Animism
From RationalWiki
Animism is the belief that all living things (and many "non-living" things which are considered by the religion to be alive[1] have a soul or spirit. Some religions suggest that these spirits need placating or they will cause some kind of harm. Others like Shinto involve a great respect, even love, for Nature in all its forms, and suggest that the spirits of nature in fact watch over people.
Scholars who believe in the idea that religions "evolve" towards monotheism claim that this is a lower level of development, and cite examples from the Torah to show how earlier writings gave spirits to rocks, mountains and streams while later writers have accepted the idea of "one god".
Many neo-pagans adopt an animistic belief system., perhaps in the hopes of finding something more "real", perhaps to come to more respect for nature in a world that dismisses nature over technology.
[edit] See Also
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Shinto deifies the Sun, Mt. Fugi, and the ocean; paleolithic man likely believed that his carvings and paintings of animals or figures carried the actual souls of those animals and were, themselves, alive.
