The Religious Animal...

[seer]

Fear of death, wonder, mystery, etc... Are often used to suggest as to why human beings seem to be inherently religious. We have these questions and fears so we answer them with some form of divinity. But it would be easy to imagine rational beings who develop in the face of the same questions without jumping to a divine conclusion, the jump is not necessary. It looks as if the propensity to see or accept the divine exists before the questions even arise. An intrinsic inclination...

[eider]

Fear of death, wonder, mystery, etc... Are often used to suggest as to why human beings seem to be inherently religious. We have these questions and fears so we answer them with some form of divinity. But it would be easy to imagine rational beings who develop in the face of the same questions without jumping to a divine conclusion, the jump is not necessary. It looks as if the propensity to see or accept the divine exists before the questions even arise. An intrinsic inclination...

But that is not religion. It is possible to feel the existence of deity without clustering together within any one common belief about it.

No. Religion is a clustering of people together as a group, and no doubt early man did cluster in to churches (congregations) to give recognition to their Deities.
But so do Atheists, and Agnostics....... so do animals, come to think of it.

And so mankind is not necessarily religious, but more ...... congregationalist.

[seer]

But that is not religion. It is possible to feel the existence of deity without clustering together within any one common belief about it.

No. Religion is a clustering of people together as a group, and no doubt early man did cluster in to churches (congregations) to give recognition to their Deities.
But so do Atheists, and Agnostics....... so do animals, come to think of it.

And so mankind is not necessarily religious, but more ...... congregationalist.

My post was not about religion per se that is why I said: We have these questions and fears so we answer them with some form of divinity. But it would be easy to imagine rational beings who develop in the face of the same questions without jumping to a divine conclusion, the jump is not necessary

[eider]

My post was not about religion per se that is why I said: We have these questions and fears so we answer them with some form of divinity. But it would be easy to imagine rational beings who develop in the face of the same questions without jumping to a divine conclusion, the jump is not necessary

Not so much divinity, as 'supernatural', maybe.

[seer]

Not so much divinity, as 'supernatural', maybe.

Yes divinity - even multiple gods or spirits. But we can call it supernatural. The point in my OP remain the same.