Course Tittle: Sociology of Religion

Course Code: SOC 222

Submission Date:10/05/2014
Submitted to:
Muhammad Ilias Sabbir
Lecturer, Dept. of Sociology,
Begum Rokeya University,
Rangpur.
Submitted by:
ID: 1115047
2
nd
Year // 2
nd
Semester
Dept. of Sociology
Begum Rokeya University,
Rangpur.
2
Content
Topic Page
Theories related to the origin of
Religion
3
Theories on the Origins of Religion:
Overview
4 5
Summery 5
Reference 6
3
An overview of the theories of the origin of Religion
Theories related to the origin of Religion
There are two major theories of the origin of religion: i) Animism & ii) Animatism.
1. Animism:
The founder of the anthropology of religion was the Englishman Sir Edward Burnett Tylor.
Religion was born, Tylor thought, as people tried to understand conditions & events they
could not explain by reference to daily experience.
Tylor believed that our ancestors & contemporary non industrial peoples were particularly
intrigued with death, dreaming & trance.
Tylor concluded that attempts to explain dreams & trances led early humans to believe that
two entities inhabit the body:
a. One active during the day.
b. The other (soul) active during sleep & trance state.
Although they never meet, they are vital to each other when the soul permanently leaves the
body the persons dies. Death is departure of the soul.
Tylor named the term animism from the Latin word anima means soul. For Tylor, animism,
the earliest form of religion, was a belief in spiritual beings. Tylor said about three stages of
religious evolution:
a. Animism
b. Polytheism (the belief in multiple gods)
c. Monotheism (the belief in a single, all powerful deity)
According to Tylor, religion originated to explain things people didnt understand & it would
decline as science offered better explanation.
2. Animatism:
Besides animism & sometimes coexisting with it in the same society is a view of the
supernatural as a domain of raw impersonal power or force, that people can control under
certain conditions. R.R. Marett called this concept of impersonal power animatism.
Such a conception of the supernatural is particularly prominent in Melanesia, the area of the
south Pacific that includes Papua New Guinea & adjacent islands. Melanesioans believed in
mana, a sacred impersonal force existing in the universe. Mana can reside in people,
animals, plants & objects. Objects with mana could change someones luck. For example
a warriors success in fighting is not attributed to his own strength but to the mana
contained in an amulet that hangs around his neck.
4
Theories on the Origins of Religion: Overview
This lesson will explore the many theories on the origins of religion. In doing so, it will
highlight the works of Kant, Muller, Frazer, Marx and Freud. It will also explain animism
and nature worship.
Immanuel Kant
When discussing the origin of religion, it's important to remember the term 'religion' is broad
and far reaching. Its meaning is as expansive as the masses of cultures that cover the Earth.
As we delve into the theories of its origin, we will treat them as such. In fact, they are the
attempts of some famous philosophers, like Kant, Muller, Frazer, Marx and Freud, to make
sense of the human desire to reach for something beyond ourselves. With this in mind, let's
get started with the theory of Immanuel Kant.
To Immanuel Kant, an 18th century German philosopher, religion is the product of limited
empirical reason. In other words, since there are things that are unexplainable by simply
using the five senses, humans developed religion to fill in the blanks.
To Kant, religious beliefs are unprovable. Therefore, people are not religious due to their
power of reason or their cognitive minds. On the contrary, religion is an act of the moral will.
People will themselves to believe in religion - it is not a product of reason.
Max Muller
Different from Kant, the 19th century Max Muller held to the nature-worship theory. This
theory puts forth the idea that religion developed as primitive people groups observed nature.
As they observed the sun, moon, winds and rains, they began to personify them, sort of like
our modern-day use of the term 'Mother Nature.'
According to Muller, this personification led to worship among the primitive people. As
cultures grew, this worship became more structured. For example, there was Greece's
Poseidon, god of the sea, or Babylon's Marduk, who controlled the winds.
Muller's nature-worship theory is closely tied to Animism. In animism, all of nature is full of
unseen spirits, which are to be worshipped. Practicing animism, the native cultures of the
America's believed that nature, from rocks, to trees, to water, had a spirit known as Anima.
This spirit allowed them to feel and communicate with humans and each other.
James George Frazer
Building on the role of nature, Sir James George Frazer's theories went a step further.
Explained in his work The Golden Bough, Frazer believed that religion began as humans
attempted to control nature.
To Frazer, the development of religion happened in evolving phases. First, humans tried to
use magic to control their surroundings. This then evolved into imploring spirits in their
effort for control. Adding to this, Frazer believed a highly evolved person will eventually
desert the tales of magic and religion in acceptance of science.
5
Marx & Freud
Perhaps two of the most famous theories on religion come from the 19th century's Karl
Marx and the 20th century's Sigmund Freud.
To Marx, religion stemmed from the struggle between social classes and is simply man's
attempt to make living within these classes bearable. As his famous quote is often
paraphrased, 'Religion is the opium of the people.'
Completely different from Marx, Sigmund Freud took a psychoanalytical stab at the origin
of religion. To him, religion developed out of the human need for a protective father figure.
In short, as humans age, they begin to see the weaknesses in their earthly fathers. A god
figure steps in and gives humans a father in whom they can trust. In true Freudian style, he
theorized that this need led men to create religion.
Summary
Just like the term 'religion' has many facets, the theories on its origin are also many.
Throughout the ages, people have sought to understand the human need to reach beyond
ourselves. In an effort to understand this phenomenon, theories abound!
For Kant, religions developed as people tried to make sense of things that reason could not
explain. For Muller, religion originated as man observed nature and its workings,
personifying it as cultures developed. Frazer added to this by purporting that religion
evolved in phases and would eventually be replaced by science within the evolved mind.
Adding to these theories of origin, the famous Karl Marx believed religion was man's
attempt to deal with the difficulties of social class. From a completely different perspective,
Freud linked the origin of religion to man's need for a father figure in whom he could trust.
6
References:
Ember & Ember Anthropology
William A. Haviland Cultural Anthropology
Retrieved at 9
th
May from http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/theories-
on-the-origins-of-religion-overview.html#lesson