The earliest religions probably date back to the time when human beings became aware that they were aware, and recognise that other people were aware. It was then only a small step to suppose that other creatures were also aware. Looking into the eyes of a bear or a crow, it was not hard to imagine that ‘in there’ was another conscious being. The same it was assumed applied to plants, and natural phenomena such as rivers and mountains. They too had their own souls or spirits. The existence of such spirits explained many things to which early people had no easy answer: why rains fell, why volcanoes erupted, why people fell sick, why accidents happened. If a rock rolled down the mountain, injuring a member of the tribe, it was possibly because the spirit of the mountain was angry. So they might try to appease it in some way — make an offering perhaps, or pray for forgiveness. If we had grown up in one of these traditions, we would have taken various beliefs for reality. Its beliefs would have constituted the paradigm of our culture — not a scientific paradigm, but paradigm nevertheless — the worldview that shaped our perception of reality. Day-to-day experiences would have been understood within that framework. Any anomalous observations — offering sacrifices to the mountain did not always prevent rocks from falling on people — would be ignored, or incorporated in some way within the prevailing worldview.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Jul 2013 07:04:23 +0000
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