The Third post in the Lenten Series
If the existence of human life is a blip on the screen of the two billion year history of the planet, the existence of religion on this delicate planet is a tiny fraction of a second. It began about three hundred thousand years ago, although the major religions in the world today began only a few thousand years ago. Yet we humans still tend to think that what we believe is Absolute Truth and what others might believe is rubbish if it differs from what we believe.
Anything wrong with this picture?
Here is what AI has to say when asked about the origins of religious belief:
1. Evolutionary Roots (Pre-History)
Before organized religion, there were the biological and social building blocks of faith.
• Agency Detection: Humans evolved to assume “agency” (the idea that something is acting with intent). If a bush rustles, it’s safer to assume it’s a predator than just the wind. This “Hyperactive Agency Detection Device” likely led humans to attribute natural events (thunder, rain) to invisible spirits.
• Social Cohesion: As human groups grew larger, religion acted as a “social glue.” Shared myths and rituals created trust among strangers, allowing for larger, more stable tribes.
2. The Paleolithic Era: Animism and Ritual
The earliest evidence of religious thought dates back to the Middle Paleolithic (approx. 100,000 to 50,000 years ago).
• Burial Practices: Sites like Qafzeh in Israel show intentional burials with grave goods (beads, ochre, animal bones). This suggests a concept of an afterlife or a respect for the dead that transcends biology.
• Animism: Most scholars believe the earliest form of religion was Animism—the belief that animals, plants, and even rocks possess a spiritual essence.
• Cave Art: The paintings at Lascaux and Altamira (c. 30,000 years ago) often depict “Therianthropes” (half-human, half-animal figures), suggesting shamanic practices and a connection to a spirit world.
3. The Neolithic Revolution: From Spirits to Gods
Around 10,000 BCE, humans shifted from hunting and gathering to agriculture. This changed religion fundamentally.
Göbekli Tepe: Located in modern-day Turkey, this 11,000-year-old site is considered the “world’s first temple.” It was built before settled agriculture, suggesting that the desire to worship actually drove people to settle down, rather than the other way around.
The Rise of Hierarchies: As societies became more complex, so did their gods. Local spirits were replaced by powerful Deities who controlled the weather and harvests. This mirrored the new social structures of kings and subjects.
4. The Bronze Age: Organized Mythology
By 3,000 BCE, the invention of writing allowed myths to be standardized.
• Polytheism: In Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley, complex pantheons emerged. Gods became personified (like Ra or Enlil) with specific “jobs” and human-like personalities.
• State Religion: Religion became tied to the state. Pharaohs and Kings claimed they were either gods themselves or the primary intermediaries between the heavens and Earth.
5. The Axial Age (800–200 BCE)
This was a pivotal turning point in human history where “modern” religious thought began to emerge simultaneously across the globe. In India, the Upanishads and the rise of Buddhism and Jainism focusing on karma and the enlightenment. In China, Confucianism and Taoism, focusing on social ethics and the natural order. In the Middle East the shift toward Monotheism (Zoroastrianism and Second Temple Judaism.) And in Greece a more rational philosophy, which questioned traditional myth, leading to a more abstract view of the “Divine.”
I find it particularly interesting that AI does not have anything to say about the origins of the two major faiths that now comprise the belief of about half of the population in the world–Christianity and Islam. Perhaps this has to do with AI’s ego. I remember the story told by a friend when AI answered his question “Is there a God?” with the answer “Now there is.”
The question is where we are headed. What is the next chapter going to be? Christianity in the United States is in a state of turmoil with the decline of the Mainline Protestant churches, the growth of the “spiritual but not religious,” and the rise of the MAGA Movement politicizing many fundamentalist denominations into right wing supporters of Trump. The Catholic Church has been able to hold its own but only because of the growth of the immigrant Catholic population. Will the next chapter to be written decades from now be about the demise of traditional religions or about a spiritual revival?
My hope is that there will be less emphasis on orthodoxy or “correct belief” and more on the values that religions share along with more humility, more love, and more human kindness and the recognition of the Great Mystery that we humans on the planet experience, recognizing that we will never know all the answers.