Religious concepts and ideas

The development of religious concepts and ideas 

by Jimmy Henderson 

Hons(phil), MA (psychology) FRC

The rise and waning of various religions and religious practices throughout the ages could be a reflection of natural changes and shifts in human consciousness and perception. For instance, with the evolving human ability to form abstract concepts, ideas involving God could have shifted between different levels or groups of archetypal figures and sub-personalities available to inner experience.

For example, the earliest religions consisted of the worship of spirits which were said to animate mountains, trees and rivers, and the actions of these spirits were seen as responsible for natural phenomena. Later a series of polytheistic religions emerged, such as that of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Aryans. This suggested a movement away from an almost infinite amount of spiritual sub-personalities to a more finite number of gods or deities, which could very well be representations of archetypal personalities existing within the depths of a single universal singularity (a sort of collective mind).

It has also been suggested that polytheism occurred at that time in history precisely because the human mind was still unable to conceive of a single being having so many different powers, aspects and attributes as has subsequently been revealed to the world. This would have only have become possible later with the further evolution of language, during which time monotheistic conceptualisations of God became possible.

As a result of the connection between the active role of the mind, differences in cultural-historical interpretation and linguistic development, no conception of God can ever be viewed as illegitimate, only more or less complete.

‘Conscience is the highest religion’

J . Henderson

 Jimmy Henderson is a metaphysician and the author of a number of books and articles on self-development. He has an Honours degree in philosophy (metaphysics) and a Masters degree in Psychology. His books ‘Multi-Dimensional Thinking’ (2007) and ‘Multi-dimensional Perception’ (2010) are available on Amazon.com and can also be ordered via his own website www.jimmyhendersonbooks.com