10 Things That Prove Religions Are Made By Humans

1 0 Things That Prove Religion is Made by Humans (NOT a God/Goddess):

Religions are belief systems; idea structures that are built from dreams. The dreams that create

rel igions vary from the otherworldly visions of mystics and prophets to the transcendent ones of

a group wishing for a better world, or sharing hallucinogenic trances. But whether utopian,

apocalyptic, or visionary, the systems are the products of our subconscious minds. Religions

are made of our hopes, fears, and desires, and proof of their human origin is obvious and easy

to find.

The clearest most compell ing evidence of the human origin of rel igion is the way rel igions

constantly evolve. Divine or supernatural creations should – in theory, be perfect and need no

change. But rel igious beliefs are forever changing; just look at the examples below.

1 . Religions have changed in response to developments in technology and culture.

Radical changes in rel igions have occurred as human societies themselves have changed over

the course of history. Hominids (that is, human-l ike creatures) have existed for about 5 mil l ion

years; the use of fire goes back about 1 mil l ion years; Homo Sapiens sapiens, our own species,

is about 200,000 years old.

Over that entire span of time, there is no evidence of any kind of spiritual bel ief. The first

evidence we have dates about 40,000 years ago to the end of the Pleistocene age (the ice

ages in Europe). At that time the first known burials occur, indicating a belief in some sort of

afterl ife, along with the first artwork and grave offerings

The artwork is mainly cave paintings, which depict human animal hybrids scholars think are

shamans or magicians, and carved figurines of exaggerated feminine figures, possessing

swollen breasts and bell ies. While we can't be certain of the meaning of this art, the symbolism

is fairly clear. Humans were struggl ing for survival, and the main concerns of the group were

success in the hunt, and ferti l i ty.

The grave offerings we recognize from pollen; flowers laid in graves, and also bones - both

human and animal, bearing the marks of teeth and knives, the first evidence of human and

animal sacrifice. Religion emerged just as human societies themselves began to develop.

Religions have changed radical ly over the mil lennia;human sacrifice is no longer widely practiced.

2. Religions changed again with the domestication of animals and agriculture.

Religions changed dramatical ly with the next phase of technological development – the

domestication of animals (about 1 5,000 years ago), and agriculture (starting about 6000 years

ago). With herds of animals came the concept of property, different social classes, the

special ization of labor, and the building of priesthoods and temples.

Special ization – the creation of trades, summoned forth gods and goddesses. Before this there

were just spirits, some more important than others. The sun, the moon, the hunt God and the

mother Goddess – these were gradually crowded out by more detai led divinities as human

activities became more complex. Goddesses of love, wisdom, and the home, gods of wine, of

war, and so on. Deities changed as human societies did. The less we became concerned with

animals and bare survival the more complex rel igions became. I t is bl indingly obvious that

rel igions have evolved right alongside human cultures.

Ancient coins: Bottom: the first coins - far l . a Lydian stater; m. Aeginetan stater,(front), far r. Aeginetan stater (back), Top: Chinese coins dating from c. 600 BCE to 1 4CE. Lydia and Aegina were the first city-states to mint coins.

3. Radical rel igious changes came with the invention of money.

The greatest change to rel igion came at the same time as the invention of money. The concept

of coinage leads to the “commoditization of nature”. This is the idea that nature belongs to

humans, and its only value is the one we assign it. This violates ancient ideas about nature,

namely that nature is a sacred being deserving of worship with whom we have a spiritual

relationship. There is considerable evidence that the philosophical crisis money causes gave

rise to the monotheistic rel igions.

Monotheistic rel igions developed only along trade routes that lead from ancient Greece in the

west to China in the east (the sole exception was Egypt – and that was a special case involving

a ruler attempting to break the power of a priestly caste). The first coinage emerged in ancient

Lydia about 640 BCE, along the southern shores of the Black Sea. Comparing a timeline of the

historical figures responsible for the first monotheistic rel igions makes the connection obvious.

Timeline: Pythagorus Zoroaster Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) Lao Tzu

b.580 BCE 620-583 BCE 560?-483 BCE 604-51 4 BCE

Vardharmana (Jainism) Kung Fu Tzu

599-527 BCE (Confucius)

551 -478

Cultural Responses: Greeks (no gods needed; rational ity); Persians (dualism; good v. evil);

Indians (Buddhism: world is evil/pain; Jains: l ife is sacred);

Chinese (Taoism: nature is teacher; Confucians: hierarchy/control).

Within a span of 1 50 years – the blink of an eye compared to 6000 years of recorded history,

coinage had spread throughout the ancient world, and every major monotheistic belief system

emerged. The later rel igions of Christianity and Islam are the direct descendants of Judaism,

whose monotheistic aspects derive from Zoroastrian dualism.

4. Religions were transformed by the triumph of the scientific method.

The last great shift in rel igions occurred in response to the triumph of empiricism, also known

as the scientific method. Science demands proof, and its immense success in control l ing

nature has infected rel igion. Modern rel igions – those that have developed since the Industrial

Revolution, have been forced along with ancient rel igions to focus on spiritual ity, and the need

for believers to have an actual mystical experience.

Science has so altered the worldview of people around the globe that no belief system can

retain credibi l ity without providing some kind of evidence that supports its beliefs, at least

minimally. The rise of Pentecostal ism and the Charismatic movements (in Protestant and

Catholic congregations, respectively) - emphasizing a direct experiential connection to God,

are a good example of this trend. They are among the very few branches of Christianity that

continue to attract new followers.

5. No universal definition of good and evil .

Another proof that rel igion is a human artifact is the lack of any universal definition of good and

evil . Huge differences in ethics occur between cultures depending on geographical conditions

and the attitudes and needs of each society. There is no 'divine' standard; human concerns

determine what is right and wrong.

For example, the Inuits (Eskimo), and other tribes in harsh climates, find survival difficult, and

unproductive extra mouths can mean starvation for al l . Inuit ethics demands that when elders

can no longer contribute they go out onto the ice unti l they die of exposure or are eaten by polar

bears. Suicide by the elderly was considered the correct and proper thing to do in Inuit society

(unti l very recent times). Another example is the concept of spiritual purity. In some societies

entire races of people are considered 'unclean', as with the 'Untouchables' in the Hindu caste

system, whereas in other cultures some objects or animals are spiritual ly impure. What one

group holds it highest honor can be considered disgusting in another – such as the Hindu

sacred cow versus the Muslim impure pig. The two groups eat and revile each other's sacred

animals, causing great grief and violence in India where they live side-by-side.

6. Mythologies/rel igious stories differ radical ly. How life and the universe came into being; why

people behave as they do; the way people should l ive – all these derive from mythology. The

stories that provide the answers to these questions differ so much from one society to another

they might as well be from different planets.

As the eminent mythographer Joseph Campbell pointed out, there are “A thousand faces of

God”, and in his bri l l iant work on mythology - “Hero of a Thousand Faces”, he outl ines the

fascinating differences (and similarities) between cultural hero archetypes. One of his principal

themes is the arbitrary nature of myths - so dependent on geographical factors and the

peculiarities of a given culture.

7. The rel igious definition of reality. Termed cosmology

and metaphysics, this is also clearly a product of

human culture. Time, place, and historical imperative all

determine the nature of reality, and therefore the

foundation of rel igion itself.

Religious explanations of how the universe operates

fal l along a spectrum, from ones like Animism, that

believe the world is purely spiritual, where magic

controls everything, to (at the other end) ‘scientific’

rel igions such as Scientology, that insist the world is

purely physical, without supernatural influences, a

place fol lowing inflexible scientific laws. Metaphysics

and cosmology flow from a religion’s founding

mythology - so it’s natural they should vary so wildly

from group to group, through history.

400 years ago, the story of the sorcererFaust was European 'real ity'.

8.The idea of the afterl ife (utopia or heaven). is also obviously based on human desires and

needs, not on some divine or spiritual being. What one group considers perfect bl iss, another

considers torture. For Muslims heaven is (for men) an eternal supply of virgins and hashish;

Christians see it as sexless spirits eternal ly singing hymns to God; Animists see the return to

Earth as a river, mountain or a flower as ideal. That's the nature of dreams - bizarre and lacking

any (except internal) logic.

The very idea that a “perfect” place exists itself disproves any rel igious claim to supremacy - as

it’s impossible that one environment - however “divinely” designed, could satisfy every human

culture as being perfect bl iss - a precondition of heaven (if one believes in an omnipotent

God/Goddess, of course).

9. Religions are all focused on human archetypes,

namely – they all posit a family structure for deities,

they all concern themselves with human meaning, and

all rely on teachers and believers ignoring or criticizing

alternative kinds of communities.

Humans may be very special beings, with a highly

developed consciousness and tool-using abil ities. But

the conceit of rel igions grotesquely inflates this to

cosmic proportions. Humans are - after al l , only one

species on a planet containing mil l ions of other beings,

many of them possessing highly developed consc- Human conceit: divine beings are alwayshumanoid (at least, those created after theBronze Age).

-iousnesses of their own (whales and dolphins are both l ikely equal to humans in the

complexity of their cultures, and the great apes are closer than we’d l ike to believe, just to

name a few cases). That a creator would choose to slavishly fol low the quirks and habits of

only one of his creations is ridiculous.

1 0. Religions cater to human needs. Where science seeks an understanding of nature and the

physical, rel igion is concerned with providing comfort to humans – hope, a sense of community,

meaning, and a way to create a legacy. Religion is the sharing of dreams and nightmares and is

an attempt to make them real.

Not al l rel igions devote themselves solely to serving human desires, but al l formed to deal with

the needs of the communities/groups that spawned them, and this - above all , proves the

human origin of rel igions. No rel igion would long survive if it didn’t serve believers in some

fundamental way, a fact that is at odds with any concept of the supernatural or divine - beings

that, by definition, are beyond human cares and concerns.

I f you enjoyed this article and would l ike to read more on this subject, please visit my website at:

http: //www.thenatureofrel igion. info, or check out my book (The Nature of Religion, by T.M.Hoy)

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