The Origin of Religion

Beginnings
Religion= the response to the mysteries of life
that is organized, ritualized and agreed upon by
a group of people
Religio: something done with attention to
detail or fervor
v. Religare: to bind things closely together
Survival was key to early humans, so life and
death and the rituals around these were
important
 Shelter for survival vs. shelter for
worship
• Whatever was needed for
survival and protection
was of the utmost
importance
• Survival- physical
• Protection- Cultural

• When protection is
achieved, exploration
(both internal and
external) could be
undertaken
Deeper questions emerged

How did we get here?

What is our purpose?
What happens to us after death?
Stories were created
Passed on by word
of mouth
Sacred texts
Some purport to be
the revelations of
God and therefore
become authority
for many
 Systems are established
Worship of nature for survival

Attempts to find answers and

change outcomes for things
like:
Natural disasters
Scarcity of food
Death

Established rituals, prayers, and

ceremonies
Including feasts, silence,
fasting, sacraments and
others
 Characteristics of Ancient
Religions
Belief in spiritual realm- what are the gods like?
Close ties to geography
Prescientific worldview
Concern with survival
Systems of worship
Theology: religious belief and behavior
Scripture: religious story
 Terminology
Cosmologies: accounts of how the world began

Scripture: sacred texts (or stories) of a religion

Faith: what is affirmed in a religion is trustworthy

Ritual: the enacted language (actions of a religion) through

which human hopes and fears are articulated and renewed

Secularization: the breaking of or threat to metaphorical

boundaries in religion

Fundamentalism: the insistence that there are non-negotiables

in a religious tradition
Ancient Religions Assignment
• Choose one of the six religions of which to be a part of a
group
• Research the setting of this religion: time, place,
geography, and culture in which it thrived.
• Who/what are their gods?
• How does the religion answer questions of
creation, death, survival?
• What are some of the rituals? Why do they have
this in their theology?
• What/where is their scripture?

• Create or re-enact a ritual from this ancient religion. Half

your group will preform this task and the other half will
explain it.
• On your blog,
• include a picture and the written elements you
contributed to this presentation
• Your hypothesis about why this religion was so
central to the civilization at the time.