One of the great questions: how did religion begin? What brought humans to believe in the existence of one or several gods or divine beings?

Did they see signs or miracles (or something they thought were signs or miracles) and interpret them as being a message from the One who created us all? Or did the first philosophers just thought it was almost certain that a conciousness had made the world? Or did humans invent the concept of God simply to reassure themselves?

It could also be a mix of it all, though. That's what I think.

That is a very interesting question and I have never really thought about it.

I think that most religion is there because people want to feel like they have purpose in their life, a goal to achieve, and something good guiding them. The problem is, that only explains why it is still in existance, not why it was created.

So now we have a problem... How would this idea get started? Well, I voted for a mix of things. I think that they saw some sort of "signs or miracles" (maybe made up by someone, maybe falsely seen, or maybe real). Then, they thought about it and decided that it was "logical that "someone" had created them". But all of that is more "based on hope, not on signs or philosophical thinking". Therefore, it is a mix of all three ^_^

People needed to figure out how things worked. And the fact that we couldn't, we needed to invent somthing to explain that. I'm sure it first started in tales or the like that got expanded into the "Supernatural." And there goes in myths of Greece and the like.

Anyways, how that got started, I too believe that it was a mix of things. They saw what they thought were signs, it seemed logical that they were created with lack of true knowledge of how the earth and universe works, and people need the opiate that is hope.

Today i was talking with my friend about religion. We think that there is something quite dark and sinister about religion. There are thing like Bible codes, killing at the vatican (he said that, i knew nothing about it), abnd today we had some christians come in to preach to us at school. they came to assembly and They always link something 'cool' like football with religion. they even take kids on trips away with them in small groups. Also they come round to us at lunchtimes and talk to us, normally beggining with something usual and then lead it into god. i couldn't help thinking, Why are they so bothered abotu 'recruiting' people? does it matter if less people are christian.

When i'm older i'd love to investigate these things more. luckily religion isn't as intense here as it is in America. But i don't want to be preached to thank you very much.

I think that religion is and always has been an expression of a people's experience with reality. I think the foundation for religion began the moment man began asking questions, trying to use language to represent abstract thought. For as soon as he came up with the words "love," "freedom," "justice," or any other ideal for that matter, he began to project a particular set of experiences out into the world of language--a world no longer directly tied to what is visible and tangible. After all, does "freedom" exist in the natural world (a question we tackle in another thread)? Do dolphins and monkeys strive for "justice" or "harmony?"

The birth of those words is not a far cry from the birth/discovery of what we now consider to be deities or Gods (Athena was the personofication of wisdom, for example). In fact, you do not even have to go so far as abstract ideas to see the beginnings of religion proper. Even in the naming of simple things, we already have the beginnings of religion. In Chinese, for example, the word for "sky" and the word for "heaven/God" are exactly the same. Some native Americans found deities within animals and trees, thinking that all life was imbued with "spirit."

Man's entry into the world of language was, in my opinion, an exit from experiencing directly the natural world as it is immediately apparent, and an entry into what we might refer to as the "supernatural."

This, I think, is the beauty of the Gospel of John: "In the beginning, there was the Word..."

Mankind's greatest fear has always been, and is, that of the unknown, of things it does not understand. Back in the early days, this was nearly everything - the weather, the stars at night, phases of the moon and so on - and so to escape from being continually in a state of terror at all the things which seemed incomprehensible, mankind created gods and supernatural beings which could explain away the unknown, and allow them to live away from fear. This is why early 'religions' and the like often contain myriad gods and other such entities, and modern religions tend to contain less - and also is a reason for the widespread decline in traditional religions in Western society, due to a general (incorrect) belief that everything can be explained and understood by science, which needs no gods and the like.

This is, I feel, the most likely root cause of religion, so my vote is for 'other.'

It depends on what god you are talking about…the god in the Christian bible is the same the Muslim god Allah and the Jewish god Yaweh.

The classical Greeks believed in many different gods from, Zeus, Apollo, Athena, etc and that goes for the classical Romans…they believed in Jupiter, Janus, Vesta etc.

The Jews developed a religion that was different then the worship of many gods it was monotheism the belief in one god, with them it was Yaweh…Christianity has it’s origins within Judaism just like Islam and Christianity…these religions are very young.

It wasn’t the Jews who started the concept of monotheism one god as opposed to many gods - was originally created by the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaton (1350 - 1334 BC) who was the first to declare that there was only one god…the Sun God.

The reason why humans have religion is because we are capable of abstract thinking and supposedly Neanderthals had some sort of religious practice and abstract thinking because they buried their dead and took care of the wounded etc.

I think you hit the nail solidly on the head there WhiteElephant.

When we (as a race) don't have the understanding, we want to believe in higher authorities, powers, meanings... and anything else above the concrete world's physical laws that surround us. That does conflict with science. Scientists feel everything should be proven... much like Mathematicians needing their proofs to continue advancing.

Religion depends more upon free-thinking in the creative realms. Sure, we rationalize things even on minute [mi-noot] levels to explain away things. Luck is a perfect example of this. Mathematically, when some things occur as expected, based upon the probability of the odds... anything that happens against really probable events is termed "luck", be it good or bad.

Religion could loosely be seen in that light. Though I don't believe you can simply lump Allah, Yahweh and Buddha all into one little package and say we all worship the same one, you do have to note some similarities while still remembering there are differences. That could be the interpretation of 'followers'. Some folks will lump some things together because of a common thread, such as the following:

• Knights Hospitaller
• Knights Templar
• Knights of Aragon
• Knights of King Arthur

It could be a division of knightly order and/or mythology. And there are even some that will throw the Free Masons and Illuminati into that same grouping. These are the conspiracy theorists usually.

Religions are so open to interpretation that you have the same thing happening... different 'main branches', various 'sects' within branches and some rather unique irony. To illustrate the latter, saw a bus pass by on the highway one time that said "Jews for Jesus". We are all going to accept the parts of religion that make sense to us, that we will simply accept because it's too much effort to refute or that we do so to belong with the rest of the group.

There isn't anyone alive, in my opinion, that strictly adheres to Mosaic law or the Quoran. If they did, you would have to question whether they are zealots (extreme in that they follow it fully) or simple-minded fools that use that as a precedent for determining their actions while freeing them from having to make hard decisions. Either way, it is their lives and they have to live them through in the way they feel is best. Lack of tolerance isn't something that is really 'taught' by any religion, yet it seems one of the most hypocritical aspects of religion.

I say a mix of A, B, and C. I think people sat down one day and said, "Well, how did we get here? Someone must have created us." This idea came from hope that someone could guide them to do the right thing, and it was also based on events that seemed to be "miricles" and "signs".

Before people started learning about things, anything that couldn't be explained was a "sign" from God or Gods. Ancient Egyptians once thought that there was a God of fire, one of water, etc. because they didn't know what caused fire, water, etc. Now we know fire is a chemical reaction with oxygen that releases energy in the form of light and heat. But you can't expect people from thousands of years BCE to know that.

-IMP ;) :)

i know this may be blassformus in somes eyes but it could have been started as just a big con. Because you could imagine back then people taking things too far becasue there would have been no investigation into finding out the truth or proof against it

That's interesting. I never thought about it that way, but it could be. Someone wanted people to follow his beliefs, so he created God who he said created everything, and he told everyone that God said to do whatever that person wanted people to do. By combining his creation with facts in a book, people believed it, and by saying you go to Hell for eternal pain and suffering if you go against "God's will", people listened. Then it just got out of hand.

Nice theory, and it makes a lot of sense, too. Very possible.

-IMP ;) :)

I think that people started belief in God just because they wanted to. I think that they wanted badly to A) have something to believe in and B) have some power over others.
It being a "big con" is basically what I'm thinking too.

This sounds like it could be the actual way. Hey, it seems more logical than having some all-powerful being create everything. I think that is what happened.

Why do you believe that humans wanted/needed somthing to believe in?

because we're curious animals. we want to explain the unknown. people wanted to know what put us here, how we began etc. and to be honest without the science we have today, at the time the idea of a god seems the best option.

Exactly. It's human nature to want something to believe in, and to want to have something concrete to believe created everything (not that it is concrete :ph43r: ). People just took "God" because it was easier than coming up with a huge amount of theories etc., which is what science is doing today.

I guess it was a mix of all of those. It's hard for me to answer these kinds of questions.............