| Religion came about with the beginning of consciousness, animals don't have religion because they are not conscious. As soon as we realised that people die, people thought about what happened to them then, and then there was the advent of the afterlife, a story told to children so that they wouldn't cry. "Don't worry, gran has gone away to another place," was the likely sotry told to children, so they started to wonder what this other place was, and then you have religion. Upon hearing these stories children thought up the idea that they lived on after death in another place, but then they thought about natural phenomenon being the cause of their spirits messages to them. Then they thought of a grand guy that was the leader of the spirits, then they thought up stories of how this grand guy used his powers to create the world, as he destroys it, and then they had a God with super powers that hung out with the spirits, he himslef being a spirit.
Belief in God has some requisites, namely language, otherwise noone can spread their ideas, and form a socail gathering where they can put their ideas togehter and encourage others to make up new stories about how God is, and what He has done. Think about one cave man thinking that the spirits have powers, then he thinks about something else. In a socail circle he would be encouraged to go on with his thought, so the others make him or her create belief in God.
The purpose of religion was to share belief in God with others, so religion has been around from before there was scripture, but with the advent of scripture, there came a testament to what was right about God. So religion's purpose is to spread belief in God and make Him happy, to live right until you meet him one day when you die and 'you go to another place.'
Poison for the system! |