It has been hypothesized, by philosophers and researchers, that, at
some unknown time, perhaps in the Paleolithic age, certain groups of hominids
developed religious beliefs; rather “proto-religious” beliefs, as a form of
adaptation.
“The Proto-Religion was the belief system of human
beings at a time (100K BPE) before humanity dispersed from some central point
over the earth (presumably Eastern Africa); and ethnic and cultural/linguistic
diversification began.”
States
the website,
Their beliefs included spiritualizing the nature and environment, thereby
worshiping gifts of nature such as the sun, moon, earth, trees, etc. These
beliefs caused groups of people to dance, sing, and worship together, making
them more cooperative, unified, and pro-social. Consequently, these groups were
more successful than groups, which were not proto-religious.
The only, and ambiguous evidence of religiosity in hominids, was
seen in the case of “Homo neanderthalensis” - which are an extinct species in
the genus Homo. They contradict to humans, in DNA only by 0.12%. They buried
their dead. The use of burial rituals signals towards religious activity.
Except for this, there has been no other evidence of the existence
of religion in human culture before humans reached behavioral modernity.
No comments:
Post a Comment