religion and fear of dying.

Post Reply New Topic

Was religion created because of our fear of dying?

yes.

There's plenty of evidence for this. For example, I'm pretty sure there's no religion that does not involve some kind of heaven, afterlife, or transfer of consciousness from one body to another upon death--in other words, all of them posit that death is not the end, which abolishes the fear of death.

It would explain why people adhere to religion so strongly. It, and the fact that religion gives a sense that some higher power is governing the universe, that we can ask it for help, that there are beings higher than ourselves who can be swayed to do our bidding given enough groveling, and will utterly destroy our lives (and possibly our afterlives) if we ignore/offend/dont believe in them. Of course, assuming that such higher beings existed, the notion that they behave as described above, noting our every thought, word, and action, is utterly ridiculous. We have the power to instantly destroy, or perhaps save, ants. Would we care whether the ants thought us good or evil, whether they built tiny shrine-hills with our names on them, making tiny, crumb-sized offerings to us, or whether they snuck up to our picnic baskets and stole our sandwhiches, a crumb at a time? At first, we might consider the ant-sized shrine and the offerings rather cute; we might become angry at the ants for stealing a corner of the crust off our sandwhiches, but after a while, would we not realize that the actions of these ants were rather insignificant?

Of course, if this higher being or these higher beings had nothing better to do than watch us tiny humans, then perhaps they would interact with us. Unlikely, but a possibility

But this is all still assuming that such higher beings exist. Personally, my belief is that the closest thing to higher , omnipotent beings we will ever encounter is a more advanced alien species. If we encounter one at all.

Religion was created to provide an explanation to things men could not find answers for and were afraid or or thanful for. Thats why the first Gods controlled natural phenomenon like sun, moon, lightning, etc. and of course death is one of the biggest mysteries of human kind. People do not want to die. We all want to think that there is something else once we die. So, yes, religion = fear.

Religion is a mixture of things, and it would likely depend on how you defined it and which religions. And within religions there are huge disagreements. Religions came about as they met any number of needs - ritual, comfort, explanatory, moral guidance, metaphor, social cohesion and political rebellion, and much else besides. That we are aware of our own mortality has obviously had some input.

By doing away with or dismissing religion, you only get away from some manifestations of inclinations which will - and do - come up elsewhere. Those inclinations will remain.