Chapter 1WHAT IS RELIGION?I. The So-called Urge for ReligionRELIGION is as old as the rise of self-consciousness in man, but its
origin, as that of man, is shrouded in obscurity. Man has, probably,
lived on earth for about a million years. During the greater part of
this period, he had no civilisation and has not left his impress on any
durable material. All we know about him is based on his fossilised
remains, and while they tell us a good deal about his physical shape
and structure, they tell us little about the man in him. Man acquired
some rudiments of civilisation when he began to work on stone and
metal and to shape for himself tools, which hitherto he had taken
ready-made from nature. The remains of his artifacts, however,
shed valuable light on his developing needs and beliefs.
Religion can be traced back to the dawn of human civilisation.
The caverns of primitive men, wherein dead bodies were laid with a
provision of food and weapons, suggest beliefs and practices which
are unmistakably religious in character. It would seem that no
sooner had man attained the stage of mental development,
represented by self-consciousness, and started on the road to
civilisation, than his breathless wonder at the world around him
gave way to speculation on his origin and destiny and on the power
which created the world and sustains it. His thinking took the form
of myth-making and his tools of thought were not concepts but
symbols. He felt vaguely but intensely an infinite power at work in
the world around him. This dimly-sensed power evoked in him the
responses of fear and reverence, or worship. The urge to worship
appears to have always been there, but man can worship only that
which he believes to be both good and powerful, because of his own
helplessness. Primitive man was slowly and painfully groping his
way to the idea of religion. He was seeking, with his scanty
resources, for an object which he could appease or revere and
worship. No doubt, he worshipped crude objects or simple natural
phenomena, but we must not forget that for him they only