Religion Based Beliefs As Strength

When did religion first appear among men? No definite answer can be given to the question. The origin of religion is veiled in mystery. There is a great deal of disagreement among thinkers on the subject. Some writers like David Hume, Max Muller, and Giddings claimed that religion as a creation of man was based on an illusion and that fear accounted for its origin in society.

Other thinkers, notable among who are Spencer and Tyler, contended that religion originated primarily in ghost fear and that animism lies at the very basis of all religion. According to them, the idea of the soul is central in religion. According to the noted British anthropologist Robert Ranulph Marett animism that is belief in impersonal power designated as mana which preceded animism should be regarded as underlying all religion.

W. Robertson Smith maintained that ancient religions consisted primarily of institutions and practices, that is of rites and ceremonies which are to be regarded the most elementary forms of religion. Durkheim also ascribed to this point. For him totemism is the very core out of which religion develops. He concluded in his book The Elementary Forms of the Religions Life that society  itself is the ultimate source to religion and thus arrived at sociological explanation of religion.

Sumner and Keller are of the opinion that religion arose in response to a definite need-adjustment to the supernatural or imaginary environment which appears just as real as the actual environment and adaptation to which is just as impelling. According to them had there been no aerator element, religion might not have come into existence.

The origin cannot be traced to a single source.  It cannot be placed on any single element-fear, belief in impersonal power, rites and ceremonies or response to a definite need. Neither will nor can emotion alone explain its origin. The beginning of religion is as old as the human consciousness. There is no primitive society which was without religion. And if religion is a universal phenomenon, it cannot be considered as an artificial state of human nature but as something permanently embedded in man’s psychology.

Galloway observes the fact that men everywhere and always have developed religion-for there is no evidence that any tribe or race has existed without its points to the truth that religion must have its root in human nature as expressed through rites and ceremonies.

No accident of environment or tenacity of tradition can account for what is constant and persistent; that which is universal in experience must be a genuine expression of man’s life.  Like other social institutions, religion also arose from the intellectual power of man in response to certain felt needs of man, or because of conditions accompanying his life on earth.