The Origin of All Religion

 


I binge-watch too much of Mormon Stories Podcast because there are discussions of religion I don't see other places. I'm watching an episode now interviewing an anthropologist who goes over all the territory I've traveled before but in an engaging way. At the risk of misquoting or misstating, he says this:

1. All religions from prehistory were verbal. Nothing was written except surviving drawings.

2. All religions were based on the interplay between growing food, mostly corn, and the sun. The sun, the plants and the animals held spiritual powers. 

3. Religions were passed down to the next generation by learning rituals which were practiced at various periods of sunshine. The sun, sky and crops held all religious ideas, they were the "Bible." Religions were not about prayers and scripture, they were about rituals.

4. The written word did not come along until about 6,000 BCE. Any claims of written or recorded text before then could not have happened. 

5. All religions are based on previous ones passed down. Changes in weather, travel, animals and crops caused innovations and adaptations.

6. Nearly all religions had several gods. The Israelites had many, the Bible complains about that. The one-god of Israel was and remains unusual.

When the written word came along with scribes and later printing presses religions became different. They changed from being about rituals related to seasons and crops to ideas about sin, behavior, life after death and so on. Religion about "the book" is an entirely different religion than ones passed along orally and through rituals. 

This link is a long video but, I think, well worth the time. 

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