THE MAKING OF RELIGION: MYTHS AND BELIEFS

Ali Syed
A pragmatic philosopher says,” Men worship God not only because without God there is
no truth, but also because without God there is no happiness.”
There is scarcely any doubt about the fact that religion has immensely influenced
mankind in all lands and in all ages. Its followers have, wittingly or unwittingly,
manipulated and used the beliefs of people quite differently from how they were actually
envisioned by the founders of religion. In Pakistani society, too, religion is regarded as
the underlying meaning of the creation of state in 1947. In consequence, the ruling
classes have employed Islam as means to political power to the detriment of masses. All
educational texts and historical writings manifest highly partisan and prejudiced outlook.
It is thanks to the ruling classes whose short-sightedness, ulterior motives and
exploitation of religious sentiments resulted in intellectual intolerance regarding sacred
ideological foundations of Pakistan.In historical writings any questions about holy
ideology of Pakistan are considered dangerous to moral development of nation. It
resulted in stifling the spirit of free inquiry and by begetting an intolerant, partisan,
impatient, and emasculated understanding of history and society. Islam the most
advanced and knowledge loving of religions has been turned into an instrument of mere
propaganda by the misguided fervour of self-styled champions of Islamic cause.
G.W.F.Hegel, one of the greatest philosophers of all times, holds that historical writings
in an age reflect the stage of consciousness attained by the people of society it their
historical development. He adds that the work of historian is to objectively describe the
awareness and aspirations of people without assimilating them into his personal
prejudices. The famous French philosopher Voltair once wittily remarked: “History is
after all nothing but the packs of tricks we play upon the dead, and the history proves that
anything can be proven by history.”
This genial reflection holds good of our official historical writings, which only aim at
proving Jinnah, and Iqbal envisioned a sort of semi-theocratic ideological state.
The purpose of article is to dispel the fog of confusion which has wrapped up our entire
understanding of history. It explains that religions have never been unchangeable in the
history of mankind by tracing the origins and development of myths or ancient forms of
religion in primitive human societies with the rise of new socio-economic organizations.
The religion has assumed the glory of civilizing people. In civilized societies, it has
conquered two very important provinces, which are state and education. But religious
institutions have also impeded the growth of human knowledge the growth of new
institutions. We all remember how Copernicus was persecuted by the Church for his
heliocentric hypothesis. Whenever religions or religious institutions obstructed the
growth of new socio-political institutions, the violent conflicts occurred between forces
of new order and the old one giving way to revolutionary transformation of society.
French revolution was the revolt of rising industrial class against privileged feudal
nobility and clergy. Religions have existed from time immemorial, but their forms,
observances, and roles have always changed according to needs of time and
circumstances in human society. The way Christianity practiced in Middle ages was quite
different from the way it is practiced in modern Industrial society. In feudal times all
laws of monarch, which were considered the unquestionable expression of divine will,
came to be looked on as fallible commands of a man who manipulated them to lengthen
his rule and to silence the dissent.
The examination of historical phenomena of this nature led Hegel and Marx to regard
history as necessary law governed process resulting in human progress. For Hegel, it was
ideas or ideology which determined the human progress while, for Marx, it was material
activity constituted by production exchange, consumption and the relations thus formed.
The deeper analysis shows that it was interaction between ideas and material activity
which determined the human progress in both expression of freedom and material
production.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGIONS
AND SOCIO- ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS:
In order to dispel the mist cast by religious dogmatism, let us have a look at relationship
between various forms of religions and the corresponding economic organizations in
history of mankind. Religion, etymologically speaking, is derived from Latin word
‘religio’ that means bond it unites or binds man and nature with supernatural or
transcendental being. There is another Latin word ‘religare’ from which religion is said
to be derive from which means ‘to take care of’ or ‘to tend’. The most primitive forms of
religions have existed in the forms of myths and legends. The myths originated when
man tried to explain some natural phenomena like storm, rising of sun or moon or stars,
earthquake, storm, or rain etc,.
DR. EHRENREICH, an anthropologist, looks on myths as world outlook aimed at
explaining various natural phenomena. The primitive man thought that it was the actions
of beings that caused the natural phenomena like storms, earthquake etc;. He also
believed that such beings had consciousness, will, designs and needs. EDWARD
TYLOR, another ethnologist, calls such belief-system animism .He explains in his book’
‘The Primitive Culture’ that spiritual beings were thought to affect or to control the
events in nature and in man’s life here and hereafter. Cylonese Vedddas, Hudson Bay
Eskimos,Negorites of And man Islands were observed to be believing in rain-
spirits,wind-spirits,cloud-spirits and so on. The findings arrived at by modern
ethnographer and anthropologists are confirmed by the studies of primitive tribes which
have survived into modern times.
IMMORTALITY OF SOUL AND ANCESTOR-WORSHIP:
“ The ancient people used to invoke their dead as some Christians (Muslims) now invoke
their saints”, Will Durant makes genial observation in ‘ The Pleasures of Philosophy’.
The early man arrived at the concept of soul when he tried to explain the functions of life
with its different bodily and mental conditions. TYLOR cites the cases while studying
the natives of South Australia and Fiji who believed that illness; unconsciousness and
death were caused by departure of soul. Even in Buddhist societies the Lamas use solemn
incantations for the return of the soul which has been abducted by the evil spirit. There
was another factor which led to the belief in soul which was the appearance of the dead
in the dreams. The fright caused by the dreams of the strong and powerful, who died
long ago, naturally inspired reverence and awe which led to the worship of the dead. The
fear of the dead was one of the most overpowering emotions of the primitive man. He
saw the spirits of the dead in separation from their bodies, as the decay of the bodies did
not prevent them from coming into his dreams. He also saw himself in his dreams
hunting, walking, chasing animals and on waking up he was assured that his body was
not least stirred while he was asleep. It convinced him that he had a soul which left him
when he was asleep. In addition to this he interpreted his echoes and shadows as being
his ghosts. The spirit’s surviving the death of the body gave birth to belief in immortality
of soul. It was Egyptians who had for the first time elaborated the intoxicating idea of
immortality of soul.
In ancient agricultural societies, survival of people depended upon the king upon the
power of king or chief who kept the society intact. Nobody could call in question the
hierarchy of authority that culminated in king.The people in those days were accustomed
to worshipping divine kings. It was for this reason that Alexander the Great claimed
himself to be god because without this the vanquished people would not have accepted
him their ruler. When the king or chief died, primitive man gave full funeral rites to
propitiate the dead. These rites were the first forms of religious ceremonies, which were
performed, in the ancient societies.
ANIMALS GODS IN HUNTING AND GATHERING SOCIETIES"
GORDON CHILDE, a renowned anthropologist, makes an interesting observation in
regard to the early man's spiritual life in 'What Happened in History' when he says: "
Without spiritual equipment not only do societies tend to disintegrate, but the individuals
composing them may just stop bothering to keep alive. If an ideology (spiritual
equipment) facilitates the smoothie functioning of economy will exist, if it hampers that
the society with its spiritual equipment will come to an end".
Man devised the spiritual equipment in order to explain natural phenomena and his
physical or mental condition that was vital to his survival. The early souci-economic
organizations which man formed were hunting and gathering societies. The early man
live on gathering herbs, plants, tubers and hunting animals.The savage did not recognize
any dividing line between himself and animals save that he was hunter and animal was
prey. VON DEN STEINEN, another anthropologist, describing the psychology of
Brazilian Indian says:" In his ( Brazilian Indian) eyes the principal difference between
him and animal is his having a bow, Aaron and beetle to crush grain or maize" .He
thought that animals also possessed the souls. He believed that there was kinship between
his group of people and particular species of animal. His group of people or tribe had
sign or mark of a plant or animal which he believed to be his ancestors and in which the
protective spirit of the tribe dwelt. Modern social scientists call this sign totem. We know
that the gods worshipped in ancient Egypt, Babylonia, and even in modern India have the
head of beast. The worship of Hanuman (monkey-god), Ganesh (elephant-god) and Nag
Devta in India is the evidence of totemism.
TRANSITION OF ANIMALS GODS TO MAN-LIKE GODS:
With progress human society made over a period of time, man acquired power over
animals and started domesticating them. For example, he harnessed ox to plough and
horse to cart .He started making his tools out of the bones of animals and began to
consider them inferior to himself. Thus the zoomorphic concept of god gave way to
anthropomorphic concept of god. The totem gods or animal gods were the first gods
which man worshipped who were not concerned with morality.It was with the emergence
of anthropomorphic religion when gods began to be interested inhuman morals. The
ancestor-worship humanized religion and allowed the early man to conceive deity first in
terms of the strongest and then the finest of men. Man abstracted, as Feurbach thinks, his
best and most perfect qualities from himself and attributed them to a deity, thus creating
god in his image.
AVAGON OR TRANSMIGRATION OF SOUL:
In the age of anthropomorphic gods, the new mythical ideas reflected the material
realities of pastoral or agricultural way of production, though they retained some features
of old totemic myths. In new myths, the human personality was separated from its blood
kinship with animals. Man believed god to be benevolent spirit permanently embodied in
some tangible object like stone, tree or idol or image. ANDREW LANG, a historian of
religion, tells that food, drink and other valuable things were offered to this spirit for
purpose of securing assistance in man's affairs of life.The concern of human gods for
morals of human being led to reward and punishment according to man's conduct on
earth. As then animals were conidered to be inferior to men, the soul was to reside in
animal body if actions of man were not in accordance with the moral code of the age.
EDWARD TYLOR says: " The belief in transmigration in soul is closely linked with the
conviction that man's conduct is judged after his death.The rules were set forth in the
Hindu lawgiver Manu as to how souls endowed with the quality of goodness acquire
divine nature, while souls governed by passions take up human state and souls sunk in
darkness of lust and brutality are degraded to brutes.The range of migration of soul
stretches downward to from gods, saints,Brahamans, kings, actors, drunkards, birds,
cheats, elephants, horses, sudras, barbarians,snakes, worms and inert things. The relation
between crime and punishment is established through code of penal transmigration of
soul to punish the wicked".
BELEIFS ABOUT BEGINNING OF THE WORLD:
One of the most important questions in history is: how did the concept of creation or
beginning of the world arise? The savage due to his limited consciousness could only
conceive of the action of supernatural power or deity in terms of his power to bring
something into being. This can be vividly exemplified by the studies of myths formed by
the Polynesians about the world’s coming into being. The early Polynesians recounted
that once god was sitting on seashore and fishing when suddenly he pulled out on his
hook the world instead of fish. The primitive man conceived of god’s actions in likeness
of his own, as the very low level of technical development in production of means of
production limited man’s sphere of action. In hunting and gathering economy the savage
created comparatively little. His production is limited chiefly to procuring and
appropriating only that which nature readily provides. While man fished and hunted, the
woman gathered roots and tubers. On account of his little creation, the fundamental
question of beginning of the world is answered in his mythology in terms of world’s
coming into being fully developed rather that being created.
VAN GENNEP, a Dutch anthropologist, studies a myth current among Australian Dieri
which holds that in the beginning the earth opened in the middle of the lake Pergundi and
out of it came one animal after another.
A myth of South African Bushmen relates to us that man and beast came from a cave or
crack in the earth’s surface somewhere in the north. ANDRE LANG mentions it in detail
in his book ‘Myths, Cults, and Religions’. Some tribes in Africa like Overhereos, the
cattle-breeders, recount that first man and woman came out of tree. From the same tree
came the cattle, sheep and goats.
Some Zulus think that men came from bed of reeds while other think
that they issued from underground. The tribe of Novajo Indians in New Mexico narrates
that all Americans first lived in cave and later made their way out being accompanied by
animals.
DR.EHRENREICH makes a very important point that not a single myth speaks of
creation of livings beings, but it only speaks of theirs coming into world fully developed.
It was only after man had advanced in his technique to produce his means of subsistence,
tools, implements, pots, and utensils that man acquired the concept of creation. DR.
EHREINREICH makes mention of a myth prevailing in Gurayo tribe according to which
man was formed out of clay, but that effort to create him in this fashion succeeded only
after vain attempts( ‘Myths and Legends).
The myth regarding the creation did not arise at once. It presupposed some technical
advancement on man’s part to create tools, utensil, and other means of subsistence. This
increased man’s power over nature and he began to conceive of god’s creation in terms
of his own creation. For instance, in the locality of ancient Egypt god Khnum is
portrayed as potter shaping an egg out of which the world arose.
CHANGES IN CONCEPTIONS OF GODS:
Early man could conceive of his relationship with higher beings or deities in likeness of
his relationship with his fellow human beings due to his little intellectual development.
The social relations which he formed had some obligations. His subordination or servility
to kings or chiefs determined his forms of reverence for spirits of ancestors and gods
which were clasping hands, obeisance, genuflections, adulation’s and so forth. In
despotic states the servility reached its highest limits. As TARDE points out in ‘ Law and
Imitation’ that the most despotic gods are the most reverend. The gods of patriarchal
family were ancestral gods. Just as the members of family had filial attachment to their
head, they accorded the same sentiments to their ancestral deities, thus the idea that man
should love his god as children love their father arose. The psychological framework was
laid in which fear of the dead was transformed into love of them. In Greek Olympus
gods, there prevailed relationships, which are reminiscent of Greek society in the Heroic
age.
Human suffering according to Greek orphic religion was due the crime of Titans who
rebelled against Zeus. The human soul is enclosed in body to atone for their sins. A
virtuous and patient life could bring soul release
from body. In Christianity we find the similar concept of original sin from which God
redeemed mankind by assuming the human form.
Mankind’s conception of god has always been changing. In every epoch the religion and
its role have always been interpreted and re-interpreted as the needs of time and
circumstances dictated. In the age of Industrial Revolution, when man acquired
considerable amount of control over nature his belief in servility or subordination also
changed. In French society, philosophers like Montesqieu, Rosseau, Voltair and
encyclopaedists expounded the philosophy of deism which holds that belief in God can
be arrived at through scientific observation independently of the assistance of the church
and that God’s power are restricted on all sides by laws of nature. Deistic philosophy
arose when an industrial class was taking birth in French society and it was making
efforts to curtail the powers of kings who derived them from God.
We have deep wishes to make Pakistani society an industrial one. Likewise We will have
to make efforts to restrict the powers of those people who use religion to hamper the
natural, intellectual and material growth of society because no society can advance in
science and technology with religious rigidity. This is the lesson we will have to learn
from history.