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Why Do We Have Religion?

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Anonymous

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This is just something Ive....developed over the years. Religion originally was started because of a deep emotion that all human beings have. Pride. People wanted to think they knew why something was the way it was or why it happend. The sun rose in the morning, it set in the night. People didnt know how it really worked so they said "The gods make it so, i know how it happens now". Plus I think annother reason, arising recently, is that epople want to be independant. This is hard to explain so forgive me if I loose some of you. But with all this science explaining how things work and why they work and yadda yadda yadda, people want to be original in thier beliefs. So instead of saying "Joe Schmoe got better after being sick because the flu virus in his system was killed by his immune systems" we say " The God(s) healed him!" An example of that would be, say Wiccans. The laws of physics tells us that its impossible to have magic because they violate some laws of physics (What those laws are, I have NO idea, talk to someone who has taken a physics class). Then there is a person who wants to say and or believe that "Ill bet I can create fire with my mind or make things levitate."
 
Hmmm...

Very interesting, but perhaps fatally flawed theory, YeaYea. There is no mention of fear in the equation. Isn't it fear of the unknown and self doubt that makes the toddler run to its parents? And when the toddler grows up. Who then does it turn to? Why not the uber-parent, of everything?

Just a thought.
 
But if people made up a god out of the fear of the unknown, wouldnt it still be unknown? Because you dont know the will or wants of that god that you made up.
 
My theory is that Mankind uses abstract concepts to try to explain reality and existence:

Religion, Mathematics, Science, Art.

No one of these concepts alone can explain why or how we are here, but all together they can provide us with an insight into the material and spiritual side of existence which is how we tend to view reality.

It's up to everyone as to which concepts they use and in which proportion. Just as it's up to the individual to form their own beliefs.


Incidentally, belief in magic(k) is present in all cultures around the globe - in the west we tend to poo poo the notion and call it 'primitive'.
I would argue that magic(k) is simply something that can't be explained (yet) by science and certainly wouldn't discount it as a real force, proven or not, given it's immense number of practitioners in every form around the World.

Saying that magic(k) can't exist because it defies some of the laws of physics is a bit like saying that quantum mechanics can't exist becasue it defies some of the laws of physics.

Anyway - Magic(k) doesn't belong on this thread - see esoterica for a huge debate on the subject.
 
Is the need for any religion simply down to the fact, it's given to us that we comprehend death as our inevitable oblivion and looking for a 'Get Out' clause somewhere...?
 
I happen to think religions do not occur spontaneously, in my opinion they have always been cynical power structures to keep the yokels in order. Faith/Belief, on the other hand, is something personal and could quite easily be different in every single individual.

I don't think the individual driver for faith is only the negative fear of death, there is wonder and awe at our surroundings. But religion - yes , it plays on fear like Davy Jones on his organ (stop sniggering at the back)
 
I am unaware of any fear of death in my personal equation. Interesting.
 
Some general (meta-?)comments, in light of the most recent trio of posts above ...

I've long considered it misguided to treat the subject of 'religion' as addressing a human activity or interest that's always been framed, conducted, and managed in a single manner - much less the manner in which we know it today.

It's also been apparent to me that so-called 'primitive religions' aren't so much tentative or rudimentary versions of current and currently-defined 'religions' as relict evolutionary precedents for the underlying motivations, concept, organization, and practice of what we call 'religion' nowadays.

IMHO a big part of the problem is terminological. The term 'religion' (from the Latin for 'obligation; bond; reverence') implies adherence or commitment to something abstract. I believe these themes arose during the course of the evolution cited above, and they shouldn't be considered innate components of this human activity's earliest forms.

So here's a very condensed and sketchy sketch of how I see it ...

My personal hypothesis is that it all started with mythic / folkloric explanation for the world itself and the phenomena encountered in basic survival activities. In its general sense of 'knowledge', I consider such explanatory lore to have been the 'science' of its day.

The most important theme in such lore concerned whatever agency lay behind states of affairs or observed changes. Simplicity and universality in such lore required some degree of generalization, which in turn motivated explanations that were abstracted from the tangible objects and occurrences they explained.

The initial format for such abstractions were the animistic agencies (e.g., 'spirits' in the broadest sense) associated with particular objects or classes of objects. Over time there was a progressive refinement in the descriptions of such agencies, combined with a progressive consolidation of these agencies' espoused forms into fewer and fewer types.

One such trend was the refinement of vague agencies into forms associated with those objects that exhibited agency themselves - i.e., animals (humans included). As the apparent sophistication of decisions ascribed to such agencies increased, the agencies were progressively portrayed as exhibiting human qualities (e.g., 'homocentric animism').

By the time agriculture and city-states arrived, the agencies were typically portrayed as a pantheon of human-like figures. It was around this time that formally institutionalized religion arose as a corollary component of the mass power structure necessary to stabilize and regulate the increasingly interdependent population (cf. Cochise's query).

The next phase involved expanding the scope of concern from natural events and phenomena to the individual / personal context. In large part this involved a thematic shift from 'how the world does work for all of us' to 'how you personally should behave'.

I have no opinion as to when this started, but in the West I definitely believe it culminated in the monotheistic religions we know today. This culmination represented the ultimate consolidation of abstracted agency and the ultimate 'hooks' into each individual's personal life and psyche. It was by this time that personal apprehension about one's own death probably became a widespread motivation for religious adherence (cf. CN's query).

In the East, developments didn't progress in the same way or through all the phases mentioned for the West once the settled city-state context was attained.

Throughout this course of events, elements of the earlier forms were either absorbed into the later forms or spun off as alternatives or curiosities to be tolerated, decried, or oppressed. Animism and its proactive praxis of shamanism survive, sometimes in reframed or reinterpreted guise. The societal power structure elements survived to mold much of Western history (and plague us still). The personally-focused elements persisted as a sure-fire attractor and proliferated laterally into quasi-religious beliefs and pursuits (e.g., New Age spirituality).
 
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Why the need for religion...?

Perhaps simply because the human race has never found any other explanation for our existence and inevitable death?

Religion is consequently comforting?

In essence, religion gives perpetual hope to overcome day-to-day earthy impediments, whilst believing that ultimately all will be well in Heaven?
 
For something to do on Sundays?

Seriously, I have a religion but fear of death plays no part in it. I'll found out if Heaven exists one day, or I won't.
 
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