EVOLUTION OF DEITIES
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The following is a brief summary of the evolution of religious belief:

1) NATURISM
This first stage can hardly be called religious, since the human race
reacted to natural forces with primitive fear and without any real thought.
Primitive man was little more than one among other animals, and thus feared
the wrath of Nature in much the same manner. Life was lived on a natural
level, and humans were generally passive victims of the elements. Thunder
and lightning were things of terror and shelter from them was desired.
Volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, drought, etc., were all hazards, as were
attacks by animals, or poisons inherent in various plants. Nature could
also be bountiful and pleasant, but life was a risky matter most of the
time. Any worship or awe was directed towards these non-human factors as
humans battled to survive.

2) ANIMISM
The second stage came when people began to wonder about things in a fearful,
superstitious way.
Human thought initially was full of superstition, weird speculation about
the causes of phenomena. This led to belief in souls and spirits, to
totemism and fetishism; ancestor worship. Each tribe had its witchdoctor
who specialised in such matters, with various voodoo practices and other
rituals. "Animism" means belief in souls or spirits (L. anima); animals
have, like us, breath or life. When life ceases the breath or anima departs
and the creature has "ex-pired" (breathed its last). It was thought that
the breath was an entity in its own right - "a soul" - which could
transmigrate into other beings or places. Ghost-souls or spirits could
exist in animals, plants, even in trees and stones, and places. Witchcraft,
sorcery, magic, and devil-possession originate from animism. Fetishism is
the worship of material objects possessed of magical or supernatural power.
Totemism is the hereditary badge or emblem of human tribes (Nth. American
Indians); the figure of an animal, plant, etc, by which the tribe is named.
Primitive Teutons, Celts (Druids), Slavs, worshipped trees, etc.

3) POLYTHEISM
The third stage evolved with the increased confidence of the human race in
its control over the environment. As nomadic existence of hunter-gatherer
gave way to a settled life-style of agriculture and domestic livestock, so
too did the animism of primitive tribes become more orientated around an
anthropomorphic projection of spirits onto the cosmos - gods and goddesses -
originally derived from the "Old Man/Woman of the Tribe", but reflecting
human power over nature. These spirits, coupled with tribes evolving into
settled matriarchies or patriarchies, produced a proliferation of
super-beings in human form - gods and goddesses - at once idealised
human-like deities, but also authoritarian tribal memories of past rulers
(kings or chiefs). They required service and propitiation. The animism of
the past still lingered, but it was the human deities which now prevailed,
and proliferated. Egyptian, Hindu, Greek, Roman, and Scandinavian deities
abounded in a polytheistic peak of evolution. Their mythology was extensive
and complex: Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Neptune, Mars, Venus, Pluto, Saturn,
Mercury, Diana, Vulcan, Ceres, Vesta, Apollo, etc. Their marriages and
exploits, their general and special functions, feast days, and character.
Religion reached the height of its power and influence in this period of
time.

4) MONOTHEISM
But with the fourth stage came the intolerance of "the jealous God" of the
nomadic Israelites, the alleged "one true god" (out of all tribal deities)
who was worthy of worship - others (eg. Baal) being false and only myths. A
ban on graven images also meant that Yahweh, or Jehovah, tended to become
more abstract and generalised, to become "God" in a cosmological and
universal sense. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are monotheistic
religions, which discount all other creeds as being untrue, misguided, or
malicious. Consequently, it is quite justifiable to destroy the idols,
temples, and even the adherents, of these rival faiths. Gone was any
tolerance of belief, as wars of religion were waged in earnest. To some
extent it was also a subconscious realisation that most animistic and
polytheistic belief was unnecessary in an age of increasing knowledge; the
gods, goddesses, and other spiritual beings were no longer needed to explain
the cosmos. When Christianity evolved, with its emphasis on the
supernatural world, and took over the erstwhile Roman Empire, then
monotheism could really eliminate rival gods and customs and establish
itself across Europe. Islam was a later development; also a monotheistic
religion. Wars of religion, and suppression of human thought were the
result of dogmatic certainty and taboo morality.

5) ATHEISM
Gradually, under the influence of science and its liberating effect on the
human mind, religion began to lose its grip cosmologically. Likewise, and as
a result, the spread of democracy and secular law loosened religion's
influence in an ethical sense; taboo morality and divine commands were
heeded less and less, as these factors spread, whether by revolution or
evolution. The final stage is with us now. Even the monotheism of the
recent past is no longer needed, and can no longer be believed by rational
people. Science discounts even it. There's no evidence for a God, who is
conspicuous by his absence and inactivity. Atheism seems inevitable, given
education, democracy, and the open society. Fundamentalism is religion's
last desperate hope.
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