What is the starting point of religions?

Question

Is it Fear or Love or mere Selfishness?

Answer 1

The starting point of man is his transcendent nature.  The earliest man lived his life in this world, ate, made love and died while his children grow on and follow the same thing until he really felt bored.  If he were a mere animal, he would not have felt boredom.  but because he had a brain bigger than those of animals, he possessed certain higher faculties that lead him to question. There must be more to life than this: leading him to to the great philosophical questions: who am I? where did I come from? where am I going?  From this man realized that for someone to come they must have come from somewhere.  This led him to the belief in a creator, but in the face of natural catastrophes and man-made disasters, he began to look for this god in nature, making its expressions embodiments of this strange Over-Being.  The discovery that there is a power higher than himself was not accidental but was veritably an intellectual breakthrough for man, the rational being.

Fear and selfishness came to be associated later with this deity he discovered by his own rational and trancendent soul.  

Meanwhile monotheism is a different story...

Answer 2

I think Mike C said the perfect answer.  

Answer 3

neither, it is an attempt to explain that which we do not understand.

Caveman: "ugh uh ralanaka"

Translation:  "oh, look, the big bright shiny thing has come back, it didn't go away forever like we thought it would every night for the past 10 years.  I wonder where it goes ...."

Answer 4

well if you start to LOVE people and for what they are .. this world would be the greatest place to live with Peace!

Fear is something you just feel because you may be unsure what your believeing or what ever..

people who are selfish in this world, who always just think about their selfs .. wont get them any where...

Answer 5

Fear of the unknown. Fear of life, death, other people, uncertainty. Religion offered people answers in a time when we knew nothing. With all the knowledge now it's incredible people still buy into it.  

Answer 6

none. humans have certain needs. the base needs are water, food, shelter. from there, our needs become more complex as the more basic are met.

one of the needs that is above the immediate is love. love is a need that is met through interaction with others. beyond the simple need of love, or affirmation, we reach for a higher plane that can only be met spiritually. then we recognize the need to answer, who, what, why are we.....this leads us to searching for spiritual answers that can only be reached in our quest for God. then religion becomes the consequence.

never ever confuse spiritual hungering, or a need for God, or a creator as religion. religion becomes a practiced method to achieve a relationship that is spiritually based.

Answer 7

Fear.

God was the first and worst explanation for natural processes in our world.

Answer 8

I think it's mostly just fear of the unknown. People were afraid of the blanks, the parts of their universe they didn't understand. They were so afraid that they filled them any way they could, and what better way (other than the actual truth, of course, which they didn't have the science for) than an omnipotent, and, most especially, an all loving being that never showed himself, and so could never be completely disproved, hence was safe to believe in?

Answer 9

To identify the one God and calls for peace and love and tolerance, no to war

Answer 10

It should be love for God the Creator of all.

However, different religions have different perspectives.

Answer 11

All religions are not the same, so they don't share the same "starting point".

True religion can only come from the Creator Originator of the universe. The rest, well, start out of: misguidance, greed, lust, desire for privilege, misplaced fear....and so on

Answer 12

Selfishness!

Answer 13

Peace and blessings be upon you.

Mixture.

Fear: from a great power can put his anger on you if you made a sin, and we can't tolerate a drop of his anger while we know his Power.

Respect: Respect to a great power , created galaxies , planets , oceans, rivers , mountains,.......

Love: For who gave us all the blessings for us , who created this world and put it under our control , who gave us eyes to see with it , ears to hear with it , air to smell , life to live, Love for God will forgive us just if we repent for him.

Answer 14

God is love and if the Holy Spirit didn't invite you in love, you would never be persuaded to accept Jesus the Christ.

The Starting Point of Religions began at Creation with Adam knowing the One and Only True God.  Noah was pure in his generation (not corrupted by fallen angels) and Noah and his family survived the flood.

All others perished.  After the flood Noah's grandson Nimrod rebelled against God and started all of the false religions of this world.

Only 2 religions - God and man.  God set up His kingdom for man in the Garden of Eden and man disobeyed God.  In God's kingdom everything is good, righteous and Holy.

Answer 15

Religion began with the all consuming question...WHY?  Sometimes it was asked from fear, sometimes from selfishness, sometimes from wonder awe and love.

Answer 16

Ignorance combined with a yearning for power..

Religions have always been used as a tool for controlling people.

Answer 17

an enlightened master who developped direct perception.

Answer 18

...first, "religion" has no place in the Mind of God.  God is not a "religious" God and has never affiliated Himself with "religion"...  Religion is man-kinds foolish attempt to reach God...  God is smart enough to know that "we" could never reach him thru "religion"...  that's why He made a "Way" to reach Him, commune with Him and receive the gift of Salvation thru Him (not thru religions)...  Religions will have you "ringing bells", praying to dead-people, playing with Icons and trinkets, blowing "smoke" around, lighting candles, kissing "rings" on the hands of "men" (an all "male" religious hierarchy), going into "dark" booths and confessing your sins to a "man" behind a dark-screen (who is probably being investigated for pedophilia,  dressed up like he just stepped off a Chess board), Having you chant on and on and on, prayers that don't accomplish anything (from the minds of "old men" in an old Italian city)... When all you have to do is Trust and Believe in "One" God who became "Man" so that "we" could all know Him...(no religion require)  No "religious" gymnastics...ever !   Follow Scripture... not the "dogma", "traditions", "rules and regulations" and "catechisms" of the "religions" of man.

Answer 19

It is the hope and subsequent justified belief in existence after death. This lessens the fear of death and may even give death a purpose. To my knowledge, all forms of religion current and past accept the concept of an afterlife. Behavior within the bounds of the specific belief system usually determine rewards in the afterlife. [eternal glory, 77 virgins etc.] This encourages adherence to the doctrines of said religion and its perpetuation.

Answer 20

I'd say it's more of a newly discovered hallucinogen.

Answer 21

Impure religion: arrives defiled, and then gets worse-end

Pure religion: arrived undefiled, and remained unspotted

Law: beginning of knowledge & wisdom = fear(hath torment)

Grace: first pure wisdom from above = also first peace-able,

of seven things that His Grace is, as noted in James 3:17.

POINT: No law = No sin = No fear = No torment

(Rom 5:13... 2Cor 5:19... 1Thess 5:9... Rev 22:21)

Law = fearful thing = fallen = visit from tormentor

(Mt 18:35... Gal 5:4... 1Thess 5:3... Heb 10:31)

POINT: It's either with or against: Mt 12:30

with: agreement with God = No Schoolmaster Nor Mediation Req'd

against: dis-agreement = Punishing Schoolmaster & Mediation

Will of God: "I will have mercy(grace), and not sacrifice(law)".

Do the will of God precedes receiving the promise: Heb 10:36.

The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ with you all. Amen.

Answer 22

It is the need of low self esteem people to feel forgiven... AND REWARDED by going to "Heaven" when they die!

Answer 23

By placing the religions side by side, we can examine their doctrines, legends, rituals, ceremonies, institutions, and so on, and see if there is any underlying thread of common identity and, if so, to what that thread leads us.

Most people would think that there could hardly be any two religions more different from each other than the Roman Catholic Church of the West and Buddhism of the East. However, what do we see when we put aside the differences that could be attributed to language and culture?

If we are objective about it, we have to admit that there is a great deal that the two have in common. Both Catholicism and Buddhism are steeped in rituals and ceremonies. These include the use of candles, incense, holy water, the rosary, images of saints, chants and prayer books, even the sign of the cross. Both religions maintain institutions of monks and nuns and are noted for celibacy of priests, special garb, holy days, special foods. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it serves to illustrate the point. The question is, Why do two religions that appear to be so different have so many things in common?

The same can be done with other religions.

We find that certain teachings and beliefs are almost universal among them. Most of us are familiar with such doctrines as the immortality of the human soul, heavenly reward for all good people, eternal torment for the wicked in an underworld, purgatory, a triune god or a godhead of many gods, and a mother-of-god or queen-of-heaven goddess. Beyond these, however, there are many legends and myths that are equally commonplace. For example, there are legends about man’s fall from divine grace owing to his illicit attempt to achieve immortality, the need to offer sacrifices to atone for sin, the search for a tree of life or fountain of youth, gods and demigods who lived among humans and produced superhuman offspring, and a catastrophic flood that devastated nearly all of humanity.

There was a common pool from which each religion drew its basic beliefs, some more, some less. With the passage of time, these basic ideas were embellished and modified, and other teachings developed from them. But the basic outline is unmistakable.

Logically, the similarity in the basic concepts of the many religions of the world is strong evidence that they did not begin each in its own separate and independent way. Rather, going back far enough, their ideas must have come from a common origin. What was that origin?

Details may differ, the same concept of a perfect paradise that once existed is found in the writings and legends of many religions.

Studying mankind’s long search for God with these points in mind will help you to see more clearly the truth about religion and religious teachings.

respectfully,

Simone

Answer 24

None of the above..

Answer 25

Fear of the Unknown, Fear that the Sun will not rise.

Answer 26

FAITH

Answer 27

It's always been love. Fear is of the ego.

Answer 28

Usually fear (of death, for example), and the desire to explain what one cannot initially explain.  Mythologies usually seem to start with fanciful stories that are usually intuitively based, and tend to get calcified later on.  Over time stories become accepted as truth--to the point of being accepted as true even when new information disproves them.  Genesis, for example, is a collection of stories and myths that the ancients used to try to explain the questions such as "Why are we here?" or "Why is the world the way it is?" or "Why is life so hard?".  Despite the wealth of knowledge that has given us a far better understanding of the world and its history, there are people who insist that these stories are absolutely, literally true...who insist that any evidence to the contrary is either an illusion, misunderstanding, or hoax. 

This seems (in my own observations, anyway) to be based of a kind of fear:  If the stories aren't absolutely true, then the entire religion that they've based their lives on must be false...and they cannot tolerate that notion.  It's an all-or-nothing dichotomy that drives people to extreme rationalizations and behavior in an effort to keep their myth going...like a child desperate to believe in Santa Claus regardless of what developing age and information tells them.