THE MAKING OF RELIGION

I

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

Tylor Edward Burnett Tylor (1832–1917) was a founding figure of modern anthropology, famous for his theory that religion began with "animism"—the belief in individual souls and spirits.

The modern science of the history of religion Now commonly known as Comparative Religion or Religious Studies. has reached conclusions that already seem to be firmly established. These conclusions may be briefly stated as follows: Humanity derived the conception of "spirit" or "soul" from reflections on the phenomena of sleep, dreams, death, shadows, and from the experiences of trances and hallucinations. By first worshipping the departed souls of their ancestors, humans later expanded the doctrine of spiritual beings in many directions. Ghosts, or other spiritual existences fashioned in the same way, thrived until they became gods. Finally, as the result of various processes, one of these gods became supreme and, at last, was regarded as the only God. Meanwhile, humanity retained a belief in the existence of the individual soul, surviving after the death of the body, and so reached the concept of immortality. Thus, the ideas of God and of the soul are the result of early, flawed reasoning original: "fallacious reasonings" about misunderstood experiences.

It may seem almost reckless original: "wanton" to suggest that we should revise a system that is at once so simple, so logical, and apparently so well-supported by facts original: "well bottomed on facts". But there can