Beyond Religion: Will Human Beings Ever Transcend the Need for Religions?

[Waking Times]: Have human beings always been religious? It depends on what you mean by ‘religion.’ There is evidence that earlier human beings (and many of the world’s indigenous peoples) were not religious in the sense we normally understand it. Most indigenous groups–at least before colonization and conquest–did not have concepts of gods who looked over the world and intervened in human affairs. Rather, indigenous groups tend to be animistic or pantheistic. 

They tend to conceive of an impersonal spiritual force which pervades all things (a good example of this is the concept of a ‘Great Spirit’ or ‘Great Mystery’ conceived of by some Native American groups). At the same time, they usually believe in individual “spirits” (which are conceived of as vapors or forces, rather as personal beings) that inhabit the world around them.

Religion as we know it seems to be associated with the development of agriculture, and of the first settlements. It also seems to be linked to what we normally think of as ‘civilization’ – technological advances, hierarchical social arrangements, and warfare. Since then, however, religion has been indelibly linked with human societies. From polytheistic societies such as the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians and the ancient Greeks and Romans to the ‘Abrahamic’ religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

So why did religion come into being? Some evolutionary psychologists suggest that religion has been ‘selected’ as a trait by evolution because it has survival value – it creates social cohesion and group identity. This seems feasible, but the fact that earlier human groups didn’t have religion in the normal sense of the term seems to undermine the argument.

Another theory is that religion was necessary because of its explanatory function. In the absence of scientific understanding, religions offered ways of explaining the workings of nature and the random events of human life. It wasn’t possible to explain how the world came into being, or how living beings evolved, so it was necessary to believe that God created everything. Death and illness could be caused by the will of God; winds and storms could be caused weather gods.

Some atheists have predicted the ‘end of religion.’ They believe that now that science has offered more rational explanations of the world, religion is no longer necessary. In theory, at least, human beings should be able to dispense with supernatural explanations. This also fits with the idea that religion is a kind of ‘virus’ which infects people’s mind, spreading to children from their parents, and to individuals via their larger community. According to this, we might be able to wipe out the virus of religion through education and exposure to scientific facts....<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>....