The Evolution Of Gods

Today, the development of science and technology has reached new heights. A major part of the world’s mammoth population is thriving with the help of modern technologies. These have provided food, water, healthcare, security, comfort, recreation and much more to the masses. Humanity has achieved this through a gradual learning process that began in prehistoric period and continues to date. Apart from needs and luxuries, scientists have also solved many age-old mysteries. For example, human interest in the origin of life has been documented throughout recorded history. Did some divine power create the first couple? Several ancient philosophers propagated their own theories of the origin of life; the Adam and Eve theory was one of them. In order to find a scientific answer to the question, palaeontologists studied many human fossils of the prehistoric age. After the exhaustive study, they concluded, without a trace of doubt, that the human race gradually evolved from the great apes over a long period; some divine power did not create it. On the contrary, human imagination created different gods. The Evolution of Gods utilizes modern science to explain why, when and how religions and gods became the desirable explanations of inexplicable events. What kind of human sufferings necessitated people to bow down before unseen powers called gods? How did mysteries of nature give birth to divine powers? Who invented morals, methods of worship and the ancient scriptures? In order to answer these and other related questions, I have compiled a brief history of human religious activities from several reference books, and these are listed in the bibliography. This book is an effort to bring together anthropological and historical facts about the evolution of gods and religions. The book begins with the epoch when the human race came into being. Most palaeontologists assert that the species evolved in the period between 400,000 and 200,000 years ago. During that period, humans lived in small nomadic groups or bands, more or less similar to the groups formed by great apes today. They had not yet learnt the use of language, dress or morals, and most likely they were not aware of any god or demon either. Around one hundred thousand years ago, the incredible invention of language changed the destiny of the race. Soon after this, humans began to discuss and analyze each happening around them. Whatever they could not comprehend, the chief or priest of their group would have attributed to some unseen power and built a myth about that phenomenon. Anthropologists believe that people must have begun religious activities only after they learnt the art of communication. After this, people could share their joys, sorrows, mysteries, dreams and many other things. For example, following someone’s death, the bereaved might have discussed with their priest that they often dreamt about the dead. The priest might have interpreted these dreams and explained that something survived even after death. Anthropologists believe that at one point in time, priests of many places invented the concept of soul—the unseen divine spark that provided life to a physical body and survived the death. The soul was the earliest conceived superhuman power; after its knowledge, humans began to bury their dead. Anthropologists assert that burial was the first religious activity of humanity; such social rituals and myths were the primordial religions. People invented these to wrestle with the inexplicable phenomena they encountered such as diseases, disasters and deaths. At some point in time—we do not know exactly when this happened—people in various far-flung parts of the world developed an instinct. Whenever people encountered some power beyond their control that could harm or help them, they began to worship that power. They believed that worship protected them and sought the blessing of that power. Priests all over the world invented more or less similar methods of worship, such as folding their hands, bowing, kneeling, floral offering, prayers and sacrifices. Priests taught these to the masses and gradually designated the powers as gods.

Years Ago Event

• 55 billion: Origin of the earth as a small portion of the sun
• 8–3.0 bn: Its cooling and origin of unicellular creatures
• 0–2.0 bn: Birth of blue-green algae, bacteria and oxygen
• 500 million: Jawless fish, wingless insects, ozone layer
• 400–300 m: Insects, fish, frogs, reptiles, land plants
• 200–150 m: Birds, mammals, dinosaurs, flowers
• 100–10 m: Whales, monkeys, chimpanzees
• 02–01 m: Homo erectus, stone tools, use of fire
• 400–200 K: Modern human, invention of axe and hearth

The year 1698 was a milestone for the advancement of biology. In that year, a British scientist, Edward Tyson, dissected a chimpanzee and studied its internal organs. He was surprised to discover its close resemblance to humans and asked himself why the internal organs of a chimp were similar to that of a man. Were humans similar to chimps during some bygone era? Did the remote ancestors of chimps evolve into the human race? Tyson was probably the first scientist to foresee that the great apes were the possible ancestors of humankind. In 1859 CE, the legendary scientist, Charles Darwin proposed a well-crafted theory that plants and animals were not the same in the past. During his period, people believed that one divine power had created all living beings in the shapes and sizes they were at present. Darwin was the first scientist who challenged the theory of divine creation. In the course of his study, he discovered that living beings originated as small and simple organisms: these gradually evolved into large plants and animals. Today, scientists have attested the Darwin’s theory of evolution with the aid of palaeontology, the study of fossils. They have not yet identified any divine power behind the creation of living beings. They have discovered, without a reasonable doubt, how life originated on the earth. Chapter 10 of this book explains the scientific theory of the origin of life. Anthropologists have now established that the human race evolved from Homo erectus, a creature more or less similar to the great apes. The oldest excavated human remains belong to the period between 400,000 and 200,000 years ago: the human race came into being during this epoch. At that time, there were no man-made political boundaries; instead, geographical barriers such as mountains or oceans were all that limited human movement. People lived as nomads or wanderers in groups or bands of fifty to a hundred members, and often used fire and stone tools. They had not yet begun cultivating crops and depended largely upon hunting quarry and gathering wild vegetables for their survival. Human bands were always looking for places rich in vegetation and animals to hunt. Whenever people faced scarcity of food at one place, they moved to another forest abundant in vegetation and animals. They had not yet learnt language, clothing, morals or religion. The human race continued to lead this kind of lifestyle for a considerable period. Anthropologists believe that the people of this epoch had already developed imagination. Imagination is a unique ability that made it possible for humankind to think beyond the limit of visible, audible or other sensory experiences. It is difficult to ascertain exactly when our primordial ancestors evolved this ability. Scientists believe that their erect posture helped facilitate their imagination. The human race is probably the only animal species that has this capability. In fact, almost all animals have sensory organs, and these help them perceive physical energies such as light or heat. They can see, hear, smell or feel their natural predators, which enable them to protect themselves. However, they cannot notice non-physical powers such as ghosts and gods: one needs imagination to recognize these unseen powers. People began to perceive some unseen, unheard, untouchable, non- aromatic divine powers around them only after the evolution of their imagination. Apart from ghosts or gods, human imagination also helped facilitate scientific inventions.

The previous chapter discussed priests and burial rituals of prehistoric people leading a nomadic life. They buried their dead with food, stone tools, red ochre, flowers, animal bones, etc. People provided food and tools for the sustenance of the corpses; however, presence of red ochre and flowers in the graves remained unexplained. It is likely that these articles were dedicated to certain divine powers. Who were the gods of prehistoric people? What was the motive behind the ritual cannibalism practised by them? Whom did they wish to please by killing their own people? Interestingly, palaeontologists found many graveyards of prehistoric people; however, they rarely noticed an idol or temple. Therefore, either these people had not yet invented divine powers or they worshipped their gods without making idols. Several researches suggest that the people, who initiated the practice of burying their dead, had already learnt to speak a primitive language. Humans learned to speak a discernible language some thirty thousand years ago; however, they had not yet learnt to write. Their religious activities can only be visualized from the excavated remains and the devices made by them. Anthropologists have precisely studied lifestyles, needs and challenges faced by prehistoric people from their fossils. However, they do not know the exact religious beliefs of the people. Let us attempt to visualize the prehistoric gods through a study of human challenges during the period. The prime challenge faced by prehistoric people was adverse weather. Favourable weather provided them with food, water and comfort; during bad weather, they faced the scarcity of the same. Certain climatic vicissitudes such as droughts, floods and storms often posed life-threatening situations for them. Climatologists have discovered that the earth witnessed a few Ice Ages in the past. During these periods, the temperature of the earth became much lower than it is today; snow covered a major surface of the earth and thus locked a substantial amount of seawater on the ground. Consequently, the sea level fell around one hundred meters below the present level. The last Ice Age began around thirty thousand years ago, and this harsh climate gradually subsided, around ten thousand years ago. Thus, the period continued for roughly twenty thousand years. Archaeologists have inferred that the humans, living during the Ice Age, had largely inadequate protection against the extreme cold weather of winters. They spent their nights in the huts made of bamboos, wild grasses, bones or skins. Alternatively, they lived in rock-sheltered natural caves. There was a lack of proper clothing too; people used animal skins, barks of trees or large leaves to cover themselves. During daytime, they had warmth of sunlight; however, nights were difficult to endure. Archaeologists have found many bone needles dating back some thirty thousand years ago and later. These were stitching needles with an eye at one end. This indicates that the artisans of these needles had learnt the skill of stitching. Primitive people had mainly animal skins to stitch; therefore, they must have worn leathers and perhaps furs to protect themselves from cold. These needles are the earliest evidence of the advent of clothes. In fact, people first began to cover their bodies to protect themselves from cold, and not to hide or reveal their contours!

The previous chapters described how the prehistoric humans invented many concepts after learning the art of communication. For example, people developed several useful tools such as the bow and arrow, knife, canoe or rope. They discovered various devices for their daily needs like hearths, shelters, leathers, footwear, herbal medicines, etc. Apart from these, they recognized powers of the sun, the sky and fire and began worshipping them. These were the scientific discoveries of the time. Better tools made hunting easier and equipped humans to protect themselves from wild animals. With the aid of language, human groups could now coordinate to hunt large animals as well. Leathers, hearths and better shelters protected people from the cold and wild animals; herbal drugs and nursing care increased average lifespan. Anthropologists assert that all these factors together led to human population explosion, around ten thousand years ago. Around this time, the last Ice Age was waning; all over the globe, the snow began melting and water reached the oceans. Gradually, the sea level increased to reach the present level; the increasing water in the sea submerged coastal grasslands and forests. This further increased the density of humans, and they killed more animals; consequently, the population of animals decreased. Palaeontologists have observed that around fifty species of animals became extinct during that period: humans must have eaten up the entire population of those animals. Anthropologists believe that around ten thousand years ago, food resources for the increased human population became insufficient. Gradually, many nomadic bands faced starvation, and humanity reached the verge of extinction. Since necessity is the mother of invention, the scarcity of food forced the human race to do something or starve. Eminent historian Alfred Crosby says: ‘Humankind was now faced with the choice of becoming either celibate or clever; predictably, the species chose the latter course.’ In order to understand the problem precisely, it is mandatory to study the lifestyle of the people living ten thousand years ago. They led a nomadic life; commonly, females collected food from forests and males hunted animals. Women often refrained from hunting owing to their biological differences such as pregnancy, lactation and infant care. They collected wild vegetables and fruits and thereby acquired good knowledge of the vegetation around them. They also took care of children; and therefore required a secluded place to keep their children safe. Each mother had to make her own enclosure and spent most of her free time within it or its immediate surroundings. Hence, they tried to make their dwellings as liveable as possible. Even today, the prime concern of most women is the creation of a secure, beautiful and cosy home around them. During this period, the present institution of marriage was not in vogue. Males rarely cared about their night shelters. On the other hand, females lived with their children and therefore, at the end of the day, they came back to their night shelters. One female along with her progeny formed the most primitive human family. Sociologists have studied many aboriginal tribes who lived just fifty years ago. Several such tribes designated mothers as the head of the families and children were known by their mother’s name.

The last chapter discussed how the adaptation to agriculture settled nomads, and that ultimately gave rise to villages, towns and cities. After this, people grew enough food, built better houses and developed several new techniques to lead a comfortable life. For example, they learnt spinning, weaving, shoemaking, smelting, pottery, etc. Several artisans mastered such skills and they crafted and sold the devices. Initially, they bartered these for agricultural products: later, coins replaced the barter system. Since cities had a big population, the craftsmen of cities could sell their goods easily. These implements also attracted farmers of nearby villages and towns to cities; gradually, cities became the centres of manufacturing and selling. Apart from shopping, many farmers visited cities for the treatment of the sick and injured. Commonly, priests or faith healers treated them. Thus, the business of priests also flourished in the cities; they advised their kings to build large temples. Almost all ancient temples were built in the cities. The temple priests invented various new techniques of worship such as elaborate sacrifices, and popularized their temples with the help of magical stories. These places of worship further attracted farmers to the cities. Thus, between three to five thousand years ago, many cities became centres of trade and religion. It has been discussed earlier that at one point in time priests composed many short hymns to worship their gods. Generations of priests taught these poems to each new generation—the oral traditions. Around five thousand years ago, priests invented a phenomenal technique—the art of writing. Priests of four civilizations began the earliest writing: India, Mesopotamia, Egypt and China. Archaeologists have excavated the oldest writings of the world from the Indus valley in India; these were inscribed around five thousand five hundred years ago. Around three thousand years ago, priests of several cities had evolved their alphabets; gradually, they wrote invaluable literature. It was not easy to invent writing: priests must have developed it over a long period. Its earliest form was crude: one specific line diagram represented one thing, action or thought. Gradually, people evolved it to express all the spoken words. Since each word was pronounced through a few sounds, one line diagram was designed to express each spoken sound. The diagrams expressing sounds were named letters, and a set of these was called an alphabet. To write a word, the letters expressing the sounds to pronounce that word were drawn. A complete set of alphabet must have letters denoting all the spoken sounds. Preparation of an alphabet must have been a long and cumbersome job. However, the designing of an alphabet was not enough, the designers had to teach others to read and write it. Otherwise, only the alphabet makers could read their writing! Ancient writings can be broadly divided into two categories. The first includes the holy scriptures such as the Rig Veda and the Bible. Ancient priests wrote these books on plant leaves and other unstable materials, and therefore they had to copy them almost every year. In the process of copying, each new generation modified the original text and interpolated their thoughts.

The previous chapters narrated how ancient humans invented many scientific techniques, and how they built myths about the inexplicable phenomena. Approximately five thousand years ago, the concept of farming founded several civilizations in different regions of the world; gradually, a major population adopted it. Cultivation provided enough facilities to people, but at the same time posed quite a few challenges to them. For example, adequate food resources and good shelters resulted in a population explosion. The major consequence of an increased human population will be discussed at length in the next chapter. The sedentary lifestyle of farmers came with several other problems; the most devastating was famine that occurred frequently due to droughts and floods. Nomadic people had the choice of shifting to another forest during scarcity of food. On the contrary, farmers could not move their settlements during famine, since they had to cultivate the same land every year. Priests of farmers discovered, through trial and error, that they must sow seeds in a particular season each year. They also learnt the importance of rain for the crops. Farmers had only limited artificial irrigation facilities; they depended mainly upon rain for irrigation. They noticed that every year their fields produced different amounts of crops, and therefore, they began asking their priests how to facilitate a good harvest. It has been discussed earlier that priests of farmers visualized one or other mother goddesses behind fertility of soil and advised their worship to obtain good crops. They had also attributed the occurrence of rain and thunder to the sky god; therefore, they advised people to worship the sky god daily to obtain optimum rain. With the passing of time, priests noticed that crops were dependent upon certain unseen forces of nature too. They advised some rituals to appease these forces. Priests of nomadic bands often performed magic to hunt animals; similarly, priests of farmers explored divine methods in order to obtain better harvests. They devised several techniques of worship, rituals and sacrifices to seek a favourable weather for a good crop. Moreover, this was not a local concept: it was a global phenomenon. Subsequent to the beginning of farming, all over the globe, a new breed of priests appeared. These priests of early farmers developed the rituals to induce rain. These rituals were mostly in the form of sacrifices, prayers, dances and mimicries of the sky god—the god of rain. For example, Aztec was one of the Meso-American tribal groups, and Tlaloc was their rain god. Aztecs propitiated it, several times in a year, with the help of child sacrifice. Each time, they appealed Tlaloc to provide optimum rain and crops for them. In central Mexico, in order to seek rain, the local priests took a ceremonial bath in a lake. During the bath, they imitated the croaking of frogs. Mexican priests had heard the croaking during rain; therefore, they believed that the call of frogs summoned rain. Similarly, Hindus also worshipped the sky god during droughts. Hindu priests sacrificed a male goat to the sky god. They usually performed this ritual on a cloudy day. This ritual continues to date, but in the form of a symbolic sacrifice. Instead of killing an animal, modern Hindu priests incise one ear of a male goat. Ancient priests were clever enough to perform such rituals when rain was expected; therefore, most of the time, rain followed the rituals. The onset of rain established the efficacy of the rituals and the performing priest. In case the ritual was not followed by rain, priests blamed some deficiency in people’s devotion. Besides, they repeated the ritual after a period and continued repeating until the onset of rain. Apart from rituals, priests devised several different ways to control the forces of nature such as magic, hunting dances, rain dances and so on. For example, the ancient inhabitants of the island of Cyprus, near Greece, frequently performed a rain dance to induce rain. After the dance, people spat onto the back of a turtle, and henceforth it became popular as a spit turtle. Moreover, many tribal people still have a vestigial tradition of rain dance.

The earlier chapters narrated how humankind learnt about the powers of nature and their influence on human lives. Gradually, people began worshipping these powers as gods under the guidance of their priests. In truth, humanity wasted countless working hours flattering their gods, ranging from the sun to phallus. They killed domestic animals and even their fellows, in order to please these gods. Apart from the powers of nature, ancient people noticed that certain problems were not caused by a visible power. They began, as per human instinct, to understand these inexplicable challenges. Gradually, people assumed that certain invisible powers caused these sufferings. What kind of human miseries initiated an idea of invisible powers or gods? Why did ancient humans quest tirelessly for unseen powers? Why did they persistently endeavour to please those gods? The human quest to decipher unseen powers began when they faced new mysteries and miseries. In fact, the beginning of civilization posed several new challenges for humans such as famine, diseases, poverty, exploitation, injustice or crime. The nomadic people never faced such problems. The desire to comprehend these human sufferings ultimately initiated the idea of invisible gods. Among all, the most terrible human misery was the communicable diseases. How did human illnesses initiate the concept of unseen gods? In order to understand this invention, it is necessary to study the diseases and the remedies faced by ancient people. Yes, they faced the remedies too. Since time immemorial, humanity has suffered from some ailment or the other; different diseases surfaced during different ages. The illnesses and remedies of ancient primordial farmers can be visualized through a study of the person treating them—their doctor. Anthropologists believe that their priests were working as both priests and doctors. A few decades ago, similar priest-doctors existed among many surviving tribes. They believed that the magic cast by some enemy or violation of some tribal taboo caused diseases. Priests were supposed to possess divine powers to cure illnesses; their dress, cap and gestures were similar to those of magicians. They generally enjoyed special status and performed the roles of priests, healers, leaders and scientists. These priests treated their patients through care, magic and herbs. They prescribed herbal remedies for common diseases, such as fever and the common cold; for serious illnesses, they preferred magic. They also believed that the possession of some evil spirit caused all mental disorders. Commonly, priests beat the spirit through the patient’s body until it left him. One example can precisely explain their remedies. Imagine a small human settlement of about a few hundred people that lived some seven thousand years ago. One day, an adolescent boy among them suffers an epileptic fit; after that, he remains calm but confused. A few days later, during a fight with a peer, he suddenly develops violent behaviour; he starts abusing and shouting incoherently. The priest of the group observes him: the boy seems to converse with somebody even when alone. He studies the odd behaviour of the boy and tries the herbal drugs and magic he knows. Despite all his efforts, the behaviour of the boy remains unchanged. After a session of brainstorming, the priest concludes that a demon has entered the head of the boy and commanding him. One day, he fights with a peer and beats him to death; now, the rest people are scared. After days of thinking, the priest suggests a surgical remedy in order to make an exit for the demon. He advises to drill a hole in the boy’s head to make a way out. This is not a simple surgery. At first, four or more strong men immobilize the boy; after that, the priest drills his head with a stone chisel and a hammer. Death is almost inevitable after such a surgery: thus, he kills the demon causing the illness as well as the patient!

Hinduism is the oldest surviving religion of the world. The ancient inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent discovered this religion much earlier than the word Hindu came into practice. Ancient Hindu scriptures, such as the Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata or Puranas, have nowhere mentioned the word Hindu. In fact, the word Hindu came into practice only after the eighth century CE. It was the name given to the people living across the bank of the river Indus. Thus, Indians living in the earlier period cannot be called Hindus. In order to avoid confusion, the word Hindu has been used here to denote inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent belonging to any period. Around five thousand years ago and even earlier, Hindus began developing many beliefs and practices to wrestle with the challenges they faced. With time, a lot of these became obsolete, several were tailored to changing needs, various new ideas were added to fight new problems and quite a few remained vestigial. An amalgamation of these beliefs and practices of different periods gave rise to modern Hinduism. The Hindu priests, during the last three millennia, transcribed prayers, beliefs, allegories and practices of their time in many holy books. The entire lifetime of a scholar is not enough to read all of them. During different periods of Hinduism, people practised various styles of worship and sacrifices. For example, they practised the nature worship of tribal people, the sacrifices analogous to Jews, the Buddhist concept of karma, the moral codes of Jesus and monotheism similar to Muslims. This is the reason the history of Hinduism precisely portrays the evolution of gods in the world. Hinduism has one fundamental difference from all other organized religions of the world. Prophets of most religions proclaimed that their god revealed the holy book of the religion they founded. On the contrary, no Hindu saint, not even the Buddha, ever claimed that he met any god or angel personally. Hindu saints wrote many books about gods, but evaded to make an unequivocal claim that a particular god revealed the holy text to them. Therefore, none of the countless Hindu religious books became popular as a divine revealed book. This deficiency, despite its honesty, has made Hinduism the most malleable religion of the world, and some scholars do not consider it an organized religion. Hinduism is better defined as a way of leading a happy life with the help of morals, prayers and rituals. The earliest evidence of religious practices in the Indian subcontinent was excavated from the Indus Valley. In the year 1920, archaeologists discovered an entire civilization buried along the plains of the Indus. They excavated several small towns and two cities in the territory stretching over present-day Pakistan and India. The Indus Valley civilization flourished between 5500 and 3500 years ago. This was the time, when Egyptians built pyramids for the comfort of their kings’ corpses, and Mesopotamians erected ziggurats for solar worship. People of the Indus Valley were early farmers. Archaeologists found the earliest writings of the world in the Valley, inscribed around 5,500 years ago. They unearthed many elaborate inscriptions, written during the late period of the civilization. Since these inscriptions have not yet been deciphered, anthropologists could not comprehend the religious practices of the people. To date, only a few shreds of their worship are available, which provide just a glimpse of their faiths.

Judaism—the seed of all monotheistic faiths—sprouted in the sacred land of Jerusalem, the present capital of Israel. It was the first monotheist religion of the world. The Old Testament, the Jewish Bible has documented the ancient history of Judaism and Israel. The Bible is an anthology of several religious books compiled over roughly a millennium; the oldest texts appeared around three thousand years ago. These books contain history, myths, morals, prayers, rituals, sacrifices, magic and medicines; these are the collection of all the knowledge, the Israelite priests had at the time of writing. Christianity and Islam also acknowledge several allegories of the Old Testament. Genesis, the first book of the Jewish Bible, narrates how Lord/God created all the animals and plants on the earth: He created the world in six days. On the first two days, God manufactured media prima—the raw material of living beings. On the third day, He grew all the plants on the face of the earth. On the fourth and fifth days, He created all the animals in the shapes they are seen today. On the sixth day, He designed the first man—Adam; the same day, He took the twelfth rib of Adam and fashioned it into the first female—Eve. On the seventh day, the exhausted Lord rested. Today, this theory is the most elaborate, interesting and widely accepted belief about the origin of life on the earth. Apart from Jews, Christians and Muslims also believe this biblical theory of special creation. Many Jewish and Christian scholars have speculated that God created life on 23 October 4004 BCE. The Bible mentions that Lord created Adam in his own image: obviously, He was a human. The book mentions that the first prophet was Noah, a resident of Mesopotamia; he was a direct descendant of Adam and Eve and was the first human to receive a divine message. One day Lord said to Noah: ‘I am going to put an end to all people, since they have filled the earth with violence; I am surely going to destroy them. Soon, the Flood would engulf the earth and you should make an Ark.’ The Bible mentions that the age of Noah was six hundred years, at the time of the Flood. Noah prepared an Ark; soon after, God inflicted the Flood that drowned all sinners and innocent animals as well. The Flood spared only the people and the animals sailing on the ark; they were the only survivors on the earth, and their progeny produced humanity and other living beings. After the Flood, Noah’s family settled in Babylonia; they built good houses and the Tower of Babel. Noah is supposed to have lived another three hundred and fifty years after the Flood. The Bible further mentions that one day God came down to see the city and the tower. Soon, He returned to the sky and said to his attendants: ‘Behold, humans are one and they have one language; they may begin to do anything, and no one could restrain them. Go to the earth and confound their languages, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ It is surprising that God who advised people to love each other divided them intentionally. The story suggests that human achievements annoyed Him enough to confound their languages. He divided them in order to rule like a politician. Thus, the Bible has depicted Lord as a person who was jealous of human accomplishments. It seems absurd that a kind God willingly rendered people, even neighbours, incapable of talking to one another. It appears that the authors of the Bible had a peculiar motive behind this language theory. During that time, people of different locales spoke different languages, and the authors had to explain, why people—the progeny of Adam and Eve—spoke different languages? They must have written the language theory to explain the diversity of languages. The authors wisely explained that at one point in time, God Himself had confounded the languages.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus planted a twig, from the tree of Judaism, in Palestine. Today, the twig has grown into a big tree called Christianity, which is the most widely practised religion today. Around one-third population of the earth is Christian. The New Testament is the core scripture of Christians and has guided them during the last two thousand years. This is a collection of Christian literature and has 27 books named after their authors: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, etc. Most authors were the disciples of Jesus; they transcribed these books within a few decades after the demise of Jesus. They precisely documented the life story, teachings and miracles of Jesus. Despite certain dissimilarities, all the books have narrated a common story. The authors wrote these in Greek, not in Aramaic—the language spoken by Jesus and his disciples. After thirteen hundred years, scholar John Wycliffe translated the Bible into English. According to the Bible, the angel Gabriel visited a virgin named Mary and informed that God had chosen her to bear His Son. Thus, Mary gave birth to Jesus by God’s miracle. Historians know very little about the early life of Jesus and do not know the exact year of his birth. It is believed that Jesus was born within three years of his popularly accepted year of birth—the zero year of the Gregorian calendar. Historians believe that Jesus was the son of Joseph and Mary of Nazareth, a town near Jerusalem. Even during adolescence, Jesus was a thoughtful boy and preferred to participate in philosophical discussions rather than play boyish games. At the age of twelve, his parents took him to the Temple of Jerusalem. Jesus began his career as a faith healer in Nazareth, his hometown. The Bible depicts Jesus as a common person except that he had divine powers to heal the sick and forgive sinners. At the age of thirty, he met John the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan River. Later, John became the spiritual teacher of Jesus. John had a strong belief in the biblical prediction of the birth of the Messiah. He persuaded people to bathe in the river Jordan to purify or baptize them. The Bible narrates the baptizing of Jesus by John. It mentions: ‘After bathing, Jesus straightaway came out of the water; he saw the Heavens opened and one spirit descending on him like a dove. A voice from heaven said, “Thou art my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” John was astonished by the scene and designated Jesus as the Messiah.’ After his baptism, Jesus went to a secluded desert; there he fasted and meditated for forty days and nights. This deep meditation provided new spiritual strength to Jesus; soon, he returned to his native place and began to treat the sick through his divine powers similar to other faith healers of the time. Furthermore, he taught several morals; therefore, many people became his followers and began to respect him. He sent twelve apostles in different directions to spread his lessons. The Sermon on the Mount is a collection of his teachings.

The earth is the most beautiful planet among all known celestial bodies, since a variety of flora and fauna has painted it in many glorious colours. Countless animals of diverse shapes and sizes thrive here. Long ago, the human race—the most intelligent species on the earth—lived in a way similar to other animals. Humans spent their entire intelligence, time and energy in fulfilling their basic needs of food, sex and shelter. After the beginning of cultivation and domestication, priests found opportunities to study animals closely and noticed that each female produced its progeny. After such study, they had another question: who gave birth to the first female? They spent countless hours discussing whether a hen or an egg came first. Priests of almost all ancient civilizations pondered over the origin of life on the earth and built their own theories to explain it. Around four thousand years ago, several priests documented their theories in religious scriptures. For example, the ancient holy texts of Mesopotamia mention that the sun built the sky and the earth from the dead body of the devil, Tiamet. They also supposed that the sun created humans for its worship. Ancient Egyptians believed that the sun rose from the depths of the ocean, built dry land and then created all creatures. Hindus, from antiquity to date, suppose that Lord Brahma created life. Ancient Jewish priests formulated the theory of special creation; Christians and Muslims also believe this theory. This is the most elaborate, interesting and widely accepted belief today; it has been discussed in an earlier chapter on Judaism. The origin of life on the earth has been a fascinating topic of research for philosophers and biologists as well. Aristotle, in 330 BCE, advocated that life originated spontaneously from non-living organic matter. He believed that worms, wasps, mites and insects had originated from rotting dung, and this belief continued until the early modern ages. For instance, in 1640 CE, eminent physician, Van Helmont claimed to create a mouse in twenty-one days from his shirt. He marinated the sweat-soaked shirt in wheat flour and kept it in a dark room during those days. In 1862 CE, Louis Pasteur discarded the theory of spontaneous generation. He poured a nutritive soup in a glass flask, boiled it to kill all living organisms in it and closed it with an airtight lid. The sterilized soup in the airtight container remained unchanged and did not develop a putrid smell even after several days. Later, Pasteur left the flask open; within a few days, the soup developed a foul smell. The bacteria present in the air entered the soup and putrefied it. He concluded that only pre-existing creatures could produce their progeny. The question of the origin of life, however, remained unanswered. Although most religious theories about the origin of life were not logical, people continued to believe them for a very long period. In 1809 CE, a French naturalist, Jean-Bapiste Lamarck began to visualize the evolution of animals. Lamarck explained his thought through a few examples. He propounded that millions of years ago, the average height of giraffes had been less than what it is now. Their herd comprised members of variable heights. In adverse weather conditions, each group found it difficult to find grass in the forest; only the taller ones could reach the leaves of higher trees. Consequently, they thrived and reproduced more successfully than the shorter ones. This led to an increase in the progeny of taller ones. Gradually, after thousands of generations, the average height of giraffes increased. In 1850 CE, Charles Darwin discovered that living organisms did not come into being as they look today. He proposed that all creatures originated as small and simple ones; gradually, they developed into bigger and complex ones. He explained how and why small fishes evolved into larger ones, lizards into crocodiles, donkeys into horses, chimps into humans and so forth. Scientists could not observe such evolutions among living animals, since each perceptible development took several millennia. In order to visualize the evolution of animals, they turned to palaeontology and studied prehistoric remains found all over the world. They invented several techniques, such as carbon dating, to detect the age of fossils. Using these techniques, scientists could determine the period when a fossil was alive on the earth. Apart from age, modern scientists could also precisely interpret the lifestyle, diseases and the cause of death of human remains.

After a brief study of religious activities, it becomes obvious that during the last five thousand years, humankind invented and worshipped many gods. People wasted countless working hours and resources to propitiate their gods, in the hope that the appeased gods would alleviate their sufferings, but this concept ultimately produced a contrary by-product. Humans tolerated most of their miseries— social evils and diseases—due to the fear of gods. They simply waited for the divine help and did not make concerted efforts to eradicate their miseries. In fact, priests enslaved people mentally. From the ancient period until a few decades ago, humans committed these mistakes out of ignorance: they lived in darkness. Today, the light of science is around all humans. By virtue of science, modern people are no longer afraid of the unseen ghosts or the lightning bolts in the sky. The entire universe is not a mystery today. Humanity has discovered remedies for almost all the previous miseries, such as epidemic diseases and famines. Thus, modern people seldom face mystery and helplessness: therefore, the concept of divine powers has lost its relevance. Our ancestors had enough reasons to imagine and worship unseen divine powers, but the present generations have none. During the last fifty years, literacy of the masses all over the world has increased, and they are curious about each new scientific discovery. Every day, countless people explore new happenings in the world through news channels, newspapers or the Internet. On the contrary, the religious knowledge of modern educated people comprises age-old convictions only. Today, the burning question is why are people not curious to learn about the gods they propitiate daily. There are many individuals who worship their gods for an hour or more each day. If they begin to devote only half of this time in reading the anthropology and history of religions, probably they would not require to worship any god after a few months. Furthermore, schools of almost every nation teach its political history to each new generation. However, they rarely teach religious history of the nation. At the same time, people are not inquisitive about the evolution of religions. Today, only the anthropology and history of religions and gods can enlighten the people about the truth. Apart from this, just a few decades ago, there were only books and newspapers to gain knowledge; these methods had their own limitations. For example, one could have wasted his lifetime reading the books of one religion only. Today, the Internet is an amazing tool for knowledge and information, and provides an answer to every question. Almost all ancient religious scriptures are available on the Internet in popular languages. Furthermore, several encyclopaedias provide a wide knowledge about religions. Surprisingly, modern people make use of the Internet to acquire all kinds of information, but for the knowledge of religions, they rely on priests. In fact, priests had their vested interests behind the religions and gods from the ancient time until today: they would never assist people in reaching the truth. Today, one of the most perplexing subjects is the persistence of the god delusion, all over the world. Why do people still believe a fabricated concept even after enough advancements of science? Why are gods still alive despite the fact that science has not yet found any evidence of their existence? Today, people believe and utilize many scientific inventions, but they ignore the scientific opinions about gods. For example, almost all devotees have discarded a major section of their holy scriptures that described remedies for diseases. On the contrary, they still practice rituals and worship mentioned in the same books. For instance, modern Hindus have discarded a major section of the Vedas that describes magic and sacrifices to cure patients. Modern Hindu priests do not chant the hymns to heal patients; instead, they follow modern medicine. At the same time, Hindus continue to practice Yajna and the prayers of gods from the same books. Similarly, modern Christians and Jews do not follow the magical remedies mentioned in the Bible, but they still worship the Bible. Today, devotees of almost all religions believe in modern medicine but continue to revere their ancient gods. There must be certain concrete reasons behind this fallacy in this scientific era. In fact, many successful people consider their success as gods’ blessing. They often have a conviction that their god had created them with a purpose to worship and help alleviate the poor; priests and parents have taught them this lesson from childhood. They devote their life for this cause and spread the god’s glory among the masses. Surprisingly, they never do introspection that why their gods created the poor. Furthermore, many not-yet-successful individuals need a benevolent protector who apparently fulfils their needs. They require some patron-or-saviour-like protective figure to act as a crutch to support them. Religion provides them an illusion of security and hope. Many people even get depressed; life seems difficult to them, without the support of some almighty power. This need for a saviour has rendered humanity to live in an illusion. The soothing darkness of religions has engulfed humankind and blocked the entry of scientific light.

The previous chapters have narrated a brief account of the evolution of gods. After reading them, it becomes obvious that humanity itself imagined all the divine powers called gods. The concept of gods was the projection of an ancient human instinct: people blamed some unseen almighty power behind each inexplicable event and began efforts to appease it. Furthermore, humankind modified the existing concept of gods to serve their new needs during different time. The history of religions teaches that a god, useful to the people of one period, gradually became useless in the next period. Since necessity is the mother of invention, the new human needs facilitated the invention of new more useful gods to work for them. Thus, humans often replaced an age-old god with a more promising god and consigned the older one into oblivion. For example, around five thousand years ago and onwards, people living in and around Israel worshipped the sun, the sky and other local gods. Later, they visualized that the mother goddess Ishtar was behind the fertility of their land. They began worshipping her to increase the yield of their crops. Around three thousand years ago, people suffered from epidemics such as plague. The contemporary prophet Moses invented a new god that was causing plague—God Yahweh; consequently, people began to worship Yahweh and forgot the mother goddess and other nature gods. Around two thousand years ago, the masses required a god that could magically cure their miseries: gradually, the kind God of Jesus replaced the cruel Yahweh. In another example, around five thousand years ago and thereafter, the ancient Indians worshipped the sun, the sky and fire. Around two thousand and five hundred years ago, the moral teachings of the Buddha impressed the masses more than the age-old nature gods did. After the Buddha, the Indian masses preferred their gods in a human form. Gradually, the sun and the sky god assumed human shapes as Vishnu and Shiva, respectively. Later, people replaced Vishnu with his more promising human incarnations such as Rama and Krishna. During the last fifty years, the fashion of changing gods became very popular in India. Hindus began to consider anyone surrounded by followers to be a god and designated several religious preachers as gods. Today, these demigods are doing fine business, and their fame and prosperity is directly proportional to their false promises. In short, historians and anthropologists have established that human creative imagination invented gods and religions, similar to fiction writing. In fact, ancient priests wrote fictitious religious literature to teach moral lessons, and the subsequent generations took them to be history. Today, most people all over the world have adapted to new inventions in almost every field; however, they still follow ancient religious concepts. Rather, antiquity reflects authenticity in the field of religions. The older the temple, the holier it is; the older the religious book, the more authentic it is. Many modern devotees believe that during ancient time, their gods routinely visited the earth and exhibited their magical powers. Furthermore, they suppose that the ancient priests were more knowledgeable and technologically advanced, and they had frequent access to the gods. For example, Hindus believe that ancient Vedas contain some scientific facts, which are not yet deciphered. Around five thousand years ago, Hindu god Ram incarnated as an avatar and he maintained an aircraft called Pushpak Viman. Many such prejudices do not let the people know the truth.