Origins of Religion

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I consider religion to be humanity's greatest invention. It is a means of explaining one of our basic human instincts, spirituality. That is the inherent feeling that there is something greater than ourselves.

Through research it has been determined that mankind has endured many stages in our development as well as our beliefs. We learned that in our beginnings we existed in a state of Oneness with nature called Animism. After that we became polytheistic meaning to have many gods.

Thousands of years onward we accepted a monotheistic (one god) view. But as we began to gain knowledge of the ways of nature and realized that we could manipulate certain aspects of it we came up with the theory of Evolution (survival of the fittest). Unfortunately the concept of Evolution did not knock out Monotheism but rather it sparked bitter dispute between the Church and Science.

Fast forward to the new millennium and a new theory has emerged that takes a little from all the previous concepts and goes by the name of Spontaneous Evolution. I will explain what it's about but first I will revisit the rest.

Animism
It is believed that Man has always had the instinctual idea that he and everything that exists in nature around him has a life force or spirit. Plants, animals, and even the river and the sea were believed to have a spirit. For instance, the indigenous people of the lands believed that in order to catch an animal you had to first appeal to its spirit. To catch fish you not only had to appeal to the spirit of the fish but also the spirit of river and so on. Early Man strived to live in harmony with nature never taking more than they need in order to maintain the balance. They considered their role to be that of a caretaker that tended the garden.

Polytheism
Logically as time went on we began to ponder the question of "How and why are we here". We developed many polytheistic beliefs according to our separate cultures. Some well-known polytheistic religions include the Sumerian gods and the Egyptian gods, and those of the Ancient Greek and Roman Religions. Most of the beliefs were based on the assumption that we must of been "Created" by gods who live in the heavens above and out of our sight and reach to serve out an ordained purpose here on earth. Some gods were more powerful than others while in most cases the most powerful represented the sun, moon, and earth.

Monotheism
With the introduction of the one god and one creation concept the world entered on a path toward modern civilization. Monotheism was first introduced in ancient Israel with the adoption of Yahweh (God) as the single object of worship and the rejection of the gods of other tribes and nations without, initially denying their existence. Following the death of Jesus and believing that his message was not exclusive to the Jews Jesus followers adopted and spread his message thought the late Roman Empire then the Latin and British empires.


The Arab world adapted monotheism through the writings of the prophet Mohammad who preached that this one god was also not exclusive to the Jews. His book The Holy Quran became the bases for the Islamic religion. Followers became known as Muslims. Today Monotheism is practiced by the majority of the earth’s population and is characteristic of the three major religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well as many others. All of them view the same God as the creator of the world, who oversees and intervenes in all human events.

Evolution
By the 17th century the Kings and ruling classes of Europe and the Middle East thought they had a monopoly on a life of luxury by keeping the masses subservient through the authority of the scriptures. Then in the mid 1800's there appeared another concept so profound that it could not be ignored or squashed. Born out of mans continued curiosity and his experiments with nature man began to think that if he could manipulate plants and animals by cross breeding them to create new species then maybe we came to exist by the chance of nature and time.

The theory of Evolution was made popular through the publishing of the book (On the Origin of Species) by the Botanist and explorer Charles Darwin. The theory suggests that species always change and get better over time according to their ability to adapt to changes in the environment in which they live. Furthermore two major mechanisms determine which variants will become more common or rare in a species.

One is natural selection, a process that causes helpful traits (those that increase the chance of survival and reproduction) to become more common in a population and causes harmful traits to become more rare. This occurs because individuals with advantageous traits are more likely to reproduce, meaning that more individuals in the next generation will inherit these traits. Over many generations, adaptations occur through a combination of successive, small, random changes in traits, and natural selection of the variants best-suited for their environment.

The other major mechanism driving evolution is genetic drift, an independent process that produces random changes in the frequency of traits in a population. Genetic drift results from the role that chance plays in whether a given trait will be passed on as individuals survive and reproduce.

Spontaneous Evolution
2010 is here and it is quite evident that humanity as a collective has reached a period of global crisis. World population is almost at a critical mass, our food sources are dwindling, and our natural resources are running out. The world seems poised for major catastrophe but can we be saved? According to pioneering biologist Bruce H. Lipton, it's not only possible, it's already occurring. In his theory of Spontaneous Evolution, this world-renowned expert in the emerging science of epigenetic reveals how our changing understanding of biology will help us navigate this turbulent period in our planet's history and how each of us can participate in this global shift.

Instead of far fetched theories about Aliens from other planets or sub-terrain beings Lipton boldly suggests that God is Mother Nature and her only goal is balance. Through his work in molecular biology and his insights into the workings of Cells and living organisms he borrows from the theory of Evolution and goes further.

Lipton suggests that nature is not about survival or the fittest but about adaptation in order to bring about balance. He also returns to the ides that man is the caretaker of that balance since we are the only species that is able to recognize and possibly help Mother Nature to maintain its balance.

Discovering God: The Origins of the Great Religions and the Evolution of BeliefThe Religion of the Samurai A Study of Zen Philosophy and Discipline in China and JapanReligion ExplainedAFRICAN ORIGINS SERIES Class 18: Ancient Egyptian/African Origins of Western religions (Judaism/ChriThe Hidden Truth: Revealing the Ancient Origins of Modern Religions [VHS]