Root

The root of religion must be sought not in man’s consciousness of his insignificance before physical nature, but in the consciousness of his sharp difference from this nature. “I am not that which surrounds me in the world of sense, I have a higher principle in me, I am a reflection of the higher being” – these are the thoughts that even primitive man had, and made him everywhere to seek the Supreme being and seek his worship.

§9. Animistic theory
In almost all uncultured peoples we meet with a religious reverence for dead ancestors. This fact has led some scientists to stop on the assumption that the very origin of religion should be sought in the recognition by primitive man of the influence that the souls of dead people can have on human life.

Even in Ancient Greece, it was suggested (by Euhemerus and the Sophist Critias) that Greek mythology is based on stories about ancient heroes and great benefactors of mankind, which grateful posterity raised to the level of divine beings who continue after their death to influence various aspects of human life. People who made significant improvements in agriculture, managed to tame wild animals for the first time, arranged the first ship, and so on, were later revered as the patrons of agriculture, cattle breeding, navigation, and so on.; to them and began to turn in the right cases, subsequent generations, asking for their help and assistance.

But this ancient Greek theory was intended only to solve the question of the origin of Greek religious myths. Modern animistic theory asks a broader question in General about the origin and primary origin of religion in the human race. The most prominent representatives of this theory are Herbert Spencer and Taylor. According to them, the formation of religious beliefs and worship was preceded by the formation of the idea of the human spirit (animus) as a separate and independent entity from the body. This was suggested to primitive man by dreams. Seeing a friend or relative in a dream and at the same time making sure that no one came to his home, he explained this fact in such a way that he was visited by a double of the friend, his special, invisible spiritual half. In the same way, when he saw himself in a dream engaged in hunting or participating in war, he assumed that while his body remained in its usual place, his spirit as it were came out of the body and performed certain actions.