The Real Origin of Religion:Short People and the Big Gorilla

There are many modern theories of religion's origin. Some of the nineteenth century evolutionists, such as Edward Tylor, argued that religion originated as an explanation of natural events that could not be explained, such as thunder and seaons. Emile Durkheim, the French sociologist, explained the origin of religion in the experience of community in small communities where the power of the community was perceived to be outside a person and thus to be all powerful and moral. Freud argued the origins of religion were in the psyche and the experience of the all powerful parents.

But noone as far as I know has ever suggested the real origin of religion. It is clear that religion is an invention of short people. Short people (my ancestors for I am one of them) can clearly account for the development of religion. By projecting images of all powerful beings into the heavens, short people found the only possible way of getting big people in line. Small people after all were at the mercy of the big people.

In prehistoric times, it was not simply women who were subjected by men. It was short men too who were under the power of the powerful males. Humans were like and still are like certain types of other animals originally, such as the gorillas, in which the dominant male kept all the females to himself and cowed the smaller males.

But the development of symbolic thought, one of the great dividers between humans and the other animals, gave small people a new powerful tool. Now they could imagine an even bigger gorilla, a being that was so powerful and so large that the dominant male would be cowed. This dominant imaginary being, of course, could not be one that could be easily seen, for were this being to be visibile the actual dominant male of the horde could then try to fight the being to test its power. One can think of such encounters between humans and the Gods in stories like Jacob wrestling with the angles.

As a result, these other imaginary dominant males would have to live in the sky and would only communicate with special trusted servants (short people, of course, were particular trusted). What these larger than life figures demanded, naturally enough, was some form of ethics, a set of rules by which society would abide. These rules would level the playing field. They would make the size ofthe male unimportant. Even short people like me would be able to accepted in the community. The dominant males could not monopolize all the women.

The birth of ethics was thus the gift of small people. Ethics would ensure that size didn't matter. Other characteristics of the person would be relevant in social life. Power alone would no longer make right. In earlier stages of society, property was a right of the powerful. But now one could acquire property without taking it. Rules would ensure that small people could have property just like big people. So you see, the notion of God is a gift to the world by small people. It was small people who imagined a bigger baboon, one who could cow the dominant male. The idea of God, of the "big gorilla" was a natural consequence of the symbol making capability of human evolution. Once short people could imagine a bigger nicer gorilla, but one who was invisible, it was only a short step to the birth of religion.