Paper 86 Overview: Early Evolution of Religion

The evolution of religion emerged organically from humankind's innate worship urge without requiring divine revelation as a catalyst. The human mind, operating under the directive influence of the sixth and seventh mind-adjutants of universal spirit bestowal, possessed sufficient inherent capacity to develop religious concepts through natural cognitive processes. This developmental trajectory progressed from primitive fear responses to natural forces, through stages of personification and spiritization, and ultimately to deification of these forces within human consciousness, representing a natural biologic consequence of the psychological inertia characteristic of evolving animal minds once they had formulated rudimentary concepts of the supernatural.

The foundations of primitive religion were deeply intertwined with humanity's confrontation with chance, luck, and unpredictability in a precarious existence. The development of ghost concepts and death-survival theories provided explanatory frameworks for otherwise inexplicable phenomena, particularly the mystery of death itself. These early belief systems, though predicated on misconceptions, fulfilled critical evolutionary functions by structuring human responses to uncertainty, fostering social cohesion, and establishing preliminary ethical frameworks. The evolution of these primitive religious constructs ultimately prepared the human mind for the reception of higher spiritual truths, demonstrating how even flawed religious formulations served as essential scaffolding for humanity's spiritual ascension and philosophical advancement.

The evolution of religion from the preceding and primitive worship urge is not dependent on revelation. The normal functioning of the human mind under the directive influence of the sixth and seventh mind-adjutants of universal spirit bestowal is wholly sufficient to ensure such development.

Man's earliest pre-religious fear of the forces of nature gradually became religious as nature became personalized, spiritized, and eventually deified in human consciousness. Religion of a primitive type was therefore a natural biologic consequence of the psychological inertia of evolving animal minds after such minds had once entertained concepts of the supernatural.

Aside from the natural worship urge, early evolutionary religion had its roots of origin in the human experiences of chance, so-called luck, commonplace happenings erroneously attributed to supernatural intervention. Primitive man's fundamental identity as a food hunter rendered him perpetually subject to the variability of hunting outcomes, which he interpreted through the lens of good and bad luck. This conceptualization of mischance became a dominant factor in the lives of early humans who existed on the precarious edge of a hazardous and uncertain existence.

The limited intellectual horizon of primitive consciousness concentrated attention on chance occurrences to such an extent that luck became a constant factor in their conceptual framework. Early Urantians struggled not for an elevated standard of living but for mere survival in an environment fraught with peril, where chance played a decisive role. The perpetual dread of unknown and unseen calamity hung over these primitive peoples like an oppressive cloud of despair, effectively obscuring potential pleasures and generating a paradoxical fear of good fortune, which they superstitiously interpreted as a harbinger of impending disaster. This pervasive fear of bad luck exercised a paralyzing effect on early human populations, inhibiting initiative and reinforcing superstitious thought patterns.

The herding peoples who succeeded hunter-gatherers maintained similar perspectives regarding chance and luck, while the subsequent agriculturalists became increasingly conscious of how crops were influenced by numerous factors beyond human control. These farmers found themselves subject to drought, floods, hail, storms, plant diseases, and extreme temperature variations, all of which were interpreted through the established paradigm of good or bad luck. This notion of chance and luck thoroughly permeated the philosophical outlook of ancient civilizations, as evidenced in the Wisdom of Solomon which acknowledges how fate and chance appeared to befall all people regardless of their attributes or merits.

Anxiety constituted a natural condition of the primitive mind, and when contemporary individuals succumb to excessive anxiety, they are essentially reverting to the mental state of their distant evolutionary ancestors. When anxiety intensifies to the point of actual pain, it inhibits normal activity and inevitably initiates evolutionary changes and biological adaptations. Pain and suffering, though undesirable subjectively, have functioned as essential catalysts for progressive evolution throughout human history.

The struggle for existence was rendered so painful that certain backward tribes continued the practice of howling lamentations at each sunrise, expressing their dread of facing another day's challenges. Primitive humans, unable to identify material sources for their miseries, settled upon supernatural explanations, particularly spirit causation. Thus was religion born from the fear of the mysterious, awe of the unseen, and dread of the unknown, with nature fear becoming a critical factor in the struggle for existence—first because of chance, and subsequently because of mystery.

Although the primitive mind possessed logical capabilities, it contained few ideas suitable for intelligent association, rendering savage consciousness fundamentally unsophisticated. These early humans operated on the principle that if one event followed another, they constituted cause and effect. What civilized individuals might dismiss as superstition represented genuine ignorance in primitive contexts. Humans have been slow to recognize that relationships between purposes and results are not necessarily causal, and contemporary society remains in the early stages of understanding how reactions in existence appear between actions and their consequences. The savage consciousness instinctively personified intangible and abstract phenomena, transforming nature and chance into personified entities: ghosts, spirits, and eventually gods.

Death represented the supreme shock to evolving humanity—a perplexing amalgamation of chance and mystery that defied straightforward explanation. Contrary to common assumptions, it was not reverence for life but rather the profound shock of death that inspired primal fear and consequently fostered religious development. Among primitive peoples, death typically resulted from violence, rendering nonviolent death increasingly mysterious and incomprehensible. It required countless generations for humans to fully recognize death's inevitability as a natural conclusion to physical existence.

Early humans readily accepted life as a self-evident fact while regarding death as a puzzling and alarming visitation from unknown forces. All racial groups developed legends about individuals who never died, vestigial traditions reflecting humanity's initial attitude toward death's finality. The ancient mind had already conceived of a nebulous and disorganized spirit world, a domain responsible for all inexplicable phenomena in human experience, and death was subsequently incorporated into this expanding catalogue of mysterious occurrences.

Human disease and natural death were initially attributed entirely to spirit influence rather than natural causation. Even contemporary civilized populations occasionally associate illness with supernatural forces, using religious ceremonies to effect healing. More elaborate theological systems eventually ascribed death to actions originating in the spirit world, establishing doctrines concerning original sin and humanity's fall from perfection. The recognition of impotence before natural forces, coupled with awareness of human vulnerability to illness and death, compelled primitive humans to seek assistance from the supermaterial realm, which they vaguely conceptualized as the source of life's mysterious vicissitudes.

The concept of a supermaterial phase of mortal personality originated from unconscious associative processes, particularly the phenomenon of ghost dreams. When multiple members of a tribal community simultaneously experienced dreams involving a departed chief, this coincidence appeared to provide compelling evidence that the former leader had genuinely returned in some altered form. Such dream experiences felt entirely authentic to primitive consciousness, often causing individuals to awaken physically affected, perspiring profusely, trembling violently, and vocalizing their terror.

The dream-originated concept of future existence explains the tendency to imagine unseen phenomena in terms of familiar visible entities. This conceptual framework effectively counteracted the fear of death associated with the biological instinct of self-preservation. Early humans maintained particular fascination with breath, especially in cold climates where exhalation produced visible vapor. Breath was regarded as the definitive distinction between living and deceased individuals, and when combined with dream experiences of performing various activities during sleep, these observations fostered the concept that humans possessed an immaterial component distinct from the physical body.

The primitive doctrine of survival after death did not necessarily imply belief in immortality as conceived in later religious systems. Beings whose numerical comprehension could not exceed twenty could scarcely conceptualize infinity or eternity; they instead envisioned recurring incarnations or cyclical existence. The orange race demonstrated particular inclination toward belief in transmigration and reincarnation, a concept originating from observations of hereditary trait resemblance between offspring and ancestors. Early humans entertained no notions of punishment or reward in afterlife states, viewing future existence as essentially similar to present life but without misfortune or bad luck. Different racial groups developed varied conceptions regarding the soul's destination, from the Greek concept of Hades for weak souls to the Hebrew concept of Sheol as a phantom realm.

Throughout human history, the nonmaterial aspect of personhood has been variously designated as ghost, spirit, shade, phantom, specter, and eventually soul. In primitive consciousness, the soul represented a dream double: an entity identical to the physical self in every aspect except tangibility. This belief in dream doubles expanded to include the notion that all entities, both animate and inanimate, possessed souls, a concept that perpetuated nature-spirit beliefs still maintained by certain populations such as the Eskimos, who continue to attribute spiritual qualities to all natural phenomena.

The ghost-soul was believed to be perceptible through auditory and visual faculties while remaining intangible to physical contact. As dream experiences became increasingly elaborate, the conceptualized activities of this evolving spirit world expanded proportionally. Death came to be understood as "giving up the ghost," and all primitive tribes, excepting those barely transcending animal status, developed some concept of the soul. Advanced civilization has largely abandoned these superstitious concepts, leaving contemporary humanity fully dependent on revelation and personal religious experience for refined conceptions of the soul as the collaborative creation of the God-knowing mortal mind and its indwelling divine spirit, the Thought Adjuster.

Early mortals typically failed to distinguish between the concept of an indwelling spirit and that of an evolutionarily derived soul. The savage mind was profoundly confused regarding whether the ghost-soul originated within the body or represented an external agency that possessed the body. The absence of reasoned thought when confronting perplexing phenomena explains the significant inconsistencies characteristic of primitive views concerning souls, ghosts, and spirits. The ancients conceptualized the soul's relationship to the body as analogous to perfume's relationship to a flower, and they identified various circumstances under which the soul could temporarily depart the body, including ordinary fainting, natural dreaming, disease-related unconsciousness, and death, the permanent departure.

The cult-type social organization persisted because it provided symbolic frameworks for preserving and stimulating moral sentiments and religious loyalties within primitive societies. Humans inherited a natural environment, constructed a social environment, and imagined a ghost environment that profoundly influenced their approach to existence. The state represents humanity's reaction to natural circumstances, the home manifests the response to social conditions, and religious institutions embody the reaction to the illusory ghost environment constructed by human imagination.

Very early in human history, the realities of the imagined world of ghosts and spirits became universally accepted, constituting a powerful influence on primitive society. The mental and moral development of all humanity was permanently altered by the introduction of this new factor in human thought and behavior. Into this major premise of illusion and ignorance, mortal fear incorporated all subsequent superstition and early religious formulations, constituting humanity's only religion before the arrival of revelation, and many world populations today still adhere primarily to this evolutionary religious system.

As evolutionary progress continued, good fortune became associated with benevolent spirits and misfortune with malevolent entities. The discomfort accompanying forced adaptation to changing environmental conditions was interpreted as ill luck resulting from spirit displeasure. Primitive humans gradually developed religious conceptions from innate worship urges combined with misconceptions regarding chance occurrences. Civilized societies have largely replaced these superstitious frameworks with scientific prediction systems, substituting actuarial calculations for fictional spirits and capricious deities. Each successive generation has recognized the fallacies in ancestral superstitions while simultaneously maintaining its own collection of irrational beliefs and practices that will eventually elicit similar responses from enlightened descendants.

The primitive human consciousness acutely perceived the need for security in an unpredictable world and consequently willingly accepted the burdensome premiums of fear, superstition, dread, and offerings to spiritual intermediaries to secure protection against misfortune. Primitive religion fundamentally functioned as an insurance policy against disaster rather than an investment for future spiritual returns; it operated as premium payments to offset the perils inherent in natural environments. Contemporary civilized individuals similarly pay material premiums against industrial accidents and the hazards associated with modern living conditions.

Modern society has progressively transferred insurance functions from religious domains to economic systems, while religion increasingly addresses the question of existence beyond physical death. Contemporary humans, particularly those engaged in rational thought, no longer expend resources on controlling luck through superstitious means. Religion gradually ascends to higher philosophical levels, distinguishing itself from its historical function as insurance against misfortune. Despite their limitations, ancient religious conceptions prevented humanity from succumbing to fatalistic pessimism by fostering belief that individuals could influence their destiny through appropriate behaviors and rituals.

Modern civilized populations are progressively liberating themselves from ghost-fear explanations for fortune's vagaries and life's commonplace inequalities. While abandoning supernatural attributions for life's vicissitudes, many paradoxically demonstrate willingness to accept equally fallacious explanations that attribute human inequalities to political misadaptation, social injustice, and economic competition. However, legislation, philanthropy, and industrial reorganization—regardless of their inherent value—cannot fundamentally alter the realities of birth and life's inevitable challenges. Only comprehensive scientific understanding of natural principles, combined with skillful application within these laws, enables humans to achieve desired outcomes while avoiding unwanted circumstances. Scientific knowledge, translated into effective action, represents the only viable antidote to what were once considered accidental misfortunes.