history caused the growth of religion?

Answer 1

Religion grew with large civilized organizations, the first of which was the city-state. The vast size required the acceptance of of a hierarchical structure with a god-like absolute ruler at the top. The strongest civilizations that survived were those with the strongest hierarchical structures, aided by the propagation of religion.

Before the development of the city-state, moral and ethical issues were addressed by the clan and tribe leaders. As the cities grew, those with religion aided in the elimination of criminal behavior, while those without religion tended to be weakened from the inside.

Answer 2

Per David Icke the Bible, especially the New Testament, is a fabrication of the Roman Emperors to pacify a rebellious Judea, who subsequently edited the Old Testament ex post facto to prophesize about the Roman invented Jesus myth.

Joseph Atwill's book Caesar's Messiah describes how both the New Testament and historian Josephus's writings were fabricated by a group associated with Roman Emperors Vespasian and Titus. The intention of the religious text was both to pacify the rebellious Jews in Iudaea Province, and in conjunction with the Josephus text to form a dark satire of Vespasian's conquest of Judea, which would only be apparent to those knowledgeable enough about the events

Acharya S also claims in her book, The Christ Conspiracy, The Greatest Story Ever Sold, that Jesus and Christianity were created by members of various secret societies, mystery schools and religions to unify the Roman Empire under one state religion, and that these people drew on numerous myths and rituals which existed previously and then constructed them into Christianity that exists today.

Other claims are that many of the books of the New Testament, especially those written by the Apostle Paul, were intentionally authored for the purpose of misleading contemporary Christians (and thus future generations and converts) away from established orthodoxy (commonly referred to as Judaism).

Religion was created for for mass control. By the "elite" to control the lower class.

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." Blaine Pascal

"The great masses of the people ... will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one." Adolf Hitler

Answer 3

from the time of the first shaman the effort to explain the unexplainable, death, afterlife, the awe of the natural world.

I like what George Burn said as "God" in Oh' God.

I create man he was good, but I never should have created pockets. When created pockets people began putting things in them.

Religion is a social thing, not a spiritual thing. I am an agnostic, What Elton Trueblood calls a reverent agnostic. I have a view of the diety and incorporate my belief into my actions. I don't hold much value in religion. That said, religion was an attempt by certain people to help disseminate the belief in things spiritual to others. The problem with this it gives rise to "subjective interpretation."

Good examples of subjectivism in this world are the likes of Fred Phelps or the Wahabe Muslim sect who take a very literal approach to a document they deem as sacred.

To me only one thing that is sacred. That is the humble yet awesome power of what ever created this whole thing.

Answer 4

The unexplained is what gave birth to religion. Think about thunder & lightning, eclipses or volcanoes how else would early man have described these natural phenomenon. Religion began as a means of understanding or relating to nature and
then religion, highly organized religions set out to destroy nature or separate us from what was uncontrollable.

Answer 5

If you don't count superstition, religion starts with farming. Before farming/herding people were too busy scrounging for food to have any sort of organized religion. What we think of as primitive societies today are really quite advanced compared to the subsistance societies that preceded us. You have to have a reliable food source before people have enough free time to reformulate simple superstitions into more complex religious notions.

Answer 6

uh... rain, thunder, fire and gigantic beasts with a taste for human tibia.
Good Question though, have you read Edmund Burke's Natural History of Religion?

Answer 7

after religions were formed, they spread as people did from one place to the next

Answer 8

Ignorance. People needed a way to explain what was going on around them.

Answer 9

Wars, disasters, pandemics, economic crises, and people spending too much time in the desert.

Answer 10

It was a horrid virus. Hasn't done anyone any good, after all.