Soul, the essence of religion

by Dr. H.D. Goonetilleke

The belief in 'soul' or 'spirit' is at the root of all religions in the world. Ever since man became conscious of himself and his own existence, he believed there was an underlying essence of some fundamental nature in everything he stumbled upon.

This included not only himself and the animals and trees having some visible form of life, but also material things such as rocks and rivers, and the mountains and valleys that surrounded him. To him, the perception of 'soul' was very compelling for things he could not readily comprehend, which included the sun and the moon as well as the rain and the wind.

However, for over many millennia - until about 100,000 years ago - the pre-human could not figure out exactly what was happening around him, or reckon the true nature of things he experienced.

From the rising of the sun to the ever changing seasons of the year, he could experience a whole range of natural events, yet like other animals on earth he needed no explanation, nor had any 'conscious' explanation for what he witnessed day after day.

However, things changed dramatically about 70,000 years ago, when natural selection of a specific mutation in the genes of Homo sapiens provided him with exceptional mental abilities. The cognitive functions of memory, perception and reasoning enabled the primitive hunter-gatherer to probe the world around him in ways he had never imagined before. Why things happen the way they happened became a deep mystery for him, and he needed to know why.

For instance, he could not understand why some healthy individual would suddenly fall sick and die, or a storm might unexpectedly destroy an entire human habitat. He certainly needed good enough reasons and explanations.

With innovative thinking and reasoning, the primitive human figured out that many unexplained events could be explained by speculating, and then believing in unseen agents and unseen forces operating from behind. It seemed quite appropriate for him to understand the world through 'imagined representations' rather than through simple interpretation of what is perceived via his natural senses.

Mysterious

The notion of 'soul' as an agent residing inside mysterious entities allowed him to unravel and understand the paradoxical nature of many things around him.

He could now attribute whatever that happened to the whims and fancies of imagined souls controlling things around, enabling him to believe, for instance, that a recent devastating flood was caused by an angry soul in charge of a nearby river.

The attribution of soul to an entity known as 'animism', compelled the ancient humans to deal with the outside world and their immediate surroundings more thoughtfully and cautiously. To an 'animist' world was populated not only with humans and animals, but also with other 'beings' such as rocks, trees, deities and demons, all of whom had to be treated appropriately for his own survival. Animism and animistic faiths thus became the earliest belief systems that prevailed among humans over a long period of time.

'Polytheism' which emerged from animism, also had allegiances to holy rocks, holy trees, deities and demons, but more importantly it shared a core belief that the world was governed by some very powerful entities such as Sun God, Rain God, or the Moon Goddess.

While numerous rituals and sacrifices made to please a multiplicity of Gods made polytheistic religions, such as Hinduism, the earliest religions in the world, the belief in the existence of different souls controlling each God was central to polytheism and polytheistic religions.

With time however, 'monotheism', or the belief in a single soul controlling the entire universe began to appear when people wished to identify a single God of their choice with the supreme power ruling the universe.

People began to drift away from the basic polytheistic insights of many Gods having interests in numerous affairs of people, to a single God with all encompassing supreme power, who would still be interested in the mundane desires and worries of human beings.

The first such monotheistic religion appeared in ancient Egypt around 1350 B.C., when Pharaoh Akhenaten declared the worship of God 'Aten' as the state religion by recognising 'Aten' or Sun as the giver of all life and the supreme power ruling the entire universe. Over the next few centuries many other monotheistic religions emerged, but most of them remained marginal and disappeared eventually.

Judaism

The inevitable growth and spread of major monotheistic religions appeared only after the rise of Judaism in the 6th Century B.C., with 'Yahweh' becoming the only true God of all Hebrew tribes. Hebrews who were originally polytheistic, or even animistic, believed that 'Yahweh' was the greatest God of all, independent of everything that can be perceived. Christianity and Islam both of which originated later with foundations in Judaism also embraced the belief in one and only true God, an all- encompassing supreme God controlling the entire universe.

While the question of who ruled the world and manipulated its events was uppermost in the thinking of polytheistic and monotheistic minds, the major emphasis of most religions was directed towards the 'soul of the individual' and its destiny after death. By now, the notion of 'soul' existing independent of the body was deeply rooted in the thinking of man.

For instance, the goal of life for ancient Egyptians was to get their souls resurrected after death and live on for eternity.

Even Judaism, though mostly concerned with earthly life, advocated the belief in continuity of 'soul' after death. The Christians and Muslims on the other hand believed that human beings experience divine judgement particular to the individual soul upon physical death, and are rewarded with either eternal life or eternal damnation depending upon the accumulated sins.

Even in non-theistic religions such as Buddhism where the existence of God is denied one finds the belief in "reincarnation", or transmigration of soul to another body after death.

Suffering

The individual suffering caused by a cycle of births and deaths as portrayed in Buddhism does imply the expression of a personal soul. The continuation of this basic essence of a soul, according to Buddhism, can only be terminated through attainment of enlightenment.

It is thus evident that our belief in 'soul' has deep historical roots, driven mainly by primitive dualism instilled in our early cognitive development.

Dualism is the belief that mind and matter are two fundamentally distinctive elements, so that instead of being a manifestation of matter, the mind can exist apart from matter.

According to evolutionary psychologists, humans are instinctive dualists, and this innate dualism has inspired humans to believe in a 'soul' that occupies the body rather than being an integral part of it. For dualists, a soul could thus conceivably leave the body and exist somewhere else on its own.

It is true that the emergence of religions from human dualism and abstract reasoning has performed a very crucial role in the evolutionary history of the human race.

Religion has aspired to explain our own existence, but in realising its aspirations it has essentially driven us to believe in the existence of an enduring 'soul' that retains the essence of what we are. Despite the lack of scientific evidence many people still believe in the reality of a 'soul' that remains to live on even after death.