Many a times, people raise the question on the origin of religion; in addition, this question has fascinated philosophers as well as scientists throughout the centuries (Johnstone 21). Different religions have different practices of what they believe in and so the question remains; what is the origin of these practices.
Where did the notion that God exists come from? Due to these questions, many different answers have been given as a way of satisfying people’s curiosity. From my definition, religion is anything that a person relies on, which has pivotal value, whereby the person discovers indispensable wholeness as both an individual and person in the society. Nevertheless, religion can have numerous definitions particularly based on a person’s experience.
The emergence of Christianity gives the simplest answer as to where religion came from since it gives the answer that God came up with the idea of religion. Religious teachings, especially Christianity, record that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. He created a man, animals, and everything else in the world and while in the Garden of Eden, he instilled rules that he wanted people in the garden to follow.
He also revealed his intentions by using prophets to get his message across to the people, and through this process, they recorded his words. In this process, there emerged the creation of religion via revelation. Christianity is not the only religion where there is divine origin; for instance, the founder of Buddhism, Gautama Buddha, stated that he received heavenly inspiration in his search for the truth as he sat under the tree known as bo (Johnstone 23).
Therefore, he got his religious practices through revelation. In the Islamic religion, Muhammad reports to obtain visions in a cave close to Mecca from the angel Gabriel. Looking at all the aforementioned reports, it is easy to see a dominant belief that a certain divine power interceded leading to what we know today as religion.
The followers of religious leaders who recorded the supernatural revelations believed it to be true and so there was the emergence of a religious system (Johnstone 23). Therefore, in my opinion, these religious leaders played a key role in developing religious practices that people follow in the world we live in and this trend will continue for many centuries to come.
Religion at times comes out as science particularly in an environment where thought and language give people control. There is the use of tools, shelters built, seeds planted, and clothes made to keep the body warm. However, in the past, people could not explain what caused the rain to fall, what caused the sun to rise and even where human beings came from. Different communities had varied explanations for all these and many other questions; nevertheless, the principles continued to be the same.
According to Taylor, one god was responsible for pulling the sun with his chariot across the sky, while another made the wind to blow and many other explanations (94). Therefore, it is clear that people believed that gods had something to do with creating the universe as well as humanity. For quite a number of years, the analyses made concerning the world made a lot of sense as they could underscore the existing facts.
Religion had an explanation for the world and so for the ancestors, science was a religion. At times crops failed, people died, and there was answering of prayers and people could see all these occurrences as gods’ doing. On the other hand, after the passing of many years, philosophers started to understand that gods did not have anything to do with the events that happened, the world simply obeyed the already rules of nature (Royce 36).
Apart from social scientists who have tried to explain where religion came from, anthropologists and especially those in the 19th Century, came up with their own version of unraveling the mystery of the origin of religion.
In their belief, they have the notion that religion in a way came as a response to the various experience that people underwent in the world they lived (Johnstone 24). People went through mysterious, awesome, and horrifying events such as lighting, thunder, tidal waves, illness, death and many others and so they saw the need to know what caused those happenings, hence religious systems slowly came up.
From my perspective, I can see how this aspect led to the emergence of religion for people could not go through such traumatic events and not want to know the causes of the same. This realization explains the thinking of anthropologists such as Max Muller who represented the naturalistic school that put emphasis on the significance of nature’s physical acts like sunrises, storms, and tides. Anthropologist from the past believed that trees, rocks, people, and animals possessed spirits (Johnstone 25).
There exist psychological explanations with regard to identifying where religion came from. The explanation focuses on people’s emotional needs. It states that people are more likely to look for maintenance of emotional stability particularly when faced with danger, disruption, and insecurity (Johnstone 27).
They try to come up with answers as to why such bad things are happening to them and how they can fight against them in order to overcome, and at this point religion comes in because the rational mind cannot unravel the mysteries surrounding such issues.
Therefore, human beings look for divine intervention and look up to God to answer their prayers and show them the way to follow so that they can come out of the predicament they are in and look forward to a brighter future. In the Christian religion, the records hold that God loves everyone and whoever shall seek him will find him and this assurance underscores why God sent his only son so that he could die for the sake of mankind’s sins and relieve them of eternal punishment (Royce 63).
This aspect explains why many people who are having challenges think that they have done something wrong, hence the reason why God is punishing them. According to Sigmund Freud who is regarded as the “father of psychoanalysis”, religion comes entirely from the guilt that people feel after having done something wrong (Johnstone 28). Consequently, in his perspective, religion by definition is a mechanism that gives people room to sublimate most of the primitive instincts that they have, but society usually represses.
Looking at the sociological views that explain where religion came from, we go over the various explanations by diverse sociologists like Durkheim, Georg Simmel, Emile Durkheim, and Guy Swanson. According to Georg Simmel, faith has to exist in religion just as it is imperative in other human relationships.
Religious faith to a supreme being is crucial in our everyday today life (Johnstone 30). I agree with this assertion because, if people do not have faith in a supreme being, they are bound to lose hope in life especially when faced with seemingly insurmountable calamities. Having religious faith helps people to be in a position to believe even when one cannot see the Supreme Being and have trust that everything will work out favorably.
Despite the fact that the origins of religion for sure are not clear, speculation as well as research has however been successful. From chapter 2, it is clear that even though there are different suggestions as to where religion came from, it is clear that religion started a long time ago and it was build as a way of helping people to stay on the right path coupled with understanding some of the mysterious events that happen.
In my view, the psychological explanations stand out as I also believe and uphold the practices highlighted here. In most cases, people are going through challenging occurrences that they look for divine intervention to help them to sort out their issues. People have the belief that God helps people who help themselves, but I believe there are areas where people are unable to help themselves and so God has to intervene, and this area highlights the need for prayers, as they underscore the popular way of requesting assistance from God.
In addition to the aforementioned information, religion is also a way to enforce morality. People’s thinking capacity developed and so did their ego. Property and ego result to conflict and this explains why people kill each other in order to defend what is theirs. Uncontrolled egos on the other hand make people vulnerable and both of these aspects give way to moral decay. Therefore, religion came in as a way of underpinning morality.
Consequently, communities came up with moral codes, which are rules regarding life, sexual activities, as well as property. This aspect greatly helps people to put their behaviors in check. Different communities had different rules; however, there were some that remained the same; for example, do not steal, do not kill or do not commit adultery. Nevertheless, people are weak; therefore, the probability of breaking their own moral code is very high and so a strong community has to be present to ensure morality is enforced.
The strongest moral code however emanates from a supreme being because he lives forever and sees everything and has power over life and death; therefore, he commands the greatest respect. Identifying religion with morality has been happening for thousands of years such that many people believe there is no difference between the two. Religion in my opinion also came as a way of making communities to be united.
This move was extremely necessary particularly in a primitive world. Nevertheless, there was a time that religion turned to be very violent especially after the Islamic expansion almost 1400 years ago. There was no unification of communities especially in the 21st century and every religion blamed other religions for the violence (Royce 118).
Overall, religion from my perspective was a good thing to emerge as it definitely acted as guidance for all human beings across the world. Otherwise, without religion, people would be acting in any manner that pleases themselves oblivious or ignorant of the consequences. Being able to answer to a supreme being makes people to become humble and aware that there are grave repercussions to any evil deed they engage in (Taylor 123).
From the chapter, it is clear that religion serves the purpose of giving people answers to concerns and questions over destiny, purpose, and mystery coupled with offering support and comfort in times of bereavement, danger, and death among other eventualities. Religion is also important, as it is real unlike in magic where there is a creation of illusions and people get false hope.
Religion offers a safe haven for people who are in need of help and particularly divine intervention. From reading chapter 2, it is evident where religion came from irrespective of whether it is a theory or from scientific evidence.
All the information given allows us to realize that religion has come a long way to reach where it is today. It also makes us to realize the vital role played by religious leaders from the past who made it possible for people to believe in a supreme being and thus uphold to the rules and practices of religion that help in instilling morality amongst people.
Works Cited
Johnstone, Ronald. Religion in Society, A Sociology of Religion. 8th ed. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2007. Print.
Taylor, Justin. Where did Christianity come from? Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2001. Print.
Royce, Josiah. Sources of religious insight 1912. New York: Kessinger Publishing, 2003. Print.