making of religion

8/8/2019 Making of Religion

1/5

THE MAKING OF RELIGION: MYTHS AND BELIEFSAli Syed

A pragmatic philosopher says, Men worship God not only because without God there isno truth, but also because without God there is no happiness.There is scarcely any doubt about the fact that religion has immensely influencedmankind in all lands and in all ages. Its followers have, wittingly or unwittingly,manipulated and used the beliefs of people quite differently from how they were actuallyenvisioned by the founders of religion. In Pakistani society, too, religion is regarded asthe underlying meaning of the creation of state in 1947. In consequence, the rulingclasses have employed Islam as means to political power to the detriment of masses. Alleducational texts and historical writings manifest highly partisan and prejudiced outlook.It is thanks to the ruling classes whose short-sightedness, ulterior motives andexploitation of religious sentiments resulted in intellectual intolerance regarding sacredideological foundations of Pakistan.In historical writings any questions about holyideology of Pakistan are considered dangerous to moral development of nation. Itresulted in stifling the spirit of free inquiry and by begetting an intolerant, partisan,impatient, and emasculated understanding of history and society. Islam the most

advanced and knowledge loving of religions has been turned into an instrument of merepropaganda by the misguided fervour of self-styled champions of Islamic cause.G.W.F.Hegel, one of the greatest philosophers of all times, holds that historical writingsin an age reflect the stage of consciousness attained by the people of society it theirhistorical development. He adds that the work of historian is to objectively describe theawareness and aspirations of people without assimilating them into his personalprejudices. The famous French philosopher Voltair once wittily remarked: History isafter all nothing but the packs of tricks we play upon the dead, and the history proves thatanything can be proven by history.This genial reflection holds good of our official historical writings, which only aim atproving Jinnah, and Iqbal envisioned a sort of semi-theocratic ideological state.

The purpose of article is to dispel the fog of confusion which has wrapped up our entireunderstanding of history. It explains that religions have never been unchangeable in thehistory of mankind by tracing the origins and development of myths or ancient forms ofreligion in primitive human societies with the rise of new socio-economic organizations.The religion has assumed the glory of civilizing people. In civilized societies, it hasconquered two very important provinces, which are state and education. But religiousinstitutions have also impeded the growth of human knowledge the growth of newinstitutions. We all remember how Copernicus was persecuted by the Church for hisheliocentric hypothesis. Whenever religions or religious institutions obstructed thegrowth of new socio-political institutions, the violent conflicts occurred between forcesof new order and the old one giving way to revolutionary transformation of society.French revolution was the revolt of rising industrial class against privileged feudalnobility and clergy. Religions have existed from time immemorial, but their forms,observances, and roles have always changed according to needs of time andcircumstances in human society. The way Christianity practiced in Middle ages was quitedifferent from the way it is practiced in modern Industrial society. In feudal times alllaws of monarch, which were considered the unquestionable expression of divine will,came to be looked on as fallible commands of a man who manipulated them to lengthenhis rule and to silence the dissent.The examination of historical phenomena of this nature led Hegel and Marx to regard


2/5

history as necessary law governed process resulting in human progress. For Hegel, it wasideas or ideology which determined the human progress while, for Marx, it was materialactivity constituted by production exchange, consumption and the relations thus formed.The deeper analysis shows that it was interaction between ideas and material activitywhich determined the human progress in both expression of freedom and materialproduction.RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGIONSAND SOCIO- ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS:In order to dispel the mist cast by religious dogmatism, let us have a look at relationshipbetween various forms of religions and the corresponding economic organizations inhistory of mankind. Religion, etymologically speaking, is derived from Latin wordreligio that means bond it unites or binds man and nature with supernatural ortranscendental being. There is another Latin word religare from which religion is saidto be derive from which means to take care of or to tend. The most primitive forms ofreligions have existed in the forms of myths and legends. The myths originated whenman tried to explain some natural phenomena like storm, rising of sun or moon or stars,earthquake, storm, or rain etc,.

DR. EHRENREICH, an anthropologist, looks on myths as world outlook aimed atexplaining various natural phenomena. The primitive man thought that it was the actionsof beings that caused the natural phenomena like storms, earthquake etc;. He alsobelieved that such beings had consciousness, will, designs and needs. EDWARDTYLOR, another ethnologist, calls such belief-system animism .He explains in his bookThe Primitive Culture that spiritual beings were thought to affect or to control theevents in nature and in mans life here and hereafter. Cylonese Vedddas, Hudson BayEskimos,Negorites of And man Islands were observed to be believing in rain-spirits,wind-spirits,cloud-spirits and so on. The findings arrived at by modernethnographer and anthropologists are confirmed by the studies of primitive tribes whichhave survived into modern times.

IMMORTALITY OF SOUL AND ANCESTOR-WORSHIP: The ancient people used to invoke their dead as some Christians (Muslims) now invoketheir saints, Will Durant makes genial observation in The Pleasures of Philosophy.The early man arrived at the concept of soul when he tried to explain the functions of lifewith its different bodily and mental conditions. TYLOR cites the cases while studyingthe natives of South Australia and Fiji who believed that illness; unconsciousness anddeath were caused by departure of soul. Even in Buddhist societies the Lamas use solemnincantations for the return of the soul which has been abducted by the evil spirit. Therewas another factor which led to the belief in soul which was the appearance of the deadin the dreams. The fright caused by the dreams of the strong and powerful, who diedlong ago, naturally inspired reverence and awe which led to the worship of the dead. Thefear of the dead was one of the most overpowering emotions of the primitive man. Hesaw the spirits of the dead in separation from their bodies, as the decay of the bodies didnot prevent them from coming into his dreams. He also saw himself in his dreamshunting, walking, chasing animals and on waking up he was assured that his body wasnot least stirred while he was asleep. It convinced him that he had a soul which left himwhen he was asleep. In addition to this he interpreted his echoes and shadows as beinghis ghosts. The spirits surviving the death of the body gave birth to belief in immortalityof soul. It was Egyptians who had for the first time elaborated the intoxicating idea ofimmortality of soul.


3/5

In ancient agricultural societies, survival of people depended upon the king upon thepower of king or chief who kept the society intact. Nobody could call in question thehierarchy of authority that culminated in king.The people in those days were accustomedto worshipping divine kings. It was for this reason that Alexander the Great claimedhimself to be god because without this the vanquished people would not have acceptedhim their ruler. When the king or chief died, primitive man gave full funeral rites topropitiate the dead. These rites were the first forms of religious ceremonies, which wereperformed, in the ancient societies.ANIMALS GODS IN HUNTING AND GATHERING SOCIETIES"GORDON CHILDE, a renowned anthropologist, makes an interesting observation inregard to the early man's spiritual life in 'What Happened in History' when he says: "Without spiritual equipment not only do societies tend to disintegrate, but the individualscomposing them may just stop bothering to keep alive. If an ideology (spiritualequipment) facilitates the smoothie functioning of economy will exist, if it hampers thatthe society with its spiritual equipment will come to an end".Man devised the spiritual equipment in order to explain natural phenomena and hisphysical or mental condition that was vital to his survival. The early souci-economic

organizations which man formed were hunting and gathering societies. The early manlive on gathering herbs, plants, tubers and hunting animals.The savage did not recognizeany dividing line between himself and animals save that he was hunter and animal wasprey. VON DEN STEINEN, another anthropologist, describing the psychology ofBrazilian Indian says:" In his ( Brazilian Indian) eyes the principal difference betweenhim and animal is his having a bow, Aaron and beetle to crush grain or maize" .Hethought that animals also possessed the souls. He believed that there was kinship betweenhis group of people and particular species of animal. His group of people or tribe hadsign or mark of a plant or animal which he believed to be his ancestors and in which theprotective spirit of the tribe dwelt. Modern social scientists call this sign totem. We knowthat the gods worshipped in ancient Egypt, Babylonia, and even in modern India have the

head of beast. The worship of Hanuman (monkey-god), Ganesh (elephant-god) and NagDevta in India is the evidence of totemism.TRANSITION OF ANIMALS GODS TO MAN-LIKE GODS:With progress human society made over a period of time, man acquired power overanimals and started domesticating them. For example, he harnessed ox to plough andhorse to cart .He started making his tools out of the bones of animals and began toconsider them inferior to himself. Thus the zoomorphic concept of god gave way toanthropomorphic concept of god. The totem gods or animal gods were the first godswhich man worshipped who were not concerned with morality.It was with the emergenceof anthropomorphic religion when gods began to be interested inhuman morals. Theancestor-worship humanized religion and allowed the early man to conceive deity first interms of the strongest and then the finest of men. Man abstracted, as Feurbach thinks, hisbest and most perfect qualities from himself and attributed them to a deity, thus creatinggod in his image.AVAGON OR TRANSMIGRATION OF SOUL:In the age of anthropomorphic gods, the new mythical ideas reflected the materialrealities of pastoral or agricultural way of production, though they retained some featuresof old totemic myths. In new myths, the human personality was separated from its bloodkinship with animals. Man believed god to be benevolent spirit permanently embodied insome tangible object like stone, tree or idol or image. ANDREW LANG, a historian of


4/5

religion, tells that food, drink and other valuable things were offered to this spirit forpurpose of securing assistance in man's affairs of life.The concern of human gods formorals of human being led to reward and punishment according to man's conduct onearth. As then animals were conidered to be inferior to men, the soul was to reside inanimal body if actions of man were not in accordance with the moral code of the age.EDWARD TYLOR says: " The belief in transmigration in soul is closely linked with theconviction that man's conduct is judged after his death.The rules were set forth in theHindu lawgiver Manu as to how souls endowed with the quality of goodness acquiredivine nature, while souls governed by passions take up human state and souls sunk indarkness of lust and brutality are degraded to brutes.The range of migration of soulstretches downward to from gods, saints,Brahamans, kings, actors, drunkards, birds,cheats, elephants, horses, sudras, barbarians,snakes, worms and inert things. The relationbetween crime and punishment is established through code of penal transmigration ofsoul to punish the wicked".BELEIFS ABOUT BEGINNING OF THE WORLD:

One of the most important questions in history is: how did the concept of creation orbeginning of the world arise? The savage due to his limited consciousness could only

conceive of the action of supernatural power or deity in terms of his power to bringsomething into being. This can be vividly exemplified by the studies of myths formed by

the Polynesians about the worlds coming into being. The early Polynesians recountedthat once god was sitting on seashore and fishing when suddenly he pulled out on his

hook the world instead of fish. The primitive man conceived of gods actions in likenessof his own, as the very low level of technical development in production of means of

production limited mans sphere of action. In hunting and gathering economy the savagecreated comparatively little. His production is limited chiefly to procuring and

appropriating only that which nature readily provides. While man fished and hunted, thewoman gathered roots and tubers. On account of his little creation, the fundamentalquestion of beginning of the world is answered in his mythology in terms of worlds

coming into being fully developed rather that being created.VAN GENNEP, a Dutch anthropologist, studies a myth current among Australian Dieriwhich holds that in the beginning the earth opened in the middle of the lake Pergundi andout of it came one animal after another.A myth of South African Bushmen relates to us that man and beast came from a cave orcrack in the earths surface somewhere in the north. ANDRE LANG mentions it in detailin his book Myths, Cults, and Religions. Some tribes in Africa like Overhereos, thecattle-breeders, recount that first man and woman came out of tree. From the same treecame the cattle, sheep and goats.Some Zulus think that men came from bed of reeds while other thinkthat they issued from underground. The tribe of Novajo Indians in New Mexico narratesthat all Americans first lived in cave and later made their way out being accompanied byanimals.DR.EHRENREICH makes a very important point that not a single myth speaks ofcreation of livings beings, but it only speaks of theirs coming into world fully developed.It was only after man had advanced in his technique to produce his means of subsistence,tools, implements, pots, and utensils that man acquired the concept of creation. DR.EHREINREICH makes mention of a myth prevailing in Gurayo tribe according to whichman was formed out of clay, but that effort to create him in this fashion succeeded onlyafter vain attempts( Myths and Legends).


5/5

The myth regarding the creation did not arise at once. It presupposed some technicaladvancement on mans part to create tools, utensil, and other means of subsistence. Thisincreased mans power over nature and he began to conceive of gods creation in termsof his own creation. For instance, in the locality of ancient Egypt god Khnum isportrayed as potter shaping an egg out of which the world arose.CHANGES IN CONCEPTIONS OF GODS:

Early man could conceive of his relationship with higher beings or deities in likeness ofhis relationship with his fellow human beings due to his little intellectual development.

The social relations which he formed had some obligations. His subordination or servilityto kings or chiefs determined his forms of reverence for spirits of ancestors and gods

which were clasping hands, obeisance, genuflections, adulations and so forth. Indespotic states the servility reached its highest limits. As TARDE points out in Law and

Imitation that the most despotic gods are the most reverend. The gods of patriarchalfamily were ancestral gods. Just as the members of family had filial attachment to theirhead, they accorded the same sentiments to their ancestral deities, thus the idea that manshould love his god as children love their father arose. The psychological framework was

laid in which fear of the dead was transformed into love of them. In Greek Olympus

gods, there prevailed relationships, which are reminiscent of Greek society in the Heroicage.

Human suffering according to Greek orphic religion was due the crime of Titans whorebelled against Zeus. The human soul is enclosed in body to atone for their sins. Avirtuous and patient life could bring soul releasefrom body. In Christianity we find the similar concept of original sin from which Godredeemed mankind by assuming the human form.Mankinds conception of god has always been changing. In every epoch the religion andits role have always been interpreted and re-interpreted as the needs of time andcircumstances dictated. In the age of Industrial Revolution, when man acquiredconsiderable amount of control over nature his belief in servility or subordination also

changed. In French society, philosophers like Montesqieu, Rosseau, Voltair andencyclopaedists expounded the philosophy of deism which holds that belief in God canbe arrived at through scientific observation independently of the assistance of the churchand that Gods power are restricted on all sides by laws of nature. Deistic philosophyarose when an industrial class was taking birth in French society and it was makingefforts to curtail the powers of kings who derived them from God.We have deep wishes to make Pakistani society an industrial one. Likewise We will haveto make efforts to restrict the powers of those people who use religion to hamper thenatural, intellectual and material growth of society because no society can advance inscience and technology with religious rigidity. This is the lesson we will have to learnfrom history.

making of religion

Documents