The origin of the idea of "God".

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I have been interested in where this idea of a "God" comes from.

Across the entire world, a large number of people have a belief in a God of one form or another. This appears to have been the case for most of human history. Taking an anthropology angle, in that we originated from Africa, then over the past 100,000 years spread out via the middle east to populate the whole world, I would like to discuss the origin of this notion of a god.

God is most often referred to as "an all-powerful being", and people seem to believe god is our "saviour", "creator", and that ultimately we will all meet "God" upon our deaths.

Looking at ancient history and early civilisation, the people of the time are said to have worshiped a "Sun God" or often gave their gods attributes of the sun, and stars and moon etc.

Assuming that ideas are generated from existing ideas, and beliefs are modified and redefined as time moves on, is it reasonable to state that the idea of a "God" has stemmed from the regard our distant ancestors had of the sun?

Alternatively, Sigmond Freud argues that it is a pshycological consequence of having parents, in that a child's first experience in the world is that there are authority figures that rule his/her life, and so once an adult there is a strong foundation in the brain for a need for an authority figure.

Others believe the gods were aliens. And of course many think that the idea is there because there actually is a God, and some claim to have experienced the God.

What do people think?

there is the alternative of an actual physical neurology that explains god, the god spot and its related functions.

to me the real problem is the imits of human perception and the insecurity it brings.
even what someone sees aint neccesarily whats actually happened, the brain doesnt really record as a computer does.

The pre-historic people did not invent the idea of god/gods to worship. They had a god/gods to answer the question" how did we get here?".
They wanted an explanation for everything. The only thing that could possible explain this is a spiritual force.

Worship came latter. It is because of superstition. Certain cultures began to think that this spiritual force is much more powerful than humans.
They began to fear the gods they created. They worshiped the god thinking it would help them.

There is no way of telling for certain because religion was developed before recorded history.

God is intuitive, that's what I've seen from personal experience. Must be a result/byproduct of the evolution of our brains.

People typically can't conceive of the Universe in general, and human beings in particular, existing without intrinsic purpose. In addition, most seem to have a need to feel some sense of control over their environment. They require an explanation for why "bad things happen to good people," and belief in god(s) provides this. It also usually gives one "tools" with which to combat these "bad things," e.g., prayer.

I heard of this God gene. It sounds like it would be an easy way to confirm once and for all that there is a god, or whether the theory of a god gene is true or not. Take a religious person with this gene and clone them, but in the process remove that gene. If the clone does not believe in god that may support the existence of god and the theory of the gene. Or clone an atheist and insert that gene and see if they turn out to believe in god.

It would be easy enough to disprove if the results were that the clones turned out to believe in god, and not believe in god respectively.

I have serious doubts about that idea though. I think belief in god is phsycological.

So you think the idea of god started as a simple answer to a question, then later developed into something of worship? That is interesting and I could see that being the case. It could have happened when people first asked simple questions for which they didn't know the answer, like where does the water from the river come from? We don't know so we'll say its god.

God was just another way of saying we don't know. Perfectly valid because we still do that to this day.

[quote="MCalavera"]God is intuitive, that's what I've seen from personal experience. Must be a result/byproduct of the evolution of our brains.[/quote

So god has come about by instinct? Similar to what Sigmond Freud says?

Makes sense to me. Of course, I'm not claiming it's Gospel truth, but I can't see any other reason why many ancients worshipped gods and goddesses and God.

Unless ... God really does exist and he really did appear to those people ... dun dun dun.

Is there such a thing as "Gospel truth"?

Last edited by Robdemanc on 17 Dec 2011, 11:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, there were sun gods in ancient myths. No argument there. Never have been.