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Since the dawn of mankind, humans have tried to
make sense of their world, especially when faced with unknown phenomena
such as 'what causes storms', 'what happens to us after we die', and
'why to the planets move through the night sky'?
As homo-sapiens
developed the ability for cognitive thought, so too did the first signs
of religion seem to arise. The earliest evidence of a religious
practice can be traced back 300,000 years ago when we began to bury our
dead. Although we cannot define this as the origin of faith, it does
suggest that at the dawn of humanity, we had begun to consider some kind
of afterlife.
Over time, this religious practice gave rise to
a new ideology which spread across the continents, known today as
‘Animism’. This emerging faith was the root belief system that would
evolve and branch out into numerous other ideologies all over the world.
The journey of these evolving religions can be broken down into five
core stages:
• Stage 1: Animism (100,000 BCE – Present)
Humans began to believe that natural constructs (e.g. plants, animals,
rocks and wind) possessed a spiritual essence. These spirit entities
were believed to have powers and temperaments that influenced our
everyday world. By worshiping these divine beings, it was believed we
could maintain harmony with this spirit world and gain favors from them.
• Stage 2: Polytheism (5,500 BCE – Present)
The
roots of Polytheism seem to lie in the Proto-Indo-European traditions.
It seems likely the generation of new Gods were adopted from the nature
spirits of the old world (giving abstract beings of thunder and Earth a
more human form). During the Neolithic revolution, civilisations began
to emerge requiring new areas of expertise (e.g. lawmaking, metallurgy,
agriculture and commerce). It was the Indo-European Gods who took on the
role of guide and leader to the civilised world.
Typically
these divine beings were divided into several classes, overseeing the
heavens, the mortal realm and the underworld. Each deity possessed their
own powers, religious practice and domain (e.g. trading, diplomacy,
warcraft etc). Man could either worship one or all of these beings,
gaining favor from them via offerings, prayer and even sacrifice.
• Stage 3: Monotheism (1348 BCE – Present)
In the Bronze Age, a new movement took shape that prioritised one God
over all other deities. This system is known as Monotheism - a belief in
one supreme being. In 1348 BCE, the pharaoh Akhenaten, raised a lesser
known God called 'Aten' to supreme status, downplaying the role of all
other Egyptian deities. A little later in Iran, Zoroaster (a Persian
priest) claimed 'Ahura Mazda' to be the one supreme deity. This newly
emerging system posited that one creator god had formed the known
universe, and was totally self-sufficient, capable of ruling over all
other domains. This idea became prominent in Judaism, Christianity,
Islam, and Sikhism.
Most monotheistic systems tend to be
exclusive in nature, which meant the gods of the Old world had to be
purged from mans consciousness. As a consequence, monotheistic religions
displayed less religious tolerance than polytheistic religions,
resulting in many wars and political disputes.
• Stage 4: Philosophy (585 BCE – Present)
During the Iron Age, many scholars began to question the faith systems
of their day. Rather than accepting a religious view as the definitive
answer to reality, they began to question the nature of the divine.
These probing minds inspired a philosophical movement that swept
throughout the old world (often ascribed to the Greek thinker
Pythagoras). Great thinkers like Lao Tzu, Epicurus, Confucius and
Hypatia were in pursuit of the ultimate, spiritual truth which included a
desire to understand the laws behind reality.
What set these
philosophers apart from other religious systems was the fact that they
emphasised the use of reason and critical thinking over faith. In
philosophy, something is considered true only if it is completely proven
true on a long term basis by means of reasoning. If not, then it can
not be considered the ultimate truth.
However, the Biblical
worldview held sway for over a thousand years, ridiculing many
philosophical truths as bordering upon blasphemy. Copernicus and Galileo
the two foremost casualties of theological interference, with Galileo
placed under house arrest by the notorious Inquisition. But all this was
soon to change.
• Stage 5: Scientific Revolution (1600 CE – Present)
Over many centuries, philosophical questioning and testing gave rise to
a new movement - known as the scientific revolution. A school of
scientists believed that reality should be allowed to speak for itself,
removing the subjectivity of human imagination and superstition.
The basic procedure of the scientific method was to explain a
phenomenon using a hypotheses, and then designing a series of
experiments to test this hypotheses. By repeating these tests, the
validity of this theory would be revealed (determining it as either fact
or fallacy). Such tests have given humanity an objective and profound
insight into the workings of the universe.
This radical
ideology quickly spread across Europe and the America's, introducing new
perspectives on the natural world and man's place in it. The scientific
revolution challenged ideas grounded in tradition and faith, promoting
healthy skepticism and reasoning.
It opposed superstition and
religious intolerance, making a long-term impact on the culture,
politics, and governments of the Western world. It is considered the
best method for making useful and practical additions to human knowledge
about the physical world, and has resulted in the technological leaps
made since it developed in the 1600's. This includes:
* Copernicus updating of the heliocentric model by replacing the Earth with the sun as center of the known universe.
* Isaac Newton's law of gravity which explained the elliptical orbits of the planets.
* Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, which
explained that all living things in the world evolved from a common
ancestor in the distant past.
