Religious or Spiritual? Tracing the Origins of Belief

That’s a question I don’t yet have a clear answer to. And just like with any other unanswered questions, I decided to dive a bit deeper to help improve my understanding. Here’s what I learned…

Let’s start with a caveat. Religion, like politics, is often a taboo topic. People have deeply personal beliefs, and this post isn’t meant to judge or convert anyone. It’s just a reflection of what I learned - and maybe it will get you thinking too.

Ok, so what exactly was the basis for religion? 

Let’s start way back. Humans from thousands of years ago, the hunter-gatherers, didn’t have much to make sense of the world. To them, things seemed to happen at random with no possible explanation. The sun would rise and disappear at random, there would be days of sun and days of rain, some days they’d be able to hunt easily, some days they’d be at risk of getting hunted. Nothing made sense. Being the natural storytellers that we are, humans turned to invisible, imaginary forces such as gods and spirits to help fill in the blanks. 

• That torrential downpour? God must be angry

• Easy hunting day? A gift from the gods

• A tribal member dies? It must have been time for them to go

Anything that was unexplainable was attributed to gods/spirits. I can see how this holds true even today - many of these unexplainable day to day occurrences result in similar explanations.

• Got a promotion at work? Thank god 

• Facing a hardship? God must have a plan

Ok - back to the origins. Eventually, what started as individualistic beliefs turned into something tribes could bond over. 

• Rituals were created to allow tribes to connect further - dancing around the fire, chanting something specific - it became commonplace to further help explain and add a sense of routine to the randomness of the world. 

• Within the tribes, certain leaders became self-proclaimed messengers of god (i.e. priests/shamans). They labeled themselves as having a special connection to god and divine forces. They led ceremonies, interpreted signs from nature and decided what the appropriate actions were. People started treating these ‘messengers’ with a lot of respect, listened to everything they were told and feared disappointing them to avoid any potential repercussions from the gods. 

• Physical places of worship were born - temples/churches etc were built where rituals were led by priests, and people had an official place to go pray to these divine forces.

Over the ages, religions became more formalized. Major religions such as Hinduism in the East were adopted, with the belief in multiple gods, karma, reincarnation and dharma (cosmic order). This was followed by Judaism, a monotheistic religion, believing in one god. Christianity and Islam came out of Judaism but much later, spreading the teachings of Jesus, a Jewish preacher and prophet Muhammad respectively. Depending on where you were born, you likely inherited a faith - almost like you inherit your hometown sports team. You don’t always choose it, but you defend it, support it, and feel a sense of belonging to it. 

But here’s the thing - all of these ‘sports teams’ originated from one common goal. To help explain the unexplainable. To make sense of the chaos. Somewhere along the way, what was meant to unite us has started to divide us. What I have taken away from this little deep dive is that it wasn’t meant to be this way - we are all human, we are part of one species, and we should not let this self-invented concept be the reason we become more and more divisive. 

Ok that’s all for now! I’d love to hear what you think—especially if you’ve wrestled with similar questions. Drop a comment below 👍