God and Homo sapiens

Before we begin investigating the human story, however, God needs to be discussed.  This is because God has been with us for a long time – probably back to the moment when we figuratively departed the Garden of Eden.

The worship of a god and/or a religion or other system of beliefs seems to be a major element in nearly all civilizations and in the earliest groups of man.  Some of the very earliest cultural remains from our hunter/gatherer ancestors show belief in the supernatural.  There is some evidence that Neanderthals and Homo heidelbergensis buried their dead and also participated in religious or mystical practices as long ago 150,000-300,000 years.  Worship appears simultaneously with the first evidence of human culture. 

Early cave paintings show supernatural animals with mixed bodies, such as the head of a stag with large antlers, the face of an owl, ears of a wolf, arms with bear paws and tail of a horse.  Burial sites show people buried with jewelry, food and statues of god-like figures.  The god-like statuettes took several forms – men, women, animals, and mixtures.  The provisioning for further living shows belief in life after death. 

The form of god has varied throughout our history.  The Egyptian gods included animals and the sun, as well as deifying the Pharaoh.  In many early societies, the individual who was head of the group was given the mantel of deity.  The leader either WAS god, or had a presumed direct line of communication to god.  This applied to many of the earlier large civilizations, such as the Aztec and Inca emperors, the Pharaohs in Egypt, and even extending to the emperor of Japan and kings and queens in more recent history. 

The earlier forms of god were typically statues or similar physical objects.  In either case the god-figure was a real object and people in the group could have access to the god – even if only from a viewing distance.  As the groups became larger, larger figures or symbols for god were required in order for people in the group to have access or view them.  This required building large shrines such as the pyramids or the Mayan temples.  Invisible gods by-pass this problem of size and therefore can serve considerably larger groups of humans.
The concept of god appears to have been an integral part of humans from as far back in time as we can identify human culture…..and it continues as a dominant part of the human condition today.  The form of god can be very different in different human groupings.  However, some groups, such as Buddhists, don’t formally celebrate or believe in god. Instead they have a belief system that “explains” the unknowns about the world.