Przyrodniczo-gnozeologiczna hipoteza o powstaniu religii a Stary Testament

Abstract

The natural-gnosiological hypothesis of the emergence of religion juxtaposes faith and knowledge, religion and science, claiming that religion appeared as a result of lack of knowledge of the world, and fear of the unknown natural phenomena. According to this hypothesis, religions are to disappear in due course as a natural consequence of the development of science, which will attempt at explaining the unknown phenomena in a rational way. The Bible has been one of the most important written documents dealing with the origin and phenomenon of religion. There, you can find the analysis of pagan religious acts, examining their origin and nature, telling us about the beginnings of Yahwism and later Judaism and Christianity. Having taken all that into consideration leads to the appearance of questions such as: Whether one can find arguments in the Bible, confirming the statements of the natural-gnosiological hypothesis? Whether it was fear and ignorance of the laws of nature and natural phenomena that formed the foundation of religion, for example, that of Israel? Whether faith substitutes knowledge in religiousness? Finally, whether there is any room for reason in the cognitive process of comprising God, as has been proposed by the Israeli religion? The authors of the Old Testament (Wis, Ba 6 and others) are of the opinion that rational cognition of God is possible, on the analogy of existence, beauty, power and harmony of the visible world (Wis 13: 1-9). Thus, there is a rational element in the religious stance. The Hagiographs, while talking about rational cognition/nonrecognition of God, resort to Greek terminology, which was used by ancient philosophers in their epistemology. The Bible provides us with examples of personification and worshiping of natural elements and phenomena, yet it is critical of such attitudes, regarding them as irrational. According to the authors of the Bible, the fear of nature and attempts at its taming were not at the root cause of the emergence of religion, but at the root of its distortion and degradation. The arguments put forward by the followers of the natural-gnosiological hypothesis are applicable, to some extent, only in case of the distorted version of religion, as practiced by pagans, yet they provide no explanation of the emergence of religion as such. What is more, they cannot be applied in any way to Yahwism and Judaism and as a result to Christianity.