A Story of the Origins of Religion
On Friedrich Max Müller's theory of naturism and how early religion began with humanity's direct sensory perception of natural forces. From the terrifying awe of lightning and thunder to Ancient Egypt's animal deities that protected against mortal dangers like crocodiles, scorpions, and hippos. A look at the evolutionary arc from zoolatry to anthropomorphic gods, and the problematic colonial baggage in early religious scholarship.
t's been awhile since my last essay on religion, and while I've shared [my personal testimony](https://brennan.day/how-and-why-i-believe-in-god-the-ballad-of-tragic-theism/) and [death rituals from around the world](https://brennan.day/more-than-one-way-on-ritual-morality-and-the-darkness-beyond-knowing/), I haven't written about the fascinating origins of religion.
I know what you're thinking, how it's rather sacrilege to try to pinpoint and explain the beginning of spirituality—I know that it is far easier to explain things in retrospect—but it's an interesting rabbit hole nonetheless.
We begin with Friedrich Max Müller, a European comparative philologist born in 1823 who is now most well-known for pioneering and founding the academic science of religion, what we now call Religious Studies.
Müller's theory of naturism, or physical religion, posited that [early religion began with humanity's direct sensory perception of the physical environment and natural forces](https://jewishphilosophyplace.com/2017/10/26/religion-things-idea-sensation-reading-max-muller/). He argued that awe-inspiring phenomena—the sun, the sky, the weather and storms, dawn and dusk—inspired awe, terror, and an intuition of the Infinite. Early humans personified the forces as divine agents, shaping language and myth.
Lightning and thunder, for instance, are rather terrifying. And yet they also cause deep marvel, surprise, and reverence. And so, we personified the phenomenon, creating a deity who controls when it thunders as an attempt to better understand these chaotic, random forces. Surely if it happens often, then the God is angry.
"Regarding mythology, others see it in a picture of great forms and forces of nature, particularly the sun, the moon, and stars, the changes of day and night, the succession of the seasons… all these reflections by vivid imaginations."
Sacred rituals and sacrifice grew out of a desire to control the unpredictable and survive, such as [giving offerings or performances for better crop harvests](https://www.agricultureforlife.ca/post/food-offerings-in-ancient-times-honouring-gods-and-ancestors).
There's "Pluto's Gate", a mythical gate to hell, which was found to be a real place in Turkey. [CO2 concentrations in the grotto below the temple still reach up to 91 percent](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12520-018-0599-5), lethal vapours causing the suffocation of animals, and by some accounts, [causing visions and prophecies in pilgrims who slept nearby, in what one archaeologist called an oracle-of-Delphi effect](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/where-are-the-greek-oracles).
I would be remiss without adding that Müller carries problematic baggage, with his translations and academic frameworks serving a Western colonial and miss
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