Religion - cultural phenomenon that accompanies the company for much of its historical development.In addition, the religious beliefs in the course of historical development are widespread, and today some form of faith is inherent in virtually the entire population of our planet.
Today there are lots of different beliefs related to various areas.In addition to the four main religions: Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism - isolated over a hundred different forms of worship no one deity, which can be characterized only for a few people, however, in the course of its history entrenched for any group (tribe, nationality, ethnicitygroup) and are considered the main form of the faith.
Early forms of religion are often called polytheistic beliefs.This data became the basis of the religion of beliefs that exist today, at the present time.During the development of primitive human societies there were some factors that were the preconditions for the formation of different types of worship.
One of the main factors that shaped the early forms of religious belief, considered a wide variety of natural and vital phenomena.Lack of knowledge about the world made people consider the events as the impact of a variety of different supernatural beings, each of which is responsible for some phenomena (weather, crops, etc.) Early forms of religion are not isolated any single god, and created some forcethat at the level of animism represented in the form of invisible souls, fetishes, symbols, etc.
certain influence on the formation of primitive polytheism has the structure of society.Defined and established a hierarchy of human groups (family, tribe, village, city or state) is transferred to the earliest forms of religion, which are the main gods and subordinate deity.At the same time different versions of social status, personal qualities were transferred to the gods, the chief of which is likened to a father of a family, the leader or king.The chief god almost always had his life story: birth, marriage, having children, who later became his assistants and performers.In addition, the deity could occur within a certain hostility of his circle: there were gods of war, drought, revenge, and of agriculture, art, love, etc.
forms of primitive religion borrowed principles of human society (in particular, the division of the territories, the creation of a set of laws, rules and regulations).The chiefs and kings shared their possessions into separate territories, and this division was transferred to the world of the deity.In addition, people can be divided into low and high, good and evil, stupid and clever - and this differentiation is reflected in the first religions.In particular, paganism gives all supernatural beings set of personality traits that determine the uniqueness of a particular god.
Early forms of religion were based not only on the existence of a belief in a deity, but also on the material embodiment of supernatural forces.Gods depicted on the rocks, in caves, created of wood or metal.This deity could be presented quite differently: as a man, bird or beast.Such images were called idols, which in Greek means "kind", "image".Correct to say that the idol - is the material embodiment of God, in which, based on the opinions of believers, lives the spirit of the deity.It is noteworthy that every thing can become an idol, if the person is the subject takes the place of God.
