4
WHY GODS AND
SPIRITS?
Religious concepts are those supernatural con-
cepts that matter.The world over, people entertain concepts of beings
with special qualities and special powers. They live forever; in some
places, they are supposed to be prescient or all-knowing, to govern
the elements, to carve mountains, to strike with lightning or to smite
the sinner. In all human groups some god or gods or the spirits or the
ancestors (or some combination of these different types) stand out
from the rest of the supernatural repertoire in that very strong emo-
tional states can be associated with their representation. Thoughts
about what the gods want or what the ancestors know can induce
strong feelings of fear, guilt, anger but also reassurance or comfort.
So what makes these stories so important? Why is God more
important than Santa Claus, or in the Fang context why do ancestors
matter so much more than the White Bogeyman? One may think the
answer is quite simple:People believe in God's or the ancestors' existence,
not in Santa's or the Bogeyman's. This, however, is not a cause but a con-
sequence. Some supernatural concepts are represented in such a way
that it can seem obvious or at least possible that they refer to real
things and agents in the world. The problem is to explain how this
happens. This will take several chapters. A first step is to understand
what kinds of agents gods, spirits and ancestors are.
RELIGION IS PRACTICAL
Western people—especially educated people, especially students of
religion—tend to consider religious concepts primarily as the expres-
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