A question for peoples of all religions...? The Origin?

Question

I have heard many atheists speak of Santa... In sort of a brainwashing style our parents convinced us that there is a Santa, and this is how people believe religion...Because they are "brainwashed" since they were kids... However, a problem comes up...How did the first person in a religion become brainwashed? Or Maybe a better question, What made someone create religion?

So, basically 3 questions
1. How was religion started?
2. Why was religion started?
3. What Compelled someone to spread religion?

(christians, dont speak about Christianity only please..Please speak as Religion in General)

thanks much

Christians... there are 10,000 religions in the world... you know you can think about someone other than yourself....
Why are the so called "false gods" made?

Answer 1

1. Religion started when a person first asked : Where am I ? Who put me here ? Why am I here ?
2. Religion didn't start as you propose . It evolved . Just like the American form of government evolved way beyond what it started out to be .
3. People were compelled to spead religion for : A. Personal power and wealth ( such as with most of the Popes and the Pharohs of Egypt ) . , B. Fanaticsm that the world needed to "saved" from a "hell" . C. The good of Society ( such as Contantine's view that the greater area would be better off following some code of ethics while being united under one religion rather than fighting.

sabb , this is just more meaningless Islamic Spam asking us to believe what Muhhamed wrote in the Quo'ran . Just the things this power hungry man wanted us to believe .

Answer 2

Ok... you have my interest.

Religion is the highest form of control. If you can convince people to live your way...wouldn't life be perfect (in your opinion)? Everybody views life through their own personal filters.This is the reason why there are so many sects of Christianity, as well as different versions of God. Someone read the bible and interpreted it their own way. They then think that everyone should feel 'this way' about it, so they want to share. Nobody wants to be lonely.

You speak of Santa as a form of conditioning, but he is more than that. When the Christians were trying to convert people (in the old days) they incorporated other pagan myths into it for the purpose of gaining a larger fan-base. You might as well ask "what does a rabbit that gives you candy have in common with the resurrection of Christ." Every Christian icon has roots in the pagan mythology, because of the 'conversion' factor. Here is something that you might be interested in: search for the (zeitgeist movie). The beginning of this film explains the foundation of modern religion.

Answer 3

Well, I can give you my atheist view... Religion works very well to control the masses, it's a form of governmental control where non-believers are punished and the believers are essentially brainwashed into behaving like good little citizens.

Obviously times have changed, we're much more civilized. But for someone wanting to create civilization out of an unruly population, religion is pretty effective. Especially when you can punish non-believers by torturing and killing them while acting the the voice of God.

This applies to other religions as well, Greek and Roman, and the like. Of course some religions are simply used to explain things that can't easily be explained in other ways.

Before we knew what the sun was, there was a sun god, the same for the moon. There were gods to pray to for better crops, and all sorts of things.

Answer 4

There are many good books on the subject. Here's a brutally brief summary:
Religious belief began because our species is capable of confronting our own mortality in a deep and profound way AND because our species posesses a powerful imagination. Our imagination was useful for inventing tools, controlling fire, etc, but it also produces fictional belief.

Awareness of our own mortality, but little real understandiing of why it happened, led our very imaginative ancestors to concoct all sorts of fictions, including an afterlife, gods, and ghosts. It's the natural response to a world where death exists.

Such beliefs spread for a number of reasons. One reason is that such belief tends to create "in groups" where people can believe the same things, thus creating a sense of comfort around each other. Such belief can be ritualized within the group, that further establishes group identity. That's how it spreads.

So there's one reasonable hypothesis. Now, is there any evidence to support this idea? YES! We have cave paintings in France and Spain from about 30,000 years ago. These depict hunting and death. We have recorded many aboriginal beliefs from around the world, and these beliefs (including many creation myths) support the hypothesis. We have artifacts. And we have other sorts of research that support this idea.

Religion is our invention, as much as any other human invention.

Answer 5

Well, I think religion started quite early on for homo sapien. People need to feel as if they understand the mechanisms that drive the world around them. Don't know why the sun rises every morning? A "God or Spirit" must be responsible for it.
As you come to truly believe your own ideas about the world and how it functions (by the will of some supreme force), you would naturally want to share that "knowledge" with others.

Also, I want to add that I believe science to be an extension of religion. It isn't that science is going to replace religious views, rather, it will help us to make better guesses as to what force created the universe. They will, and always should, work in tandem.

Answer 6

Well, in philosophy, according to Fredrech Nietzsche, Christianity or religion started because of something called, "Resentiment". This is a french word that means the hatred/greed that the weak feel toward the strong. oh it's so complicated. About the Santa thing i think he did exist a long time ago, and parents say he exists now because it's fun and traditional...=o)

Answer 7

1. How was religion started?
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Depends on which religion on which religion you're talking about. I suggest you look up each individual religion that interests you on the Yahoo.com home page.
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2. Why was religion started?
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In my opinion, the beauty of life, the natural world, etc. People get a sense of something "divine" because of the beauty in Nature we perceive on a daily basis. Thats the foundation. I won't get complex on morality and "guidelines" because that would take all night. But I will say that humans have studied human behavior for a very long time. We know what is "right" and what it is "wrong" because of that.
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3. What Compelled someone to spread religion?
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To satisfy another's quest for knowledge of "something more".
Thats one of the "better reasons". I won't get into any negative reasons right now because I don't feel like it. One word though - Crusades.
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Answer 8

I will say it in religious way

1. Religion start from the God itself

2. Religion started so that all human being, not only man, to know that God do exist. Religion teach us to do good deed and to not to do bad things

3. Its God's task to everybody who learn about God to spread it out to those who are not yet believe to God

A simple question from me, when you're born, you don't exactly know that who your parent is, right? Their face and what so ever. If you live from baby to adult with your parents, so it is not a problem cause sooner or later you memorize them, can feel their existence in your life. But, how if you were adopted since you were a baby. When you became an adult, you will thinking of them, your heart said it so. You know your parents exist but you don't know where they are, their appearance and so much more about them. Why do you believe they exist? Cause you exist. You will not be here without them. In a more general point of view, who make them exist? Your grandparents. And before that? So the existence of all the things in the world come from actually, one thing. It is God. You will never find the origin of human being. We all know that Adam is the first human being, so who created him? We know something or somehow must be related to Adam's birth, that is, he was created by God.

Okay, some of you may say that we're from monkeys (Darwin Theory). But hey, where do monkeys come from? Cell? So where do cells from? Atom? So where do atoms from?

We human have limited way of thinking. We cannot think beyond that. Its God's choice to let us know just a little about that. All we have to do is have faith to God. To atheis, can you prove the first thing exist in the world and how?

Good luck in searching for the truth
~_~

Answer 9

I would say that the first religions were created to explain natural phenomenon such as storms, earthquakes, etc. If you were to ask someone of any specific religion why it is spread, I would assume that they would say that their God told them that it was the right religion and that they should spread it to others. However, I would say that it is because the churches want money. Plain and simple as that.

Answer 10

CS Lewis speaks of the Numinous, the feeling of something greater than us in the spiritual world.

He also talks about how people feel hunger, there is such things as food. When they thirst, there exists water (and other drinks). When they, ahem, hunger for something else, there is such a thing as sex. If a duck has the urge to swim, well there are lakes and ponds and rivers...

So isn't it logical that there should be satisfaction for the spiritual longing we all feel?