How did the concept of God begin?

[amazed&confused]

I was wondering if someone could give a scenario of how they think the concept of God began.

I know the early man worshiped the sun and the moon, but he could see those with his eyes, you cannot physically see God with your eyes. What do you think made man think there was something more? I can understand how we come to the conclusion that God exists by observation of what we see in nature, but I also believe that we are influenced to believe because we have heard or been told about God all of our life. Early man would not of had those influences.

[gnomon]

I was wondering if someone could give a scenario of how they think the concept of God began.

Good question. I did write an essay several years ago on the topic of The Evolution of God as it paralleled the evolution of human consciousness and culture. However, I can't lay my mouse on it on short notice, and I don't have time to get into a history of the god concept right now. So for the moment, check out this website for a non-deistic "multi-faith" view of how the god-concept developed over the eons.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/god_devel.htm

[stretmediq]

People are pattern seeking animals. The association of order with intelligence and the perception of order or pattern in the world would naturally make early men and women think a mind similar to their own somehow caused the universe. Therefore the most basic definition of god is simply an awareness upon which the cosmos is contingent. Nothing more. However theistic attributes such as omniscience and omnipotence do not necessarily follow from this and were probably added on to this core definition later by thinkers with no knowledge of natural law.

[amazed&confused]

I was wondering if someone could give a scenario of how they think the concept of God began.

Good question. I did write an essay several years ago on the topic of The Evolution of God as it paralleled the evolution of human consciousness and culture. However, I can't lay my mouse on it on short notice, and I don't have time to get into a history of the god concept right now. So for the moment, check out this website for a non-deistic "multi-faith" view of how the god-concept developed over the eons.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/god_devel.htm

Thanks for the link gnomon. It will take me a little time to read and obsorb it. I look forward to reading your essay. It comforts me to know that other people are looking for answers to some of the same questions I have.

People are pattern seeking animals. The association of order with intelligence and the perception of order or pattern in the world would naturally make early men and women think a mind similar to their own somehow caused the universe. Therefore the most basic definition of god is simply an awareness upon which the cosmos is contingent. Nothing more. However theistic attributes such as omniscience and omnipotence do not necessarily follow from this and were probably added on to this core definition later by thinkers with no knowledge of natural law.

Thanks for your reply as well stretmediq. I'm not sure that I understand what you stated regarding that "god is simply an awareness upon which the cosmos is contingent"; but that is because I do not know much about anything for that matter let alone how the cosmos works, or works with god. I'm not really sure that I really know anything about "natural law" either. I can only go by my own instincts, observations and how I feel and try to seek answers to some of my questions or wonderings.

[loveroflife]

I would assume the idea of God came about from the same questions we still ask ourselves today. "Where did we come from?" being a major one. My 4 y/o asked me the other day, "where do people come from?" I replied, "remember how we talked about babies growing in their mother's bellies and then being born?" She tells me, "no, no Momma. I mean where did the FIRST people come from?" I was blown away. God is the ultimate answer to the unexplained. Like the answer to "why do animals do such and such?" We are told instinct, but really that's just a synonym for "I don't know why but that's how it is." Maybe one day in the millenia to come we, or our genetic offshoots, will unlock all the answers and become the god we seek, or rather have the knowledge and power attributed to god.

[loveroflife]

I just finished reading the article Gn linked. Or rather I read all three parts. How interesting. Of course I noticed a while back the "psychotic" way people viewed religion and that was part of what led me on my journey to Deism. Most people refuse to acknowledge that the logic of "god spoke to my ancestors and my holy book/folklore is true, but yours is obviously made up" is flawed.

Will humans get to a point where "god is no longer needed?" Or rather as the articles discussed and I thought above that humans have all the answers and no longer need God to fill in the gaps? Is God just a gap filler? My own notion of God is so unformulated and vague the only gap he currently fills is as The Beginner.

[gnomon]

Is God just a gap filler? My own notion of God is so unformulated and vague the only gap he currently fills is as The Beginner.

That remark reminded me of an exchange between two female philosophers in a novel by Alexander McCall Smith, The Forgotten Affairs of Youth.

Excerpted from the book review :

Isabel : "I feel there is something there---some force or truth perhaps---to put it at its most general . . . Maybe that is God. But I find it difficult to accept any statement as to his identity". . . so we need religious belief "because otherwise we live in a world in which there is no real answer to evil."

Jane : "So a belief in God is just a tune we whistle to keep our spirits up in the face of something nasty?"

[Varokhâr]

I tend to believe that the concept of a Creator came about when early humans realized that something cannot have come from nothing or could have self-created, so therefore a Creator (one which does not need to have been created) must be responsible for the universe and life existing. The hows and whys have been the fodder for endless speculation and endless religious inventions following this, but the realization that the universe had to have a deliberate origin I think must have been the initial impetus for concluding that one or more Creators is responsible.

Worshiping the sun and moon as gods (or at least as the seats of gods, where divine beings dwelled, etc) seems obvious, since these things seemed aloft and mystical, flying through the sky as it were, and as such formed natural focal points for early worship. As our intelligence grew and our understanding of the universe developed, humans naturally refined their ideas about gods and religion and such, sometimes going off on weird tangents or growing tired of endlessly pondering the whole thing. But the idea that (at least one) Creator had to deliberately set things in motion never really changed, even when everything else about human religions did.

To me, it seems like the basic thrust of the Cosmological Argument simply occurred to early man and thus the idea of God(s) grew naturally from this.

[gnomon]

I was wondering if someone could give a scenario of how they think the concept of God began.

I won't get into the details of my reasoning here, but I suspect that the notion of an impersonal animating Spirit (animism) came before the more specific and personalized concept of humanlike gods, which preceded the more recent idea of a single universal Creator/Ruler : The God. The primitive spirits were immanent impersonal energies or forces in a cyclical Nature without beginning or end. Then ancient humanoid gods emerged in myths, who were not creators, but merely hierarchical administrators of a mysteriously-created, never-ending natural world.

Eventually, the concept of a universal eternal supernatural deity cleared-up the longstanding mystery of temporal existence, and unified origins theories with the ongoing management of Natural processes. Now Deism may be the core concept in humanity's latest emergent religious cosmology : a holistic deity incorporating and unifying the best features of all of the above, but in accordance with our current understanding of how Nature really works below the superficial apparencies.

According to my Enformationism thesis, what used to be called Spirit, Soul, or Ghost, can now be described as various views of Generic Information organized into human forms. Those metaphysical conceptions may also be described in non-religious terms as Life, Self, and Personal Pattern*. By using the non-traditional terms, I hope to avoid most of the irrelevant belief baggage connected to specific historical religious and philosophical systems. That should allow us to develop a fresh new belief system appropriate for the 21st century. And it reunites our human "spirits" with the "Great Spirit", as various manifestations of a single spiritual "substance" : Information (Mind stuff).


* I'm loosely applying the old idea of a ghost to the more modern Pattern Theory concept that everything we know can be defined as a mathematical pattern. You might say that your "Ghost" is a primitive of your "Self".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_theory

Animism :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism

[Dad]

I tend to believe that the concept of a Creator came about when early humans realized that something cannot have come from nothing or could have self-created, so therefore a Creator (one which does not need to have been created) must be responsible for the universe and life existing. The hows and whys have been the fodder for endless speculation and endless religious inventions following this, but the realization that the universe had to have a deliberate origin I think must have been the initial impetus for concluding that one or more Creators is responsible.

Worshiping the sun and moon as gods (or at least as the seats of gods, where divine beings dwelled, etc) seems obvious, since these things seemed aloft and mystical, flying through the sky as it were, and as such formed natural focal points for early worship. As our intelligence grew and our understanding of the universe developed, humans naturally refined their ideas about gods and religion and such, sometimes going off on weird tangents or growing tired of endlessly pondering the whole thing. But the idea that (at least one) Creator had to deliberately set things in motion never really changed, even when everything else about human religions did.

To me, it seems like the basic thrust of the Cosmological Argument simply occurred to early man and thus the idea of God(s) grew naturally from this.

I reckon this is pretty close. I also think our distant ancestors were smarter than we usually give them credit.

[Varokhâr]

I reckon this is pretty close. I also think our distant ancestors were smarter than we usually give them credit.

Indeed; it's human, I believe, to want to refine and develop. Thus, we have taken the basic Cosmological Argument and developed a wide variety of religions based on it, and have gone very far down meandering paths, getting very lost along the way oftentimes because we have attached too much to simple belief. It's hard to let go of all we've attached to belief, moreover, as I believe it's also human to naturally resist regression, and it seems to be like a regression to give up all our dogmas and ritual practices and so forth in order to attempt to rediscover simple belief and reorient ourselves.

Of course, the trick is not losing sight of all that we've learned over the eons, as that would be genuine regression, but learning how to distinguish between necessary facts to remember and unnecessary habits that we can shirk.

[siti]

Bula!

...the trick is not losing sight of all that we've learned over the eons,... but learning how to distinguish between necessary facts to remember and unnecessary habits that we can shirk.

Well said -