The history of religion begins with the history of man. Through archeology we have found that there were idols and symbols that were worshiped and glorified. Some were magic and some were religious. They coexisted with one another (and continue to do so today in some “religions”). These symbols and idols ruled daily life for the primitive nomadic man and briefly continued into the life of the agrarian man.
With the understanding of life’s cycles, the idols became less impactful whilst the gods grew more powerful. It was soon understood that a symbol of a corn cob was a very small piece of the puzzle that was agriculture; therefore there must be a god that looks after the whole rather than the piece. Though little is actually known of these people and it is more speculation from the findings than certainty, we do know that for thousands of years burial sites included these grave images. One conclusion is that these images are the discovery of gods in primitive societies (Stark, 2007).
The belief in these gods either began simultaneously or spread like fire throughout the kingdoms making that time period, named the Axial Age[i], the first age of enlightenment. Careful studies of the humans of this era have given rise to the fact that they needed to give divinity to common place things: e.g. fire in the hearth became Agni; thunder, lightning and rain was Mithra; the creator of the world was Dyas Piter; just to name a few (Armstrong, The Great Transformation , 2006). And these gods needed to be appeased or fed in order for prosperity to occur or be maintained.
[i] The Axial Age is a term developed by Carl Jaspers, a German philosopher, and pertains to the similar thinking that simultaneously spread through India, China and the Occident.
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