Why does religion exist at all?

Question

What is it about man that requires him to have some kind of god? Long before the bible, gods were worshiped by huge numbers of people. What is this apparent need for a diety? Is it just knowing about our mortality and impending death?

Answer 1

Theism in general is quite likely a biological defense mechanism that humans concocted when we first evolved (ironic that evolution is part of the explanation, huh?) to the point where we realized our own mortality.

Convincing ourselves of an afterlife in general was how primitive humans who had just realized their own mortality coped, and kept from going insane.

Think about it--makes sense, doesn't it?

Either way, it's a very primitive response, something that has no place in the lives of civilized, 21st century human beings.

Answer 2

The prevalence of religion and the multiplicity of faiths - few with the same god but most with the same basic features - leads to the suspicion that it must arise from somethign deep within our makeup. And this means it must have been genetically selected for over time.

But the fact that religion is counter productive - it consumes resources without producing benefit (not to say that it leads to acts of aggression and war which are destructive) - means that it cannot be a natural outcome of selection.

This leads to the conclusion that it is a "side effect". Think about moths. They spiral round a light bulb until they crash and burn into it not because they are suicidal but because this behaviour - which serves them well in a natural environment (where there are no light bulbs) fails and produces an undesired side effect when there are lightbulbs.

Similarly, blind faith in what adults tell you as a child and instant prejudicial responses to some circumstances, along with imputing motives where none belogn (that tiger wants to kill me rather than that tiger has evolved to attack prey and will respond to my presence by following a natural behaviour) were useful survival strategies for early hunter gatherer mankind.

They have a nasty side effect today with developed societies.

Remember that three of the worlds major religions arose in brutal tribal environments and were established through genocide and war - Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

Answer 3

the fall of Adam and Eve brought death to all mankind. breaking the laws of God always carries a punishment..sir there is one God ..he is the maker of all things that exzist..not what ever you choise to believe is your free choice..not accepting God as being God is a sure way to and everlasting punishment in the eternal fires of and everlasting hell.. where the fires is no quenched and the souls of the lost and doomed never die. but are tormented day and night forever and forrever..many today think christian people are stupied and that the holy bible is nothing but made up lies. mr those that moke God will not go unpunished and those that don,t believe will suffer the concquences..Im not that smart nor am i a rocket sciencetist. but im am condifident that God is a real living spirtual being that made all things..i will admit that i don,t understand a lot of thing about his will and ways but i,m just a dot on the Globe like you are..God ways are not man ways and his thoughts are higher than man thoughts.. so you thinks what ever that brains of yours wants to think that your free choise

Answer 4

I would say 'No' to all.
It was just Man's basic uncertainty in the begining : )

You see, he ate an apple and a day later, it came out the other end!! Then over time, he started growing out of his own clothes!!

That's when it hit him!

"Man, I'm not in control of what's goin on. There must be something doing these things to me"

So the sense of God came about...as a superior unexplainable force controlling all activities.

Hehe.. hope this cheered all of you up : )


Hey, I heard that now, He gets the blame for bad activities too!

Poor Chap!

Answer 5

In the ancient times from which my folkways are reconstructed, "religion" was a lot more practical than the kinds of answers I'm seeing here. Hel's lacy undies, but I wish people wouldn't sweepingly generalize ALL religions by what they know of 20th century Sand Cults!

It was simpler, once. You asked the godhs for a good harvest, a good catch, a good hunt. In return, you shared with them, at the appropriate Tides (all based on the agricultural year---ale when it was brewed, grain when it was reaped, animals when they were slaughtered) in community wide Feasts that insured the *living* AND the Elder Kin got plenty to eat and drink. People felt genuine affection for the godhs, not out of fear of judgement or any kind of warped notion of their own inadequacy. In my own ancestral cultures (much like the Mexican "Dia de los Muerte") the dead were still seen as part of the community, and offerings were left on (and in) their burial mounds . . . when someone died, an ox would be sacrificed on the mound so that one's ancestors could throw the deceased a welcoming feast . . . and offerings were left at springs, for their continued flowing, and the hearts of deer in the crooks of trees, in thanks to Ullr and the huldufolk for a successful hunt . . . it was about community, and fertility, and kin, and Sacred Luck.

Fairy tales? Primitive superstition? Believe what you like. But please, don't judge ways that worked for thousands and thousands of years (and still do for me, today, however "subjectively") by the intolerant nonsense that came later.

Answer 6

It gives a motive to people to behave accordingly to social and moral standards. How it does that is by creating a feeling that someone or something is watching their actions and people fear attempting to question their religion since their afraid of its purported consequence and don't want to risk finding out. It also functions to give insight into how nature became existent before an era science and research. But mainly it functions as a form of propaganda that induces fear to cause human beings to govern their own actions. Without a motive or fear of consequence for doing harmful deeds, human nature will cause a person to take any action that will suit what makes themselves happy with disregard for others. Even if the actions are murderous (that's why nations that are dictatorships always are ruled unjustly). So to sum it up, religion is pretty much like telling a child to behave to avoid "The Boogyman", it induces a fearful motive to actions that are right. Even though I am an atheist myself, I recognize the fact that without religion humans would never have the motive to cooperate and create civilizations. In other words our world be anarchy without religion as people don't fear the consequence of a supernatural being. However since our world now has a solid establishment of civilization and governance, it is now possible to be atheist and moral at the same time by governing our actions based on social and legal consequence. Therefore atheists govern their own actions through a simple principle of cause and effect. For example, you punch someone, the person will punch you back. If you punch someone weak, a strong friend or relative of the person will punch you back. Or if you murder someone, the police will try to find you. However such cause and effect self governance with atheism would not of been possible in an era of pre-civilization before the establishment of widely institutionalized governance. Therefor religion back then (and sort of now) is needed to propagandize masses into moral and social cooperation.

Answer 7

Most people are powerless and stupid as individuals and collectively as societies. Nature does not care - horrible things happen to people with high frequency. Add criminality offering to rent Superman and you have religion.

Google
"Konrad Lorenz" geese 25,100 hits
skinner neurotic pigeons 16,200 hits

If you like Freud instead, religion is simply a mirror of placental mammal gestation, birth, and parenting as viewed by a child.

Every priest says, "Hodie mihi, cras tibi." Only a fool believes in post-mortem esrow closing.

Answer 8

Read "The God Part of the Brain" by Matthew Alper. It isn't the need for god, it's the inate need of guidance and protection. It starts when you come out of your mother and depend on your parents for everything... well, most never grow out of it. Instead of seeking to learn the world on their own, they continue to look for guidance and explanations for everything in life. Religion fills that role for some.

Answer 9

humans need something to believe in otherwise what would the point of our existance if we didn't have anything to live for or that some power greater than us is in control of the universe and that were not just floating around hopeless with no purpose- Thats what religion gives us- a purpose for being!

Answer 10

might you reject somebody for being a fanatical devotee? it incredibly is opposite to the assumption of encouraging lively involvement contained domestically. Fanaticism is usually a results of disenfranchisement with all that may no longer the religion. it incredibly is very problematic to triumph over the place the non secular community itself preaches ideological distance from the actual worldwide. each so often, the final thank you to pass approximately it incredibly is to introduce social engagement - exterior of the scope of the religion itself - into the force and objective of the team itself. a non secular community who engages in social artwork is plenty plenty extra probable to self-reasonable than people who're in common terms psychological.

Answer 11

Religion was originally around as a method to explain the unexplained. Like why do storms happen, why do fires start. But once science started to take hold the churches shifted to just keeping members and saving your "soul" so they could hold on to what power they had left.