Rethinking Religion

INTRODUCTION

Every human society has an origin myth, the most fundamental story of all. These origin myths well up from a fountainhead of reflective consciousness, the inner voice that seeks explanations for everything. Ever since reflective consciousness burned brightly in the human mind, mythology and religion have been a part of human history. Even in this age of science, they probably will remain so.

All grand explorations of every possible religious belief coexist with deeply skeptical arguments, going back all the way to the middle of the second millennium BC. The so-called ‘song of creation’ in the authoritative Vedas ends with the following radical doubts:

Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it? Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation? The God came afterwards, with the creation of this universe. Who then knows whence it has arisen?

Whence this creation has arisen – perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not – the one who looks down on it, in the highest heaven, only he knows – or perhaps he does not know.

This project traces the evolution of Primitive Religion and how it inspired the major religions across the world. Underlying hypothesis is religion will disappear as function of modernization.

GODS OF THE PRIMITIVE RELIGION

Primitive religion is a name given to the religious beliefs and practices of those traditional, often isolated, preliterate cultures which have not developed urban and technologically sophisticated forms of society. The term is misleading in suggesting that the religions of those peoples are somehow less complex than the religions of "advanced" societies. In fact, research carried out among the indigenous peoples of Oceania, the Americas, and sub Saharan Africa have revealed rich and very complex religions, which organize the smallest details of the people's lives.

The religions of archaic cultures - the cultures of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic ages - are also referred to as primitive....