Scientists date the appearance of religion to the emergence of humankind. Although at that time faith was still primitive and took unusual forms for our time, it nevertheless helped to comprehend the world, to describe certain life situations, and to strengthen communication between people.
Even primitive people believed in life after death, because they could not know exactly what happens to a person at the end of his earthly existence. This also includes natural phenomena, which influenced the life of communities – people sincerely believed that the rain was controlled by one God, and the wind by another. Even in animals people found in common with humans and ascribed supernatural abilities to them. Hence the first religions, such as totemism and animism.
Totemism is a religion based on the supernatural connection between humans and animals that are similar to them in external features or habits. It was believed that because people identified themselves as predators, they were better able to hunt or fight with other tribes. Also, totemism relieved the fear of death because people sincerely believed that their soul would move into their totem animal and get rid of the weak human body.
Animism was a religion that originated in dreams. People were convinced that if they could wander in dreams, it meant that the soul was capable of existing separately from the body and in real life. Man believed in the existence of a “spirit” and tried in every way to please it, for example, through ritual dances or offerings.
The question of the emergence of religion began to be actively discussed at the end of the seventeenth century. This period, from the French Revolution to the Great October Revolution, is a time of vigorous debate about religion. And, we think, these disputes were so actively conducted not by chance. The solution of the question of the emergence of religion is directly linked to the realization of the ideal that guided the leaders of the French bourgeois revolution and the leaders of the Russian socialist revolution, and the task was to build an atheist society. The logic here is simple: if we find out what the cause of religion is, then, by eliminating this cause, we can get rid of religion itself. But if religion exists for no reason, has always existed, then it makes no sense to fight it. This is why there have been so many arguments between atheists and believers.