A Historical Look at the Origin of Religion
by Ra-Harakhte

For true scholars, the story of Adam and Eve is simply that -- a story. But for many Judeo-Christians, it is historical fact. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence that mankind is a race subject to evolution, there is still the debate over man's origins. Well, when one gets looking into the history of the Bible and the origins of its stories, it becomes clear that the notion of the scholars that the story is allegorical is more correct than the "historical context" taught by today's clergy.

The story of Adam and Eve, or the first couple, originated long before the biblical era in many other countries around the world, and was copied by biblical writers from the writings of other cultures. The story originated in the heavens, in the night sky and constellations, and was "reenacted" upon the earth as a simple answer to mankind's continual urge to find out "where we came from." And, at the time the original myth was devised (tens or hundreds of thousand of years ago), the authors didn't have any knowledge of Cro-Magnon man or Neanderthal, or early man at all. And that's really quite a shame, for that's where religion first started, as well as all civilization (on the backs of these ancestors) according to conventional science.

Over 30,000 years ago north of Africa, the Neanderthal man buried flowers and necklaces of bone with the dead. Prior to that, mankind had never cared for the passing of another. The dead were simply left to rot, or laid to rest without any funerary or noble constructs. But does this give a sign of religious belief? Not at all. Obviously the person who died was loved, that's what's important. It shows the first signs of emotion and a sense of loss from being to being, not worship of a deity.

With this information, could it be possible that prior to funerary burials we didn't feel loss? That we left the bodies alone to rot because we recognized it as a simple shell and that the true being that once inhabited the shell had simply moved on but is still not really dead? Ponder that for a moment.

Burials and the laying of treasures had to come froth from the emotion of loss. It would be absurd to think that the onset of emotion (or lack of) suddenly changed overnight from non-feeling to total inundation.

What does this tell us?

That most likely in the stone age, we knew more about true life than we do today, since the dead were usually left alone. No time was taken to prepare a plot, the bodies were not preserved. They were simply left to decay naturally. From this information we can deduce that in the past, death was not feared but understood.

Only upon the beginning of funerary burials about the time of the Neanderthals (100,000 to 35,000 years ago, and not all were buried ritualistically) did those views change.,

. . . probably through a period of mental conditioning, such as an idea that through generations lost its meaning, became misunderstood and hence the need for rituals and ritualistic burials. Mental conditioning had led to ignorance (from forgetfulness) as to what death really was and is about, and thus the rise of the emotion which brings it full-circle.

Prior to Neanderthal, no ancestral ritualistic burials have been found.

So where does that leave us? Unfortunately with the same ignorance as the Neanderthal man. It is apparent by the historical record that mankind knew the nature of existence better in the stone age than he does today. With the absence of machinery and technology, he had to live in complete communion with nature, and nature simply by its design works as a function guided by forces often attributed to the "hand of God." And so in the beginning, mankind as well.

To break it down, we have this equation:

Nature = Hand of God
so in the beginning
Man in communion with Nature = Man in communion with God

or

Oneness with the Divine

Which means that mankind and nature, in the beginning, is evidenced to have been in existence with complete spiritual harmony and co-habitation with the force of creation and life, namely God. Again, without any burial rights, there had to have been no sense of loss, no feelings of distraught emotions. These are behaviors that had to start from an idea that grew and grew, took hold, and everybody accepted. Doesn't mean it's the truth or that it's right. Remember how ancient sailors used to fear travelling the ocean because the earth was flat and they might fall off the end?

Then when did this notion of God come about?

Evolution.

At the same time Neanderthal man was ritualizing his dead, another species, Cro-Magnon man, was busy hunting and growing crops and trying to stay ahead of the coming winter. It is from this ancient ancestor that modern humans evolved, and so did religion.

Archeology has uncovered the evidence of the first vestiges of religion, mainly worship, with the Cro-Magnon man. Many statuettes and carvings have come down from that era showing women as a symbol of worship. These fascinating trinkets and pictures (referred to as Venus figurines) usually have oversized breasts and vaginas, symbolizing the important nature of women -- childbearth. This is not to suggest that it was a "goddess" based belief system. Quite the contrary, it was women in general, simply for the reason of child-rearing.

Why?

Because the Cro-Magnon man was facing his own extinction. The ice age was upon him, and to insure the longevity of his village and people, the women had to be revered -- she was their savior. And so religion began.

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copyright 1998 by Ra-Harakhte (Ra-Harakhte@webtv.net)