Początek religii oraz pierwsze możliwe obrazy Boga w pierwotnym religijnym doświadczeniu człowieka

Abstract

This study attempts to answer the question of the origin of religion – understood as a human reference to God – both in the sense of searching for a temporal beginning of religion and for its very earliest, primitive form. This inquiry not only has historical significance, but through seeking the essence of religion, it is also relevant to contemporary religious experience. The starting point is the statement that the foundation of religion is not an experience of lack or deficiency, as asserted by Ludwig Feuerbach and atheistic thought in general, but the experience of a God who manifests himself to humans as a “hidden power.” In this view, humanity is not the cause, but a condition for the rise of religion. Discerning the origin of religion is methodologically complex, requiring the interplay of various fields of study: the philosophy of religion, paleontology, anthropology, archeology, linguistics, theology etc. In its original, primitive shape, religion was a non-rational, pre-conceptual realization of – to use Rudolph Otto’s term – the “numinous,” an experience of a terrifying and fascinating divine reality (misterium tremendum et fascinosum). Because there is no empirical evidence of pre-historic man’s religious experience or practice, tracing the origin of religion is nothing more than rational speculation. However, by tracing man and his ancestors, we can confidently state that 40-60 thousand years before Christ humans like us existed, thus implying that a form of the “numinous feeling” existed in prehistoric human beings. Based on the study of the structure of language, the study of contemporary huntergatherer cultures and the oldest recorded forms of religion, it is likely that the first name given to God is “Father-Heaven”.