The Path to Religion

 If I could only count the deities that exist in our world this very day, I'd consider myself having committed quite an achievement. Throughout the largest part of history, the human need to worship and explain the unknown has been perfectly clear, and evidently the only way to somehow give a logical explanation for the peculiar phenomena the average human faced every day; from the change of the climate, to the contemplation of how our race can exist. That changed briskly once science broadened people's consciousness and provided theories that explained ,through articulate language and sound observations, how we all came to be - however, this revolution only occurred after Darwin's contribution to biology. For the sake of being laconic, I'd like to state that even though the majority of scientists do not wish to absorb understanding of the world through religion, many of them still find religion engrossing, in the sense that it has accompanied humanity for such a long-term.

So how was religion conceived?

 Whilst reading an article on the Birth of Religion, I ,too, found the path to its beginning absorbing. At the very moment, two theories exist that aim to elaborate about how religion and civilisation gave birth to eachother - the first one stating how organised religion gives rise to farming and the later expressing quite the opposite; how farming could've given rise to organised religion. After deeply contemplating the issue I came to a safe conclusion : farming has given rise to organised religion.


 I think it's necessary to mention that I do not possess a University Degree, and thus you should not take my opinion as a correct scientific observation. I'm only a teenager, with a comparatively  limited knowledge of Science, History & Psychology.


 As the Ice Age ended in 9600 B.C. humans, then known as HUNTERS-TRAVELLERS responded to the warmer environment in a plethora of ways. The abundant vegetation, wild game, and more habitable climate led to the domestication of plants & animals, permanent settlements and thus agriculture. Agriculture, and this new form of harnessing the earth, soon gave rise to a practice that aimed to promote social cooperation.

 I can be positive that organised religion did not give rise to farming, because humans prioritise security and basic-life needs over belongingness and cognitive needs. A quick glance at Maslow's Hierarchy, a pyramid that aims to give an insight at the biological and psychological needs of a human marks my above statement, concerning needs, as correct.

 Religion, which has, quite noteworthy-ly survived natural selection has done so due to a certain usefulness of its nature: the ability to promote co-operation for a single cause and ensure hierarchy ; respect and obedience. The belief in a higher creature, alternatively referred to as deity, who has control over earthlings is enough to ensure a sense of obedience in the future and current generations. If religion has only been created to explain the natural changes in the natural world, it would've been discarded by now since better theories for explaining so exist in modern society. Religion is an ingenious system when it comes to ensuring compliance - sometimes referred to as "the off switch of the human mind" for a rather good reason.

 We can consider domestication as a natural response in order to ensure some of the basic life needs as presented above, in a changing climate, namedly nutrition, considered perhaps the most fundamental human need. Religion, however, is rated much more highly in Maslow's Hierarchy, as an ,as stated much above, a safety, belongingness and cognitive need. Humans, like all other biotic organisms, do have a wide spectrum of needs and therefore prioritise the ones that most directly affect them: found highlighted in red, at the bottom.

 And so, after human societies were able to provide them with all their essential needs did they move over to conceiving religion and thus completing their social system. The Hunter-Gatherer had,after all, become a Farmer.


 I want your perspective on the issue - am I right, or morbidly wrong? Is this an issue of interest for you, to the same degree it is for me? Leave a comment below.