How did religion appear on earth? The history of the emergence and development of religious beliefs

Religion in its development has passed a long and difficult path of formation. Undoubtedly, the basis for the emergence of the very first religious beliefs Man had natural instincts embedded in him, first of all, the instinct of self-preservation. In primitive religions, the fantastic consciousness of people of their dependence on natural forces is imprinted. Since the level of development was still low, a person, without separating himself from nature, transfers to it the relations that develop in the primitive community (blood ties, early ancestral ties, gender relationships, powerlessness over diseases, death of a member tribal community, threatening its integrity and well-being, tribal strife). The object of religious perception is precisely those natural phenomena with which a person is connected in his daily practical activities, which are of vital importance to him.

Excavations of the burial places of an ancient man, dating back to 80-40 thousand years ago, indicate that people have not yet thought about the existence of any other world than what they see around them (there are no things for life in the graves).

In burials made 30-10 thousand years ago, weapons, household items, jewelry, fruits, the bodies of the dead were covered with red paint - ocher, which indicates a person’s thoughts about the possibility of life after death. He began to consider death as a long sleep, after which a person will wake up, and he may need everyday items.

ancient forms of religion

It should be noted that the ancient beliefs did not appear in a strict order, one on the basis of the other, but they are interconnected in a complex pattern, so I think it would be reasonable to consider each form of religion separately.

totemism- one of the early forms of religion, which is based on the belief in the existence of a special kind of mystical connection between any group of people (tribe, clan) and a certain type of animal or plant (less often - natural phenomena and inanimate objects). researchers stable language turns. Later, elements of social, primarily kinship relations, were introduced into totemism.

In the purest and most convenient form for research, totemism was found among the Indians of North America, the aborigines of Australia, and the indigenous people of Central and South Africa.

Animism One of the widespread beliefs and associated symbolic actions of primitive man is animism (from Latin anima - spirit, soul) - belief in the existence of spirits and souls. The term animism was introduced by the English ethnographer E. Tylor. He believed that animism is the original, elementary form of religion, which then developed into more complex religious ideas and actions.

The essence of animism is the recognition of an independent, able to exist separately from humans, animals, plants of a certain force or creatures that can connect with them and leave them.

The earliest form of animism is the belief in spirits. The world of primitive man is inhabited by these spirits. Ethnographers are inclined to explain the appearance of this world of spirits by quite natural causes. The appearance of this world is due, in their opinion, to a peculiar interpretation by primitive man of a number of optical and acoustic phenomena: shadows, echoes, reflections, noises, the reality of which he had no reason to doubt, since their existence was evidenced by his sensory perceptions.

Fetishism. In magic, a mysterious power is endowed specific actions of people. But primitive people also believed that specific objects - fetishes (from the Portuguese feitico - an amulet, a magical thing) could be carriers of this mysterious power. Any object that struck a person's imagination could become an object of worship: an unusual stone, a piece of wood, an animal's tooth, a skillfully made figurine, a piece of jewelry.

One type of fetishism is idolatry. An idol is a material object that has been given the shape of a person or animal. This item is endowed with a mysterious power of influence.

19 Religion of ancient Greece and ancient Rome. In the beginning, the ancient Romans were pagans, worshiping mainly Greek and, to a lesser extent, Etruscan gods. Later, the mythological period was replaced by an active passion for pagan cults. Finally, at the end of the evolution of religious ideas, victory in Ancient Rome for political reasons, Christianity won, which in the 4th century, after the division of the Roman Empire into Western and Eastern, took on the specific outlines of Catholicism.

Roman prayers were devoid of ecstasy, admiration. For the Romans, this was a superstition (superstitio). In relation to the gods, as in relation to their family, as well as in relation to the entire community, it was necessary to observe fidelity, piety, expressed by the word pietas. The Roman religion did not have certain ethical standards. The main thing is the strict observance of rituals and observance of any prohibitions. Subsequently (in the 1st century BC and later), Roman writers derived the word religio from the verb religare, which means to bind, bind.

Christianity At first new era Christianity is becoming more and more widespread in ancient Rome. It has come a long way before becoming a world religion and spiritual foundation European culture. Christianity originated in the 1st century. n. e., which we count from the Nativity of Christ, and initially formed in the bosom of Judaism, as one of its sects. But the content of the preaching of Jesus of Nazareth went far beyond the national religion of the ancient Jews. It is this universal meaning of Christianity that made Jesus the Christ (Savior, Messiah) in the eyes of millions of people who find the meaning of their lives in the Christian faith.

The Roman authorities persecuted the first Christians for a long time, but after almost four centuries, thanks to Emperor Constantine, it became the state religion of the Roman Empire, bringing with it to its culture not only a new worldview, but also a new art.

The cult of ancestors occupied a great place among the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that the dead could harm living people; and to prevent this from happening, they need to be appeased, i.e. make sacrifices. It was considered especially unacceptable not to bury the ashes (lack of burial). There was an idea of ​​​​the kingdom of the dead Hades. In Hades, the dead people were divided into sinners and the righteous; sinners fell into Tartarus (a kind of hell). The doctrine of posthumous existence was called Orphism (after the name of the ancient Greek hero who visited the world of the dead).

Great importance had the performance of rituals, there were state cults. These cults were carried out periodically, as well as in commemoration of especially significant events (disasters, victories, etc.).

In the VI century. BC. A holiday was established - "Great Panathenays" in honor of the goddess Athena. For this holiday, the Acropolis was built. The ritual was performed once every four years in July-August and lasted five days. At first there were night festivities, a demonstration. Then sacrifices were made.

IN Ancient Greece there were various religious communities. The basis of religious life was the family. Families were united in phratries, phratries were united in phyla (primarily on a professional basis). There were also sects - secret organizations that gathered around the leader.

Speaking about religion, first of all it is necessary to find out: was religion originally inherent in man or did it appear at a certain stage of its development? Here we are faced with the problem - what kind of creature can be considered a man. If we consider human beings who possess the rudiments public life, then the history of mankind has about 600 thousand years. Some scientists claim that Homo sapiens - Homo sapiens - has existed for about 80 thousand years.

Archaeological data indicate that the religious beliefs of people arise somewhat later than homo sapiens appears. Excavations of the burial places of an ancient man, dating back to 80-40 thousand years ago, indicate that people have not yet thought about the existence of any other world than what they see around them (there are no things for life in the graves). In burials made 30-10 thousand years ago, weapons, jewelry, and fruits are already appearing, which testifies to the thoughts of a person about the possibility of life after death. He began to consider death as a long sleep, after which a person will wake up and he may need everyday items. This idea also contributed to the fixation of the tribe in their habitats, since the tribesmen should be nearby and support those who woke up from a long sleep.

Since the ancestors, buried in graves or burned, became invisible, they passed into the category supernatural beings, like those who threw lightning and rumbled with thunder, and therefore, it becomes necessary to allocate special places for both of them where one could communicate with them. This is how special places for religious activities appear, which further tie a person to his habitat (this happens about 10-7 thousand years ago). Unique sanctuaries appear (for example, Stonehenge in the UK - stones placed in a circle, arranged taking into account the movement of the Sun and the rotation of the Earth; or statues of long-eared giants from Easter Island).

The existence of a non-religious period in the history of mankind can be concluded on the basis of ethnographic data. In Malaysia, on the island of Ridan, several tribes of the Kubu ethnic group were discovered. They do not have generally accepted religious ideas, they are not afraid of thunderstorms, they do not think about death, they do not know how the world and its objects arose. True, they presuppose the existence of a world of spirits, which, however, have no connection with the material world. In order to make contact with the world of spirits, the priests of the Kubu tribe are forced to temporarily leave this world and move into the world of spirits, performing frenzied dances, intoxicating themselves with drugs and thus bringing themselves to ecstasy. Confusion about spiritual world suggests that they are just beginning to form in Kuku and there was a period when they were not.

So, religious ideas appear at a certain stage in the development of mankind. What are the main reasons for the emergence of religion?

intellectual: needing an explanation of natural and social phenomena and not having a sufficient level of knowledge to scientific justification observed, a person creates a fantastic interpretation that seems plausible to him by analogy with the facts that he understands;

psychological: realizing the world as something incomprehensible and hostile, ancient man he was looking for the support of powerful forces capable of coping with insoluble problems and protecting him from imaginary and real dangers. Realizing the finiteness of earthly life, people wanted to get rid of the fear of death and get hope for the eternal existence of at least part of their personality in the form of a soul or any other form.

moral: any social collective needs rules of interaction between its members, and the more complex its organization, the more dangerous it is to rely only on force. Society, in order to be stable, must also protect its weak members. Universal consciousness is unattainable, so a limiter stronger than physical strength is needed. Religion is a force that can control communication between people, because it claims to be higher power capable of constantly and rigidly controlling everyone and inevitably punishing deviations from generally accepted norms.

socio-political: developing statehood, the emergence of strata alienated from society, standing above it, growing economic and social differentiation led to the fact that the authorities needed ideological support to maintain the stability of political structures and dampen attempts by the lower classes of society to change the socio-political status quo . Religious systems, as a rule, supported the state, however, as long as the state was loyal to the leading religious structure (a striking example is the emergence of Christianity in the Roman Empire and its path from a persecuted religion to a state religion).

The development of religion took place in parallel with the development of a person's worldview and reflected the level of his worldview. In the early stages of this development, religious ideas were quite primitive. Primitive man perceived all regular phenomena as expedient or, at least, purposeful; they were conceived as being caused by the rational will. Thus, behind every phenomenon of the world, a rational being was thought to move it, which, for the successful outcome of any action, should be propitiated, made favorable. This being, or deity, was conceived not as spiritual, but as material. The deity was not distinguished by immortality, because man did not have the means to sensually and verbally represent death as non-existence. The dead was for him passed from life here to life somewhere else; in the same way, one who was born was passed over from a life somewhere else to a life here.

The most ancient religious beliefs of people were totemism and animism. totemism(in the language of the Ojibwe Indians, “totem” is his family), the term was first used in European literature at the end of the 18th century. This is a belief in a supernatural relationship that allegedly exists between a certain group of people (a primitive race) and some kind of material objects, most often animals, less often plants, etc. In the process of observing their activities, people drew attention to the similarity of individual character traits of relatives with the habits of animals, a manifestation of the natural elements. Members of this genus considered themselves connected by some special relationship with the totem; he was not revered, but considered "father", "elder brother", etc. This was expressed in the prohibition to kill a totem animal, to eat it.

Totemism arises in connection with the need for self-identification of a person, awareness of his independence, the need for an integrating idea that is common to the entire community. Totemism also reflects the inseparable connection between man and nature. This belief was a powerful psychological support: it relieved the fear of death, since primitive people believed that a person does not stop living, but reincarnates into a totem animal, shedding a weak human shell. Totem animals, in turn, could come to the aid of their kind, turning into people. This was later reflected in fairy tales (for example, the reincarnation of the Gray Wolf in a Russian fairy tale).

Totemism also included the first moral principles (for example, the system of taboos - prohibitions): to kill totem animals, and even utter evil words against them. Sometimes it was forbidden to give the name of an animal: a bear is not the name of this animal, but an allegory - a beast that knows where there is honey.

Totemic beliefs have survived to this day. Cows are sacred animals of the Hindu religion, they should not be disturbed when they are resting, even if they are across the road. In Egypt, cats, dogs, crocodiles, snakes and other animals are revered. The division of animals into "clean" and "unclean" in Judaism and Islam has totemic roots.

Among primitive beliefs there is also animism- the belief that the spiritual essence of a person can exist separately from the material. People have noticed that in a dream, when the body remains motionless, they see dreams in which they experience various events. This means that some part of the personality leaves the material shell and is temporarily absent from it, participating in various adventures in a special world. This is how the idea of ​​a country of souls arises (the fields of Ialu among the ancient Egyptians, Elisia among the ancient Greeks, Paradise among the Christians). Since people were spontaneous materialists, they believed that in the country of souls, as in our world, souls need food and household items, hence the objects necessary for earthly life appear in burial places. Humanizing the spirits, people endowed them with their own psychological features, emotions and passions and, in accordance with this, tried to negotiate with them and win favor.

The primitive man was a man of action, because the survival of the whole family sometimes depended on constant and decisive actions, so he could not passively wait for help from the spirits, but sought to make them act as quickly as possible. This desire gave rise to a special form of primitive religion - magic. In this sense, magic is closer to science than to religion, since it is science that is decisively aimed at transforming the world, although, of course, magic is based on false ideas about the laws of nature and the essence of man. The desire to use special objects in magical rituals gave rise to fetishism (from Portuguese, fetish - “sacred, magical object”). If any object contributed to the successful outcome of the case, then it was recognized as possessing magic power and became a fetish.

Soon, magicians, priests monopolized control over the manufacture of fetishes, classified this process and even protected them from the touch of strangers. The making of fetishes can be recognized as a process of generation religious art, although with regard to any early monument of art, we cannot raise the question of its religiosity, but only of whether it is used in a cult or not, since until late antiquity there were practically no other worldviews than religious ones.

There are a number of points of view regarding the place of fetishism in the process of becoming a religion. One recognizes it as the final stage in the development of primitive religious beliefs, since the manufacture of a fetish required significant knowledge and skills that the priests kept, since their possession made it possible to influence people's behavior and receive a significant share of the booty. This was the first step towards the stratification of society, which led to the disintegration of primitive relations.

Another point of view: the appearance of a fetish is the result of insufficient development of the abstract thinking of a person who needed a visible, tangible symbol. This assumption is also justified, since even in subsequent eras there are similar material incarnations of the deity: the Greeks revered Hera in the form of a board, Apollo in the form of a pyramid. Taylor, E.B. Primitive culture. - M: Publishing house watered. lit., 1989. - p.115.

It is likely that in the process of labor activity a person singled out the most successful tools of labor and, having no other support, hoped for his “lucky” tools. He animated them (the beginning of animism), persuaded them to continue to help well (elements of magic), protected them from strangers, and if they let them down, they broke them. Thus, it turns out that fetishism is the most ancient form of religion.

There are manifestations of fetishism even now, for example, the cult of holy relics in Christianity and the veneration of the Black Stone in the Kaaba temple by adherents of Islam. Rudiments of primitive beliefs are not so rare in modern life. Animism has become the basis of all religious traditions, totemism in places has survived to this day. According to sociological surveys, many contemporaries believe in the power of talismans and amulets, divination, magical rituals, and this faith is rapidly gaining strength in a turning point for nations and states of the era. Among magical actions, divination by astrologers, palmists, physiognomists, etc. is common.

Thus, primitive religious beliefs had a significant impact on the development of human society and culture, contributed to the development and strengthening of human associations and themselves changed under the influence of community development. They served as the basis for all subsequent forms of religion and their elements are still preserved, sometimes having a significant impact on the life of modern society.

How did religion come about?

How, when, and most importantly why (why) did religion appear? These are quite complex issues that cause a lot of discussion. There are two mutually exclusive answers to these questions.

• 1. Religion arose with man. In this case, man (which agrees with the biblical version) must have been created by God as a result of an act of creation. Supporters of this point of view say that if God did not exist, then the concept of him would not have arisen in human consciousness. Thus, the question of the origin of religion is removed: it exists primordially.
• 2. Religion is a product of human consciousness, that is, a person himself created (invented) God or gods, trying to understand and explain the world around him.

In the early stages of development, people had no religion. A long period in the history of human life was non-religious. The rudiments of religion appear only among paleoanthropes - ancient people who lived 80-50 thousand years ago. These people lived in the ice age, in harsh climatic conditions. Their main occupation was hunting for large animals: mammoths, rhinos, cave bears, wild horses. Paleoanthropes hunted in groups, since it was impossible to defeat a large beast alone. Weapons were made from stone, bone and wood. Animal skins served as clothing, well protecting from wind and cold. Speaking about the beginnings of religion, scientists point to their burials, which were located in caves and served as housing at the same time. For example, in the caves of Kiik-Koba and Teshik-Tash, small depressions were found, which were burial places. The skeletons in them lay in an unusual position: on their side with slightly bent knees. Meanwhile, it is known that some tribes of the globe (for example, the Papuans of the Maclay Coast in New Guinea) buried their dead bound: the hands and feet of the deceased were tied to the body with a vine, and then placed in a small wicker basket. In a similar way, people wanted to protect themselves from the dead. From above, the burials were covered with earth and stones. In the Teshik-Tash cave, the skull of a Neanderthal boy was surrounded by ten goat horns stuck into the ground. Bear skulls were found in special boxes made of stone slabs in Peterskhele cave (Germany). Apparently, by preserving the bear skulls, people believed that this would allow the killed animals to return to life again. This custom (to preserve the bones of dead animals) existed for a long time among the peoples of the North and Siberia.

During the Late Stone Age (40-10 thousand years ago), society became more developed, and religious ideas became more complex. In the burials of Cro-Magnons, not only remains were found, but also tools and household items. The dead were rubbed with ocher and put on jewelry - this suggests that the Cro-Magnons had a belief in afterlife. Everything that a person on earth used, and that was believed to be useful in the afterlife, was placed in the grave. Thus, in ancient world a funeral cult arose.

Man's life was spent in a stubborn struggle with the surrounding nature, before which he experienced powerlessness and fear. The impotence of primitive man is the reason that gave rise to religion.

Man did not know the true causes of the phenomena of the surrounding nature, and everything in it seemed mysterious and mysterious to him - thunder, earthquake, forest fire and pouring rain. He was constantly threatened by various disasters: cold, hunger, attack by predatory animals. He felt like a weak and defenseless being, completely dependent on the world around him. Epidemics claimed many of his relatives every year, but he did not know the cause of their death. The hunt had been successful and unsuccessful, but he didn't know why. He had a feeling of anxiety, fear.

Consequently, religion arose because primitive man was powerless before nature. But the most ancient people were even more helpless. Why didn't they have a religion? The fact is that religion could not have arisen before the consciousness of man had reached a certain level of development.

In religious studies, it is customary to single out social, socio-cultural, anthropological, psychological and epistemological determinants. They are commonly referred to as the "roots of religions". They are a complex of factors that create the necessity and possibility of the appearance and existence of religions.

Ultimately, material relations are decisive, but their influence is indirect, but religion is directly influenced by politics, the state, morality, philosophy, and science. The basis of religion is a set of social relations that produce the objective impotence of people in front of external circumstances.

Anthropological roots cover those aspects of a person's life as an individual and as a "cumulative person" in which the fragility of being, the limitations of existence - illness, mutation, death, the threat of rebirth and disappearance of mankind, and so on.

The psychological prerequisites for religion exist in individual and social psychology, in those psychological processes in which one experiences the limitations and dependence of people's existence.

Finally, religion has an epistemological basis - the cognitive activity of man. Human cognition is a process of transition from ignorance to knowledge, from less complete to more complete knowledge, a movement through relative truths to absolute, objective truth. However, at each stage there are unknown spheres of reality (there is "secret"). The obtained knowledge is relative, the reflection cannot be complete and adequate. Knowledge gained about objects at a certain stage of their development becomes obsolete over time.

The process of cognition displaces incorrect views, increases the volume of true information, but in historically developing cognition, true knowledge is combined with delusions.

There are contradictions between the human knowledge, which by its nature and possibilities is unlimited, and the actual implementation of it in each this moment. Cognition is an activity of mankind, but exists only as an individual knowledge of billions of people. Unlimited cognition of the world by mankind is carried out only through individual limited and limitedly cognizing people.

The favorable epistemological ground of religion is created by the separation from each other of the sensual and rational stages of cognition and their separation from practice. This ground exists both at the level of sensory cognition - sensations, perceptions, ideas, and at the level of abstract thinking - concepts, judgments, conclusions.

For society as a whole, religion acts as a powerful means of social integration, rallying people on the basis of common beliefs that give higher meaning their activities" comforting them in case of disappointment and thus preventing the chaos of social life.

In social terms, religion is realized as a special social institution - the church, whose ministers act as a kind of "mediators" between God and people. Of course, not all philosophers and sociologists positively assessed the role of religion in human culture. K. Marx's attitude to religion is known as a distorted form of consciousness that promotes the exploitation of the masses, "opium for the people." Z. Freud also had a negative attitude towards religion, considering it as a peculiar disease of society, as a form of drug intoxication.

Describing the emergence of religion, it is necessary to point out the prerequisites for its emergence and early forms of its existence.

Animism is a system of views based on the personification of natural phenomena, anthropomorphic endowing them with the properties and abilities of a person.

Belief in the independent life of a soul liberated from the body gives rise to faith in the possibility of contact with dead souls. This is based on the peculiarity of primitive thinking, associated with the indistinguishability of the objective, that which is outside of man, and the subjective, that which is the product of his mind. So, for example, images visible to man in a dream, were perceived as real as the world around him, and both were objectively significant. Therefore, communication in a dream with dead or absent people was perceived in the same way as a meeting with the living, which was fixed in special rituals and ceremonies.

At the same time, the fear of the appearance of dead souls gives rise to a whole system of protective rites, the purpose of which is to prevent them from appearing in the form of ghosts. This can be observed in the funeral rite (a special procedure for taking the body out of the house, the position of the body during burial, the very fact of compulsory burial, funeral rites, etc.).

Ghosts appear to living people in the form of ghosts, that is, incorporeal shadows. Especially often and unbidden are the ghosts of those souls whose bodies were not buried according to custom, as well as the souls of suicides or those who were forcibly killed. Signs of animism in one form or another are present in all religions.

Totemism is a system of primitive ideas based on the belief in a supernatural relationship between a group of people (genus) and totems, which can be animal and plant species, less often natural phenomena and inanimate objects. In addition to the generic totem, primitive people, and, above all, leaders and sorcerers, had individual totems. Totemistic representations underlie all myths, fairy tales and are included as special ritual items to advanced religions.

Fetishism is a belief in the supernatural properties of special objects (fetishes), which could be anything - from an unusually shaped stone, a piece of wood or part of an animal to an image in the form of a statuette (idols). S. L. Tokarev notes that fetishism, apparently, arises as a form of "individualization of religion" and is associated with the collapse of old family ties. "An individual, feeling insufficiently protected by the tribal team and its patrons, is looking for support in the world of mysterious forces."

Fetishes develop into a system of talismans, which are figurines of gods that were placed in a dwelling, or amulets - items to be worn on the body with various spells that also performed protective functions. Consequently, people sought protection and found it in religion (at this stage - in primitive beliefs).

The endowment of the talisman with magical healing functions is associated with primitive ideas that the spirit of illness can be embodied in a number of objects. People wear talismans, believing in their mysterious power. Gradually, this takes on the character of a tradition, when the original meaning of the talisman is forgotten, and it turns into an object of decoration.

Magic is primitive ideas about the possibility of a supernatural effect of evil or good forces on other people, livestock, housing, etc. At the heart of faith in magical powers and means lies the ability of human consciousness to associate, which allows you to combine in thinking things that are incompatible in reality. As a result, a system of connections, fictional patterns is created, thanks to which it is possible to influence the world. Subjective experiences and the belief based on them in the existence of evil and good spirits were as real for a person as his surrounding world. And just as a person built his relationships with the real world, he tried to build them with the world of spirits.

Magical knowledge is implicit, secret. The result of magical actions could not be of a generally significant nature, it was always individual, and only people initiated into this performed a magical action. Therefore, the effectiveness of magical actions and spells was determined only by the result, that is, retroactively, and in the case of a negative result, one could always refer to the failure to perform some magical actions or simply a stronger opposition from other spirits.

Magic as a means of practical impact on the world is associated with specific forms of human life. It is possible to allocate economic, medical (white), harmful (black) magic. (People distinguished good from evil, positive from negative, and tried to consolidate these differences through religion).

Despite the fact that a number of religions do not approve of magic and witchcraft, elements of magical actions and rituals are present in filmed form in all religions.

Any religion is made up of three main elements: a worldview, life standards and a mystical feeling, which finds external expression in a cult.

Of course, we must understand the word "cult" very broadly here. Even in those religions where their outward expressions are reduced to a minimum, some kind of "cult" still exists. It is natural for a person to associate his inner experiences with some actions, to "clothe" them in something. Hence the word "rite" (from "clothe", "clothe"). In intercourse, people can never avoid even the simplest form of ritual.

In the majority of "wild" peoples, we find the next stage of development - shamanism. Here, the chosen ones come first, those who are trying to pave the way to superhuman powers.

Ecstatic states of trance make the shaman a medium and a clairvoyant; fellow tribesmen resort to him to resolve various everyday issues. He unmistakably points out where to find the missing deer in the taiga, where you need to go in order to be successful in hunting.

Shamanism is not a simple superstition, but one of the ancient attempts of man to break through to the lost Eden. But more often than not, these attempts led him down the slippery slope of the occult, and in seeking to master the world of our spirits, he himself found himself at their mercy.

Common in the primitive religious ideas of many peoples is the idea of ​​three cosmic regions and the World Pillar. So, in shamanism there are three floors of the universe - Heaven, Earth and Hell, which are equally accessible to shamans. All three levels are connected by one axis. supernatural sacrifice supplication cosmogonic

Through the hole that pierces each sphere at the point where the axis passes, the soul of the shaman can travel, penetrating to any level.

A reflection of these cosmological constructions is the attributes of the dwelling and the life of the peoples who profess shamanism in general (the pillar in the middle of the dwelling is a symbol of the World Pillar). For some peoples, the World Mountain serves as a means of communication between the spheres of Heaven and Earth. Thus, Mount Tabor in Palestine was called "tabbur eresh", which means "navel of the earth". The shaman climbs the World Mountain during his initiatory illness and later visits it during his ecstatic journeys.

Paganism, mythology (religious beliefs) are part of a huge universal complex of primitive views, beliefs, rituals, coming from the depths of millennia and serving as the basis for all later world religions.

Today it is difficult to give an unambiguous answer to the question which of the religions is the oldest, which arose first. Archaeological excavations give more and more new ground for the next conclusions regarding the emergence of religion.

Islam is a young religion

Surrendering oneself to God - this is translated from Arabic as "Islam". This religion, which is one of the world's, originated only in the seventh century. Its followers are Muslims, whose communities are in one hundred and twenty countries. Twenty-three percent of the world's population is Muslim. In forty-nine states they are in the majority.

From a historical point of view, this is a very young religion. gaining personal experience, not harming anyone, openness to the gaze of God - this is what lies at the heart of Islam. Believers believe that only God decides when to create a soul, and when to dissolve it, respectively, it does not appear with birth and does not disappear at the moment of death of a person. According to Muslims, only Allah decides the fate of a person.

This religion can be called the youngest also because the average Muslim is only twenty-three years old.

What was ancient Christianity like?

The traditional worldview of the population has undergone significant changes with the advent of new religion- Christianity. It appeared at the end of the first century BC - in the first half of the first century AD in the Eastern Mediterranean.

With the advent of Christianity, the mythological idea of ​​​​life and the world order began to crumble, and there was a belief in a savior god who could save every person. Justice became the main attribute of a just and pure god.

The cults of the Eastern Mediterranean manifested themselves in various forms. In the end, the soil was prepared for the spread of Christianity, since it was in it that the trends that had arisen by that time found their greatest embodiment. In early Christianity, suffering was deified, since God's grace was revealed exclusively to the suffering. Faith called for unity in love, not dividing people into strangers and friends.

Christians perceived themselves on earth as temporary wanderers. At the center of the teaching, at the same time, was precisely man, bearing responsibility for his actions and having the opportunity to choose his path to the Kingdom of God. This was the beginning of the transformation of Christianity into a world religion.

At first, the followers of the preacher Jesus were only a small group. The doctrine of it arose in the first half of the first century AD. Jesus, continuing the prophetic movement, at first acted as a prophet. He opposed ritual regulation, formal rituals, which influenced the further spread of Christianity.

The idea of ​​Christian mercy was to help all those who suffer, and the causes of these sufferings are not important, it does not matter whether it is a woman or a man, a poor man, a cripple or a harlot. Mercy was for the individual. Christianity said that anyone can be saved through faith. Gradually, Christianity, conquering the souls of people, began to turn into a world religion.

The oldest religion on earth

The oldest religion in the world of the now known (we do not take into account the primitive cults) is Zoroastrianism. The exact chronologization of the teaching that originated in Iran is difficult due to the prescription of years. Most experts agree that the roots of Zoroastrianism go back to the sixth millennium BC, which means that the age of Zoroastrianism exceeds 7 thousand years. The first written monuments of this religion appeared at the turn of the new era, but at that time Zoroastrianism was already extremely ancient. The first material sources of the teachings were written down in the now dead language of the Avesta, which is the name of the sacred book of the Zoroastrians.

The central place of Zoroastrianism is occupied by the deity Ahura Mazda - the beginningless creator of all things, the father of all the laws of the universe and the leader of the side of Good in the fight against Evil, which occurs in the world without his permission. His only prophet among the people was Zarathustra, who, according to the teachings, conveyed to the people the truth about God's revelation and opened their eyes to bad customs: bloody raids on neighboring tribes, looting, teachings of priests that encourage violence.

Zoroastrianism had a huge impact on the Abrahamic religions, including the largest ones: Judaism, Christianity, Islam.

What other ancient religions are there

Several of the most ancient religions are known. One of these is the religion of the Sumerians. They had a rather complex pantheon of gods. Man had to subordinate his life to the service of these gods. Intermediaries between people and the seven main gods were the gods, who were called the Anunnaki.

One of the most unusual is the religion of the Incas. Their pantheon is very diverse, as, conquering new peoples, they added their deities to their pantheon. Of the modern world religions, the most ancient is Buddhism. It appeared more than two and a half thousand years ago. The basis was the ancient teachings of India - the desire for the divine principle, nirvana and enlightenment. This can be achieved only by rising above all attachments, through meditation and self-improvement. It is known about such ancient religions as the religion of the Druids, Celtic beliefs, shamanism, etc.

New religious movements appear almost every year. The site has a detailed article on the youngest religion.
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As well as their classifications. In religious studies, it is customary to distinguish the following types: tribal, national and world religions.

Buddhism

- most ancient world religion. It originated in the 6th century. BC e. in India, and is currently distributed in the countries of South, Southeast, Central Asia and the Far East and has about 800 million followers. Tradition links the emergence of Buddhism with the name of Prince Siddhartha Gautama. His father hid bad things from Gautama, he lived in luxury, married his beloved girl, who bore him a son. The impetus for a spiritual upheaval for the prince, as the legend says, was four meetings. At first he saw a decrepit old man, then a leprous sufferer and a funeral procession. So Gautama learned old age, sickness and death are the fate of all people. Then he saw a peaceful, impoverished wanderer who needed nothing from life. All this shocked the prince, made him think about the fate of people. He secretly left the palace and family, at the age of 29 he became a hermit and tried to find. As a result of deep reflection, at the age of 35 he became a Buddha - enlightened, awakened. For 45 years, the Buddha preached his teaching, which can be briefly reduced to the following main ideas.

Life is suffering, the cause of which are the desires and passions of people. To get rid of suffering, it is necessary to renounce earthly passions and desires. This can be achieved by following the path of salvation indicated by the Buddha.

After death, any Living being, including man, is reborn again, but already in the form of a new living being, whose life is determined not only by its own behavior, but also by the behavior of its "predecessors".

We must strive for nirvana, i.e., dispassion and peace, which are achieved by renunciation of earthly attachments.

Unlike Christianity and Islam Buddhism lacks the idea of ​​God as the creator of the world and its ruler. The essence of the doctrine of Buddhism boils down to a call to every person to embark on the path of seeking inner freedom, complete liberation from all the shackles that life brings.

Christianity

It arose in the 1st century. n. e. in the eastern part of the Roman Empire - Palestine - as addressed to all the humiliated, thirsting for justice. It is based on the idea of ​​messianism - the hope for the Divine deliverer of the world from everything bad that is on Earth. Jesus Christ suffered for the sins of people, whose name in Greek means "Messiah", "Savior". By this name, Jesus is associated with the Old Testament traditions about the coming to the land of Israel of a prophet, a messiah who will free the people from suffering and establish a righteous life - God's kingdom. Christians believe that the coming of God to Earth will be accompanied by the Last Judgment, when He will judge the living and the dead, direct them to heaven or hell.

Basic Christian ideas:

• Belief that God is one, but He is a Trinity, i.e. God has three "persons": the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, which form the one God who created the Universe.
• Faith in the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ - the second person of the Trinity, God the Son - this is Jesus Christ. He has two natures simultaneously: Divine and human.
• Faith in Divine grace - a mysterious power sent by God to free a person from sin.
• Belief in the afterlife and afterlife.
• Belief in the existence of good spirits - angels and evil spirits - demons, along with their master Satan.

The holy book of Christians is Bible, which means "book" in Greek. The Bible consists of two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the oldest part of the Bible. New Testament(actually Christian works) includes: four gospels (from Luke, Mark, John and Matthew); the deeds of the holy apostles; Epistles and Revelation of John the Theologian.

In the IV century. n. e. Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. Christianity is not one. It split into three streams. In 1054 Christianity split into Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church. In the XVI century. The Reformation, an anti-Catholic movement, began in Europe. The result was Protestantism.

And recognize seven christian sacraments: baptism, chrismation, repentance, communion, marriage, priesthood and unction. The source of doctrine is the Bible. The differences are mainly as follows. In Orthodoxy there is no single head, there is no idea of ​​purgatory as a place of temporary accommodation for the souls of the dead, the priesthood does not give a vow of celibacy, as in Catholicism. At the head catholic church there is a pope elected for life, the center of the Roman Catholic Church is the Vatican - a state that occupies several quarters in Rome.

It has three main streams: Anglicanism, Calvinism And Lutheranism. Protestants consider that the condition for the salvation of a Christian is not formal observance of rituals, but his sincere personal faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Their teaching proclaims the principle of a universal priesthood, which means that every lay person can preach. Virtually all Protestant denominations have reduced the number of sacraments to a minimum.

Islam

Appeared in the 7th century. n. e. among the Arab tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. This is the youngest of the world. There are followers of Islam more than 1 billion people.

The founder of Islam is a historical figure. He was born in 570 in the city of Mecca, which at that time was a fairly large city at the crossroads of trade routes. In Mecca, there was a shrine revered by most pagan Arabs - the Kaaba. Muhammad's mother died when he was six years old, his father died before his son was born. Muhammad was brought up in the family of his grandfather, a noble family, but impoverished. At the age of 25, he became the manager of the household of the wealthy widow Khadija and soon married her. At the age of 40, Muhammad acted as a religious preacher. He declared that God (Allah) chose him as his prophet. The ruling elite of Mecca did not like the sermon, and by 622 Muhammad had to move to the city of Yathrib, later renamed Medina. 622 is considered the beginning of the Muslim chronology according to lunar calendar and Mecca is the center of the Muslim religion.

The Holy Book of Muslims is a processed record of Muhammad's sermons. During the lifetime of Muhammad, his statements were perceived as the direct speech of Allah and were transmitted orally. A few decades after the death of Muhammad, they were written down and will compose the Qur'an.

plays an important role in the beliefs of Muslims Sunnah - collection of instructive stories about the life of Muhammad and Sharia - a set of principles and rules of conduct binding on Muslims. The most serious ipexa.Mii among Muslims are usury, drunkenness, gambling and adultery.

The place of worship for Muslims is called a mosque. Islam forbids depicting a person and living creatures; hollow mosques are decorated only with ornaments. There is no clear division between clergy and laity in Islam. Any Muslim who knows the Qur'an, Muslim laws and rules of worship can become a mullah (priest).

Ritualism is given great importance in Islam. You may not know the intricacies of faith, but you should strictly follow the main rites, the so-called five pillars of Islam:

• pronouncing the formula of the confession of faith: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet”;
• performing a daily fivefold prayer (prayer);
• fasting in the month of Ramadan;
• giving alms to the poor;
• making a pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj).