How did religion originate?

Answer 1

Religion originated from the basic fear of death or the end of one's existence. Religion became a form of comfort, that there is something to look forward to after death. Religion later became a convenient tool for establishing Political control over the fanatical followers. Religion was then used as a political tool to establish social structures and behaviors that glorified leaders as earthly Gods or emissaries of an invisible heavenly master.

Answer 2

Ignorance

The origin of religion is from the Holy books-The Torah, Zaboor, The Bible, The Quran, The Vedas and the Prophets send by God to guide the people to the right path. It is not ignorance!

Answer 3

Animism would be the oldest known type of religion. This is a primitive religion, which sprang up independently in many areas of the world, but in most countries has mainly been replaced by more formal religion. In animism, spirits are considered to inhabit familiar objects in the landscape. Gradually, the spirits became gods and specialist religious leaders, or shamans, emerged, to provide miracles and communicate with the gods. With the development of farming, the heavenly hosts became the focus of religious attention, since the sun, moon and stars seemed to define the seasons and provided life-giving warmth and sustenance. African deities continue to be formed around the heavenly hosts, as did the American deities at the time of the Spanish invasions. In the Mediterranean region, the heavenly hosts metamorphosed into the anthropomorphic (human-like) gods that we know of today. In Celtic civilisations, it seems that the heavenly gods and goddesses were gradually replaced by deities of the earth. By and large, the eastern religions have followed a somewhat different path, although the original beliefs were no doubt animistic.
The origin of religion itself is unknown, but there are cave drawings from 40,000 years ago which may depict religious ceremonies and deeply-ritualized spirituality, found in what is now Azerbaijan, Iran, Armenia, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Chad, Ethiopia, and other countries of the same regions. These cave drawings depict Animism, which associates spiritual energies as referring to spirits of animals.

The oldest known temple in the world is at Göbekli Tepe ("Potbelly Hill") in Turkey, some 12,000 years old. It is thought by archaeologists at this site that the presence of religion in this area gave rise to farming and currency, as the temple stood above ground for some 1500 years before falling into disuse. Stone carvings at this site also depict animism, and seem to imply the transference of animal energies.

The next-oldest known existence of religion comes from the Vedas, an ancient tribe from what is now Northern India, and a major predecessor of most Eastern Philosophies (and even a large number of religious philosophies in the West).

Much of Hindu beliefs come from the Vedas, which in turn gave rise to Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. It is also thought that there were also influences from the Levantine which independently gave rise to the Babylonian beliefs, which in turn profoundly impacted Egyptian, Judaic and other religions of the area.

The Buddha was a practicing Hindu swami, though modern Buddhism broke away from Hindu beliefs because of its stance on the Hindu gods.

Judaism, Islam and Mormonism all originated with angelic revelations to their founders, though Mormonism is a branch of Christianity.

Judaism gave rise to Christianity, which originally seemed to have been nothing more than its own branch of Judaism which was to be made available to all, but which has since grown into its own faith, separate from Judaic origination.

In more modern times, religions like Heathenism and Neopaganism have seen revivals due to dissatisfaction with more mainstream religions.

In all cases, religion is derived from deeply spiritual experiences which are then shared and adopted by others. These usually (but don't always) grow into religious organizations, but in almost all known cases the founders of religions have openly said that the teachings are more important than the teachers.

Though there are notable exceptions, true spiritual leaders are humble about their roles, normal (or even less than normal) in most respects, and have nothing extraordinary about them. It is later additions to their stories which tend to blow them into larger-than-life figures, and most of these are done by those who want to show love and respect.

The Buddha, Moses, Melchizedek, Jesus, and many other similar religious leaders have become the sources of cults of personality long after their deaths, and using the most original sources of teachings from each, we can only conclude that none really intended to found their own religions; they considered themselves to merely have a new point of view on something that already existed.

Answer 4

There are two starting points of the living world religions. (1) GOD-based - absolutism, who tends to look to something beyond human nature for an absolute foundation, GOD (2) Man-Based - Naturalism in which ethics and social philosophy are based upon observation and analysis (a) One starts the inquiry from the known to the unknown (b) the power and centrality of the mind is acknowledged (c) every intelligient form of life tries to satisfy some need (d) mankind progresses for the same reaon that the amoebr evolves irritabily or pain.

Answer 5

With the Creation.The entire ancient world possessed the original traditions of the Creation, the existence of the human soul and the afterlife, etc.

One thing that researchers agree upon is that mankind has always believed in a Higher Power. Archaeology has shown that no ancient society ever existed that did not believe in the supernatural.Link: Can you show me that God exists?Based upon a massive worldwide study of the most ancient inscriptions and the earliest levels of civilization, Dr. Wilhelm Schmidt (in his twelve-volume Der Ursprung Der Gottesidee) concluded that the original belief was monotheistic; a belief in One God (see footnote 1, below). It was a simple belief in the Creator (Dyeus Pater; Sky-Father) with no imagery of any kind. It gave way relatively quickly to polytheism and idolatry, but its traces could still be seen by the careful researcher, just as (for example) Proto-Indo European has left indelible marks within the later languages. Other traditions also are traceable worldwide, such as the religious significance of the number seven, and the immortality of the soul.

The process by which the awareness of One God gave way to a belief in many gods, has been described by Scandinavian researchers (see footnote 2) as splitting ("Gottespaltung"): the people gradually viewed God's attributes of truth, righteousness, fertility etc., as separate from Him, and afterwards personified and worshiped the attributes themselves, until God was largely forgotten.

According to Jewish tradition also, (Rashi commentary, Genesis 4:26), monotheism is more ancient than polytheism. Maimonides describes the process by which polytheism began: "A couple of centuries after the Creation, mankind made a great mistake. They said that since God had created the stars and spheres and placed them on high, accordingly it is fitting for people to praise and glorify them and to treat them with honor. They perceived this to be the will of God, that people should exalt and honor the stars. They began to praise and glorify them with words, and prostrate themselves before them, because by doing so, they would (according to their false conception) be indirectly honoring God too."

This descent into polytheism contributed to the gradual weakening of any sense of religious belief and was also used as justification for excessive and licentious behavior, since the caprices which were narrated concerning the idols were adopted as an excuse to imitate their putative actions.

The original belief is what Abraham reinstated through his teaching of ethical monotheism.

See also the other Related Links.

Link: Abraham's monotheism

Link: The full quote from Maimonides

Footnotes:

1) Albright, "From the Stone Age," p.170; and J.A. Wilson, "The Culture of ancient Egypt," p.129. Also Baron, "A Social and Religious History," vol. I, p.44 and 311. Also James Meek, "Hebrew Origins," p.188, quoting Langdon, Lagrange and John Ross. Also Martin Nilsson, Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaften, 2nd ed., p.61, 141, 220 and 394.

2) G. W. Anderson, in "The Old Testament and Modern Study," p.287. Also Friedrich Baethgen, in Beitraege zur Semitischen Religionsgeschichte, p.288. Also Pallotino, "The Etruscans," p. 158 and 167.

Answer 6

Hinduism came from South Asia in ancient, pre-historic times, so details of its origins are not available.

Answer 7

God originated Judaism, Christianity, and Messianic Judaism. God loves you so much that He gave his only begotten son, Christ, so that we would be saved, and live.