How did we end up with all this religious nonsense ?

Question

How did we get from Man/Woman first living in groups and tryng to make sense of why they were alive, to the religious mumbo jumbo of today?

Answer 1

Well, I reckon it's just part of the natural progression. I see religion as humankind's way to make sense of what they can't understand - how we got here, why it rains, why they failed in battle... As society grows and changes, religion must change as well.

My history professors always stress a set of aspects of civilization - division of labor, social hierarchy, trade and transportation, cultivation, irrigation, weather conditions, physical barriers, religion... The trick then is to figure out the importance of each aspect to a particular society's development; that way, you can try to determine how a society grew, why it grew at the pace it did, why various aspects are absent or why others persisted. Sorry, that's a lot of jargon - it's a lot more fun when you actually apply it :)

So - religion serves a purpose in a society: it explains and justifies those things which otherwise don't make sense. For instance, why one man is born a king and one a slave, or why the floods come annually. Obviously, as a society grows, religion's role changes as well. In some instances, the development of civilization makes religion unnecessary, as is the case with science. Division of labor allows for hierarchy, which allows some individuals to focus on non-immediate needs - perfecting irrigation, for example, or just pursuing simple curiosity. Once writing is established, you can build up libraries; it then becomes possible for one person to learn several lifetimes' worth of study in a much shorter time. Anyway, the point is, then folks know why the floods come, and you don't need flood demons anymore. They figure out how night and day happen, and you don't need Apollo or Raven or whatever to explain it.

Another way religion changes, as society developes - one I think is really interesting - it's often used, somtimes very consciously, as a tool of control. For instance, one of the major ways the Inca maintained control over their empire was by demanding a few girls from each town as tribute (the aclla, brides of the sun) - supposedly this was all necessary for religious reasons, but it also gave a lot of power to the empire. Any kind of tax (including one of girls) is good for reinforcing all the little towns' submission to the empire. Also, the emperor now had an enormous body of "princesses" - some of them worked in temples, and some of them served as sacrifices, but an awful lot got married out in order to cement alliances. It was a big honor to marry someone of such religious significance, and the Inca (the emperor) had total personal control over these girls' marriages.

There's a whole lot of this going on in European/Christian history too - most of medieval history is about the uneasy balance of power between the Church and secular kings. As society became more developed (villages to cities, communities to kingdoms), religion developed as well; we move from spiritual superstition to the very organized institution of the Catholic Church. This became a front for power - sometimes sincerely in the name of God and religion, like when dukes called their subjects together to conquer the Holy Land in the First Crusade. Sometimes not so much - like during the Hundred Years War, when the English started splitting hairs over previous papal bulls in order to justify their claim to half of France, and the French countered this by breaking ties with the Roman Pope and setting up their own in Avignon :)

Anyway, I think that's really the sum of it - a mix of growing civilization dictating religion, and religion dictating the way civilization grows.

I wonder though, if there might someday be a time when religion becomes obsolete. If we develop enough, and study enough, so that we don't have any more of these mysteries requiring God/gods...I don't know! Who can say? I really, really wish we could see the future... human civilization's been in the works for what, 9,000 years? And then only in one very small part of the world - that's really so short a time! So what about another 9,000? How about a million? What kind of new patterns will develop, what new characteristics of civilization? Oh, I'd sure give a lot to know :)

Anyway, if anybody actually stuck through all this I'm impressed :) Sorry... I wish I could have said all that in a lot less words! Aaah! Interesting subject, though :)

Answer 2

The majority of people need some reasoning behind life, they cannot accept that it is simply a set of circumstances that we are alive today. So they turn to a so called God or gods for that reason. It helps people coup with life, helps them get through hardships when they cannot stand on their own, but unfortunately it can also be the cause of horrible catastrophes. The worst wars in the history of humanity have been fought over religion and some of the most horrifying acts imaginable have been done because someone believed in a fairy tale.

Answer 3

My sister-in-law who's grandfather is a retired life long Southern Baptist "fire and brimstone" preacher from Mississippi is of the belief everything would smooth out if you took a grain of salt with the religion in your worship.

Sometimes the practices and interpreters convolute the message being received. You have too many people over the ages spending too much time and effort to convince everyone what they say is THE WORD. Kinda like the "Too Many Chiefs And Not Enough Indians" theory.

Answer 4

Mankind has always felt unhinged with the way things are, cavemen/cavewomen needed a way of rationalizing things they didn't understand, that's why they buried there dead and gave they souls to the spirits, think about this, say you were a primitive caveman and your daughter passed on and there was no were for her to go to when she died, would you feel hollow knowing that there wasn't something more to life than just the end, that way the Venus figure was created life and dead became one journey and once you died it wasn't the end for you just the next stage in your journey, see humans need to know there is something more to life than just death, that is how religion started.

Answer 5

Wow, is this one for a set of encyclopedia sized works...

Some by true belief on how we came to be and where unexplained things come from, and differences on how one should exhibit such beliefs, some by madness, some by power tripping, I think there are probably as many reasons for religions developing as there are people.

Answer 6

I believe in God, but I have no obsession about my religion. Anyway, I suppose that during the early generations of mankind, selfish people, who had no "meaning" in their life (because they were not used to help other people or animals, or doing anything useful), tried to find some "meaning" for their life, and then they invented many religions.

Answer 7

Because a lot of people are going through their Spiritual Awakening
Questions have to be asked
Answers from all points of view have to be seen

Love & Blessings
Milly

Answer 8

One of the great mysteries of the ages.

Answer 9

Because we are pathetic spineless beings.