When and why did religion begin? Brief history of the emergence of religions
Science does not know a people who are completely unfamiliar with religion. Early forms of religious belief were very primitive. The most ancient people were characterized by some magical and totemic beliefs.
Magical beliefs are understood as ideas about a person’s ability to supernaturally influence other people and nature.
Totemism consists of the belief in a supernatural relationship between a group of people, on the one hand, and a certain species of animal or plant, on the other.
The culture of some peoples is characterized by shamanism - the idea that a person can, having brought himself to a state of ecstasy, communicate with spirits and use their power for healing, causing rain and other purposes.
A developed tribal community is also characterized by fetishism - the veneration of inanimate material objects; and animatism - belief in some impersonal force dispersed throughout nature.
One of the oldest religions is Judaism. Its beginnings date back to the 2nd millennium BC, when the ancient Jews were a nomadic people.
The main tenets of Judaism include belief in the one god Yahweh, in the coming of the Messiah - a savior who will come to carry out righteous judgment, to reward people according to their deserts - in the immortality of the soul and the existence of an afterlife. The sacred book of Judaism is the Tanakh, identical to the Christian Old Testament. The Talmud, which provides an interpretation of the religious, ethical, legal and everyday instructions contained in the Tanakh, is also recognized.
Some instructions of the Talmud are as follows: “Do not forgive yourself, and then it will be easy to forgive others,” “Whoever pursues fame, glory flees from him, but whoever avoids it, it follows,” “I learned a lot from my mentors, more more so from his comrades, but most of all from his students.”
The ethical standards of Judaism are the commandments of Moses. There are 613 biblical-Talmudic prescriptions regulating the life of Jews. Judaizers observe the rite of circumcision, fasting, and regulations regarding lawful (kosher) and unlawful (tref) food. In addition to the Torah, which pursues the goal of moral improvement of a person, Jews revere Halakha - regulations governing religious, family and civil life, and Haggadah - a book of fairy tales, parables, myths, fairy tales, fables and proverbs.
In the first centuries of the 1st millennium BC. Zoroastrianism arose in Western Asia. This religion arose in an atmosphere of intense hostility between neighboring agricultural and pastoral tribes. It is based on the position of the confrontation between light and dark principles. The good beginning is personified by Ahura Mazda - the creator of the sky, earth, man, useful animals, etc. The personification of the evil principle is Angra Mainyu, the fruits of whose creativity are harmful to people - desert, disease, death, harmful animals. The sacred book of the Zoroastrians is the Avesta, which is attributed to Zoroaster. Zoroastrians revere fire and attribute cleansing power to it, which is why they are called fire worshipers. They have a very specific attitude towards human corpses, considering them something unclean. Zoroastrians do not bury their dead in the ground or cremate them, but bury them in special “towers of silence,” where the corpses placed in niches are eaten by birds of prey. Zoroastrians believe in an afterlife and have an idea of the imminent end of the world.
Zoroastrianism became the state religion of Ancient Persia and spread widely in the territories it conquered - Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Central Asia, etc. However, the boundaries of Zoroastrianism narrowed thanks to the Arab conquests in the seventh century.
Hinduism is not a single religion, but a collection of religious systems, which are characterized by the absence of governing bodies, although they have temples. Among the deities, the following stand out: the guardian god Vishnu, the destroyer and creator god Shiva. The following positions occupy an important place in Hinduism:
About dharma - the order of life established for each caste;
About karma - the reward that a person receives depending on the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of dharma;
About rebirth - the incarnation of a person’s soul into one or another bodily shell in accordance with the principle of karma.
If a person has led a righteous life, his soul can incarnate into the body of a representative of a higher caste or even into the body of a celestial being. If the dharma is not fulfilled, the soul is in danger of being embodied in the body of a person occupying a lower class and caste position, an animal or a plant. In Hinduism, there are provisions about ahimsa (non-causing harm), avatar (the possibility of God incarnating in another supernatural being, human or animal).
In the VI-V centuries BC. In China, two very different philosophical teachings containing religious elements arose: Taoism and Confucianism.
Taoism, created on the basis of the philosophical teachings of Lao Tzu, considers the basis of the origin, change and end of all things to be Tao. Taoism has a large priesthood that engages in fortune telling, performing magical rituals, trading in amulets, etc. The senior Taoist priest is considered the “tianshi” (Taoist pope).
Confucianism, created on the basis of the teachings of Kong Tzu, has no priesthood. Religious rites are performed by heads of families and elders of clans. One of the main provisions is the requirement of unconditional submission to a superior, senior authority. The sky is revered as the supreme deity; Confucius himself, his disciples and faithful followers are also deified. They believe in the afterlife of souls and sacrifices are made to appease them.
Which world religion appeared earlier than others?
Before answering this question, it is necessary to clearly outline why, among many different religions, only a few have been awarded the status of world ones, and what their differences are. Today there are more than twenty thousand different faiths, religious movements and sects on the globe.
As for world religions, there are only three of them. Surely their names are familiar to everyone: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. And they are distinguished by their scale: they are professed all over the world, regardless of political, national and cultural factors. Indeed, real Christians can be found both in developed European countries and in abandoned settlements in Africa. The same cannot be said about Shintoism or, say, Judaism, whose influence is limited to a certain territory. Contrary to popular belief, the world's oldest religion is not Hinduism, which arose in the 15th century. BC, and not even paganism, which appeared even earlier. This proud title is borne by Buddhism, which arose much later, but quickly spread throughout the planet and influenced the development of many cultures. Each world religion is unique and has a number of specific features, which we will discuss below.
Buddhism
It supposedly arose in the 6th century BC. on the territory of modern India. Its founder is Siddhartha Buddha Gautama, an Indian prince who preferred the path of a hermit to a measured, luxurious life. By the age of 35, he achieved enlightenment and began to preach his teachings. All life, in his opinion, from birth to death,
permeated with the spirit of suffering, and the reason for this is the person himself. The path to liberation from suffering, or the Noble Eightfold Middle Path, lies through the renunciation of earthly passions and pleasures. Only with the help of meditation and constant self-control, as the Buddha teaches, is it possible to achieve a state of harmony - nirvana. Today, this world religion is widespread in the southeastern, eastern, central regions of Asia, as well as in the Far East. The number of Buddhist followers around the world reaches 500 million people.
Christianity
This world religion originated about 2 thousand years ago on the territory of modern Palestine, which at that time was one of the provinces of the Holy Roman Empire. Christianity preached love for one's neighbor, mercy and non-resistance to evil, which made it unlike the cruel pagan rituals. Despite the persecution of followers of the “religion of slaves and the humiliated,” the teachings of Christ very quickly spread throughout the Eurasian continent. Over time, the united Church was divided into many movements: Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism and various Eastern confessions.
Islam
It is not the earliest world religion, but it currently ranks first in terms of the number of adherents (more than 1 billion people). The official date of its origin is known - 610 AD, it was then that the first verses of the Koran were given to the Prophet Muhammad. By the end of his life, Islam was practiced throughout the Arab Peninsula. The popularity of this young religion is explained by the traditionally high birth rate in Muslim families, where very strict rules reign and immoral behavior is not allowed.
The Origin of Primitive Religions
Simplest forms religious beliefs existed already 40 thousand years ago. It was at this time that the appearance of the modern type (homo sapiens) dates back, which differed significantly from its supposed predecessors in physical structure, physiological and psychological characteristics. But his most important difference was that he was a reasonable person, capable of abstract thinking.
The existence of religious beliefs in this remote period of human history is evidenced by the burial practices of primitive people. Archaeologists have established that they were buried in specially prepared places. At the same time, certain rituals were previously carried out to prepare the dead for the afterlife. Their bodies were covered with a layer of ocher, weapons, household items, jewelry, etc. were placed next to them. Obviously, at that time religious and magical ideas were already taking shape that the deceased continues to live, that Along with the real world there is another world where the dead live.
Religious beliefs of primitive man reflected in the works rock and cave paintings, which were discovered in the 19th-20th centuries. in Southern France and Northern Italy. Most ancient rock paintings are scenes of hunting, images of people and animals. Analysis of the drawings allowed scientists to conclude that primitive man believed in a special kind of connection between people and animals, as well as in the ability to influence the behavior of animals using some magical techniques.
Finally, it was found that among primitive people there was widespread veneration of various objects that were supposed to bring good luck and ward off danger.
Nature Worship
Religious beliefs and cults of primitive people developed gradually. The primary form of religion was the worship of nature. The primitive peoples did not know the concept of “nature”; the object of their worship was the impersonal natural force, designated by the concept of “mana”.
Totemism
Totemism should be considered an early form of religious views.
Totemism- belief in a fantastic, supernatural relationship between a tribe or clan and a totem (plant, animal, object).
Totemism is the belief in the existence of a family connection between a group of people (tribe, clan) and a certain species of animals or plants. Totemism was the first form of awareness of the unity of the human collective and its connection with the outside world. The life of the clan was closely connected with certain types of animals that its members hunted.
Subsequently, within the framework of totemism, a whole system of prohibitions arose, which were called taboo. They represented an important mechanism for regulating social relations. Thus, the gender and age taboo excluded sexual relations between close relatives. Food taboos strictly regulated the nature of the food that was supposed to go to the leader, warriors, women, old people and children. A number of other taboos were intended to guarantee the inviolability of the home or hearth, regulate the rules of burial, and fix positions in the group, the rights and responsibilities of members of the primitive collective.
Magic
Magic is one of the earliest forms of religion.
Magic- the belief that a person has supernatural power, which is manifested in magical rituals.
Magic is a belief that arose among primitive people in the ability to influence any natural phenomena through certain symbolic actions (incantations, spells, etc.).
Having originated in ancient times, magic was preserved and continued to develop over many millennia. If initially magical ideas and rituals were of a general nature, then gradually their differentiation occurred. Modern experts classify magic according to the methods and purposes of influence.
Types of magic
Types of magic by methods of influence:
- contact (direct contact of the bearer of magical power with the object at which the action is directed), initial (magical act directed at an object that is inaccessible to the subject of magical activity);
- partial (indirect influence through cut hair, legs, leftover food, which in one way or another reaches the owner of the mating power);
- imitative (impact on some semblance of a specific subject).
Types of magic socially oriented and impact goals:
- harmful (causing damage);
- military (a system of rituals aimed at ensuring victory over the enemy);
- love (aimed at invoking or destroying sexual desire: lapel, love spell);
- medicinal;
- commercial (aimed at achieving success in the process of hunting or fishing);
- meteorological (weather changes in the desired direction);
Magic is sometimes called primitive science or pre-science because it contained elementary knowledge about the surrounding world and natural phenomena.
Fetishism
Among primitive people, the veneration of various objects that were supposed to bring good luck and ward off danger was of particular importance. This form of religious belief is called "fetishism".
Fetishism- the belief that a certain object has supernatural powers.
Any object that captured a person’s imagination could become a fetish: a stone of an unusual shape, a piece of wood, an animal skull, a metal or clay product. This object was attributed properties that were not inherent to it (the ability to heal, protect from danger, help in hunting, etc.).
Most often, the object that became a fetish was chosen by trial and error. If after this choice a person managed to achieve success in practical activities, he believed that the fetish helped him in this, and kept it for himself. If a person suffered any misfortune, then the fetish was thrown out, destroyed or replaced by another. This treatment of fetishes suggests that primitive people did not always treat the object they chose with due respect.
Animism
Speaking about early forms of religion, one cannot fail to mention Obanimism.
Animism- belief in the existence of souls and spirits.
Being at a fairly low level of development, primitive people tried to find protection from various diseases and natural disasters, endowing nature and surrounding objects on which existence depended with supernatural powers and worshiping them, personifying them as the spirits of these objects.
It was believed that all natural phenomena, objects and people have a soul. Souls could be evil and benevolent. Sacrifice was practiced in favor of these spirits. Belief in spirits and the existence of the soul continues in all modern religions.
Animistic beliefs are a very significant part of almost everyone. Belief in spirits, evil spirits, an immortal soul - all these are modifications of the animistic ideas of the primitive era. The same can be said of other early forms of religious belief. Some of them were assimilated by the religions that replaced them, others were pushed into the sphere of everyday superstitions and prejudices.
Shamanism
Shamanism- the belief that an individual (shaman) has supernatural abilities.
Shamanism arises at a later stage of development, when people with a special social status appear. Shamans were the keepers of information that was of great importance for a given clan or tribe. The shaman performed a ritual called ritual (a ritual with dances and songs, during which the shaman communicated with spirits). During the ritual, the shaman allegedly received instructions from the spirits about ways to solve a problem or treat the sick.
Elements of shamanism are present in modern religions. For example, priests are credited with a special power that allows them to turn to God.
In the early stages of the development of society, primitive forms of religious beliefs did not exist in their pure form. They intertwined with each other in the most bizarre way. Therefore, it is hardly possible to raise the question of which form arose earlier and which later.
The considered forms of religious beliefs can be found among all peoples at the primitive stage of development. As social life becomes more complex, forms of cult become more diverse and require closer study.
Religion in its development has gone through a long and difficult path of formation. Of course, the basis for the emergence of man’s very first religious beliefs were the natural instincts inherent in him, first of all, the instinct of self-preservation. Primitive religions capture people's fantastic awareness of their dependence on natural forces. Since the level of development was still low, a person, without separating himself from nature, transfers onto it the relationships that develop in the primitive community (consanguineous ties, early birth ties, gender relations, powerlessness over illness, the death of a member of the clan community, threatening its integrity and well-being, intertribal discord). The object of religious perception is precisely those natural phenomena with which a person is connected in his daily practical activities, which are of vital importance to him.
Excavations of ancient human burials, dating back to 80-40 thousand years ago, indicate that people had not yet thought about the existence of some other world than the one they saw around them (there are no things for life in the graves).
In burials made 30-10 thousand years ago, weapons, household items, jewelry, fruits already appear; the bodies of the dead were covered with red paint - ocher, which indicates a person’s thoughts about the possibility of life after death. He began to view death as a long sleep, after which a person will wake up, and he may need everyday items.
Ancient forms of religion
It should be noted that the ancient beliefs did not appear in a strict order, one based on the other, but they are related to each other in a complex pattern, so I think it is wise to consider each form of religion separately.
Totemism- one of the early forms of religion, which is based on the belief in the existence of a special kind of mystical connection between a group of people (tribe, clan) and a certain type of animal or plant (less often - natural phenomena and inanimate objects). researchers stable linguistic turns. Later, elements of social, primarily blood-kinship, relationships were introduced into totemism.
In its purest and most convenient form for research, totemism was discovered among the Indians of North America, the aborigines of Australia, and the indigenous inhabitants of Central and South Africa.
Animism One of the common beliefs and related symbolic actions of primitive man is animism (from Latin anima - spirit, soul) - belief in the existence of spirits and souls. The term animism was introduced by the English ethnographer E. Tylor. He believed that animism is the original, elementary form of religion, which then developed into more complex religious ideas and actions.
The essence of animism is the recognition of an independent force, capable of existing separately from humans, animals, plants, or beings capable of connecting with them and leaving them.
The earliest form of animism is the belief in spirits. The world of primitive man is inhabited by these spirits. Ethnographers tend to explain the appearance of this world of spirits by completely natural reasons. The appearance of this world is due, in their opinion, to a peculiar interpretation by primitive man of a number of optical and acoustic phenomena: shadows, echoes, reflections, noises, the reality of which he had no reason to doubt, since their existence was evidenced by his sensory perceptions.
Fetishism. In magic, specific actions of people are endowed with mysterious power. But primitive people also believed that specific objects - fetishes (from the Portuguese feitico - amulet, magical thing) could be carriers of this mysterious power. The object of worship could be any object that captured a person’s imagination: an unusual stone, a piece of wood, an animal tooth, a skillfully made figurine, a piece of jewelry.
One type of fetishism is idolatry. An idol is a material object given the form of a person or an animal. This item is endowed with a mysterious power of influence.
19 Religion of ancient Greece and ancient Rome. At first, the ancient Romans were pagans, worshiping mainly Greek and to a lesser extent Etruscan gods. Later, the mythological period gave way to an active passion for pagan cults. Finally, to complete the evolution of religious ideas, Christianity won a victory in Ancient Rome for political reasons, which in the 4th century, after the division of the Roman Empire into Western and Eastern, took on the concrete contours of Catholicism.
Roman prayers were devoid of ecstasy and admiration. For the Romans it was superstitio. In relation to the gods, as in relation to one’s family, as well as in relation to the entire community, it was necessary to observe loyalty and piety, expressed by the word pietas. The Roman religion did not have certain ethical standards. The main thing is the strict implementation of rituals and compliance with all prohibitions. Subsequently (in the 1st century BC and later), Roman writers derived the word religio from the verb religare, which means to bind, tie.
Christianity At the beginning of the new era in Ancient Rome, Christianity became increasingly widespread. It has come a long way before it became a world religion and the spiritual basis of European culture. Christianity originated in the 1st century. n. e., which we count from the Nativity of Christ, and were initially formed in the bosom of Judaism, as one of its sects. But the content of the sermon of Jesus of Nazareth went far beyond the national religion of the ancient Jews. It was this universal meaning of Christianity that made Jesus the Christ (Savior, Messiah) in the eyes of millions of people who find the semantic basis of their lives in the Christian faith.
The Roman authorities long persecuted the early Christians, but almost four centuries later, thanks to the Emperor Constantine, it became the state religion of the Roman Empire, bringing with it not only a new worldview, but also a new art to its culture.
Among the ancient Greeks, the cult of ancestors occupied a large place. The Greeks believed that the dead could harm living people; and to prevent this from happening, they need to be appeased, i.e. make sacrifices. Failure to bury ashes (absence of burial) was considered especially unacceptable. There was an idea about the kingdom of the dead, Hades. In Hades, dead people were divided into sinners and righteous people; sinners ended up in Tartarus (a kind of hell). The doctrine of posthumous existence was called Orphism (named after the ancient Greek hero who visited the world of the dead).
The performance of rituals was of great importance; there were state cults. These cults were carried out periodically, as well as to commemorate particularly significant events (disasters, victories, etc.).
In the VI century. BC. a holiday was established - “Great Panathenaea” in honor of the goddess Athena. The Acropolis was built for this holiday. The ritual was performed once every four years in July-August and lasted five days. First there were night celebrations and demonstrations. Then sacrifices were made.
There were various religious communities in Ancient Greece. The basis of religious life was the family. Families were united into phratries, phratries were united into phylas (primarily on professional grounds). There were also sects - secret organizations that gathered around the leader.
Scientists agree that the beginnings of modern religion could have appeared about one hundred thousand years ago. This fact is confirmed by numerous archaeological finds, as well as those rock paintings that were made by primitive man. Not understanding the essence of many natural phenomena, our ancestors classified them as supernatural. The sun, moon, wind, lightning, fire, thunder, rain, animals, rivers, sea and ocean, in their deep conviction, were of divine origin, which means they needed to be worshiped. For the same reason, people considered the bear and the wolf to be their ancestors, and therefore they were honored and made sacrifices to them. Only in this case could they be favorable to people. If a person fell ill, it was believed that his soul was possessed by evil spirits, and to expel them one must turn to the Gods for help.
Man learned about the world through a process of long evolution. He learned to make fire, tamed animals, mastered the science of agriculture, created tools, etc. But all this did not happen at once. The Universe was reluctant to reveal its secrets to man. And although modern science has been able to explain most natural phenomena, the same mystery of the origin of life remains unsolved to this day. There are only various hypotheses on this score, and nothing more. Well, everything that cannot be explained is attributed by man to higher, divine powers. This is how religion appears, which gives its answers to many questions that interest people.
But let's return to our ancestors, who lived in incredibly difficult conditions. They did not understand why the river that gave them food suddenly overflowed its banks and flooded their home, why a hurricane destroyed grain crops, why hail fell in the summer. They did not understand the cause of the forest fires. They believed that in this way the Gods were punishing them for their sins. It was helplessness and ignorance of the essence of what was happening that made a person believe in supernatural forces, which ultimately led to the emergence of religion. People turn to the Gods with prayer and request, believing that they will be able to protect them from evil spirits and dark forces
It is for this reason that such religious movements as fetishism, magic, witchcraft, and totemism appeared. They are based on the possibility of the existence of a person’s soul separately from his body. Well, if so, then the path to immortality is open to man.
And so, we came to the conclusion that religion owes its emergence to a lack of understanding of the essence of the processes taking place, and to the powerlessness of man before nature. This happened at the moment when people began to think abstractly. In the process of various reasoning and speculation, they came up with explanations for certain natural phenomena, which, of course, were far from reality. This is how man, without realizing it, created for himself a world of supernatural beings endowed with mythical power, capable of ruling the world. He believed that spirits, Gods, and dark forces really exist. Well, if so, then they need to be worshiped. After all, they can both help a person and bring trouble to him. And although there is nothing wrong with modern religion, it affects a person’s consciousness and prevents him from understanding the world. And it’s all due to fear of Nature and the processes occurring in it.
It was religion that instilled in the human soul faith in Gods and spirits. Over time, all this transforms and changes. Just as people began to be divided into rich and poor, spirits also began to be divided into strong and weak. As a result, various religious movements sprout from the main religion, which interpret certain natural phenomena in their own way. And although many religious concepts have received scientific explanation over time, most human misconceptions are still of a religious nature. So it turns out that religion becomes necessary for a person only when it gives him answers to pressing questions concerning the foundations of the universe, and only if a person needs such explanations.
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