Human Evolution and Power of Religion - Essay Example

World religions offer their followers the scope for finding meaning in basic elements that are beyond human intellect. This important role of religions, as commented by Ezra Niesen, includes providing “an explanation for what makes the universe work, some way for people to escape their physical mortality, ways for people to build healthy families and strong communities, and ways for people to make themselves feel satisfied with their lives.” (Niesen). There is an obvious role of religions to provide humans with the capacity to understand the factors which completely beyond the power of their intellect. It is through the working of the hankering in every human being to go beyond what he or she can grasp and it is through the power of the intellect and the will that humans can reach things beyond their knowledge.

The power of intellect and the will worked as the ways leading to God and religion and one finds the origin of the world religions in this background. To understand the role of the intellect and the will of humans, and thereby their logic, in the evolution of religion it is important to realize the chain of logic. Thus, the evolution of human intellect was influential in making them the overriding species of the world, as the intellect provided them the benefit of hunting that other species were equipped to defend against. The intellect also made them superior over other creations and they began to think about the things beyond their reach with the use of their intellect. However, it soon turned out that several elements in the universe were beyond the power of their intellect. This made them use their will in the finding of meaning of elements in the universe that their intellect could not satisfy and it led them to the awareness of the existence of God and powers beyond the comprehension of their intellect. This can be very well comprehended as the origin of religions of the world. That is to say, the abilities and the superiority of the humans through the implementation of their intellect made them the only species competent to perceive their mortality at all times. The knowledge about the mortality of the humans perceived through the intellect, and the abilities to imagine, remember, and communicate caused a permanent and inescapable threat to people’s survival. This understanding compelled them to find some means to get away with the fate of humans and to provide them a way to endure their mortality which necessitated the powers beyond their reach. “Religion was an evolutionary inevitability because, without it, our entire species would have become extinct due to mass clinical depression.” (Niesen). Thus, the tendency in every human to go beyond what they cannot grasp with their intellect led their way to God and ultimately to religion. Religion has been historically perceived as the inevitable reality to humans who always wished for things beyond their reality.