Comparative Study on the Origin of Religion Essay

Since the early 1800s, there had been an ample bar of skeptics trying to account for the furrow of godliness. The basic question on perpetuallyybodys disposition was where does devotion come from? Some believed that volume actual religious belief beca pulmonary tuberculosis they didnt understand the forces of nature some them. Others believe that religion was created as a way of restrain concourse.In the 19th century, people were introduced to loving science and anthropologists who once studied primitive culture were exposed to some(prenominal) theories on the starting time of religion. Edward B Tylor was one of the first who developed a speculation on religion. Max Muller was a German prof at Oxford University whose interest included Indian mythology and the study of religion. Another anthropologist was George Frazer who let on contri plainlyions to religious anthropology was a religious encyclopedia. There are many explanations to the rip of religion, one of the mo st prominent being Edward B.Tylors theory of animism. This theory is considered the foundation of the physical maturation of religion two other authoritative religious anthropologists, Max Muller and James Frazer, also based their explanations of the origin of religion on nature. All three religious anthropologists are standardised in the sense that they tintd the evolution of religion in an attempt to work up out the origin of it but differ in the way they set about the concept of religion. Edward B. Tylor developed the theory of animism to help explain the most key form of religion.Animism is defined as the belief that attributes understandings and spirits to humans, plants, animals and other entities. animistic religious beliefs are well-known among primitive societies who were so low in culture as to have no religious conceptions what so ever (Tylor). Tylor considered animism as the most primitive phase in the development of religion. He believed that the reflection o f dreams and the observation of death ca employ primitive people to develop the bringing close together of souls and spirits. Tylor thought that primitive people believed that everything in nature had a soul within it.He hypothesized that a belief in animism light-emitting diode to the organisation of a more generalized god and, eventually, the creation of monotheism. Animism ultimately led to the evolution of religion in the minds of the people. It led them to take something so open as nature and use it to explain the natural phenomenon in their environment. A conflicting theory that uses the concept of evolution is that of Max Muller. Another theory of the origin of religion was developed by Max Muller. He believed that people first developed religion from the observation of nature. According to his theory, primitive people became aware of regularity of the seasons, the tides and the phases of the moon. Their response to these forces in nature was to personalize them(Hopfe and Woodward). They personalized them through linguals. Muller believed that development of religion was a cause of mix-up in language (Goldsmith). There seems to be a divide between Muller and Tylor over the nature of the origin of religion. Max Muller believed that the dissolver to the sole origin of religion could be found in the last(prenominal) and a person can trace its origin in the linguistic remnants in the Indo-European languages.Tylor thought that implementing an ethnological approach would be more successful than studying languages for answers of the origin of religion. Evolution of religion is evident in Mullers theory because they personified the forces of nature, created myths to describe their activities, and eventually developed pantheons and religions rough them (Hopfe and Woodward). By developing religions and pantheons from identifying the forces in nature is a clear stain of the evolution of religion in the human mind set.Even though their theories are diffe rent, the idea of evolution of religion in the human mind is evident in both Muller and Tylors theory. Sir James George Frazer, a fellow religious anthropologist, began developing his own theories on religion. Frazer believed that humans used magic as a way to control nature and the events around them and when that failed, they turned to religion. They used religion to control the events for a while and when religion failed they turned to science. Frazers theories were similar to those of Tylor.They both believed that the human mind developed in the same way as that of physical evolution.. Even though Frazer took a similar approach to Tylor in tracing the origin of religion, he modified Tylors theory and replaced Tylors theory of animism with his idea of magic. A similarity between Frazer and Tylor is that they both believed that religion began from an intentional method of describing and fashioning sense of a strange world. Frazer replaces the idea that religion explains nature by introducing science as a substitute.Frazers approach to tracing the origin of religion is similar to that of Tylor and Muller since all three traced the evolution of religion in an attempt to figure out its origin. Both Muller and Frazers theory are similar to Tylors theory since both trace the origin of religion through the evolution of it but differ in the way they interpret religion. All three of them seemed to miss a springy element of religion which is that no one who practices religion is doing so to explain how the world works. People use religion for several reasons. Some use it to give meaning to their lives while others use it to enforce social order. possibly all three anthropologists didnt miss this key component but rather didnt know about it due to the rapid evolution of religion.