Analogous to Manilowski’s functional approach about rituals, I believe that people’s great affinity with their religious beliefs arises from an attempt to reduce anxiety and uncertainty about what cannot be explained. Ever since humans starting developing their cognitive reasoning, a need for understanding the world around seemed to be of ever greater importance. It is therefore no wonder how primitive people starting worshiping natural entities and phenomena, such as the sun, the moon, the rain, among others, for they could not truly explain nor understand their relationship with their actual existence. For this reason, they were thought of as almost divine entities or deities, which ultimately brought a social meaning for a group of people by creating symbols and rituals to interact with these “supreme” entities. In the same context, the development religions as one knows them, can be analogously compared to the previous case of early human ancestors. However, there is a significant distinction among both scenarios. Most world religions have developed into a complex set of practices and values that are to be followed by the believers to attain a righteous relationship with god (or many gods) as well as with other human beings and nature. In other words, they deliver a message of how people should live and what they ought not do. And even though religions developed in different parts of the world and at different time frames, they created a common consensus in the lifestyle and beliefs of their followers. Moreover, charismatic individuals such as Jesus or Muhammad, have had a tremendous impact in Christianity and Islam. In both cases, these historical characters were seen by followers, as either God’s messiah or prophet to deliver or fulfill God’s prophesies. Now, many centuries after their respective deaths, people still belief in their divinity through narrative documents such as the Bible and Koran, but most particularly due to their spiritual apprehension or faith. It is this faith that makes people very serious about their beliefs, for it does not require any prove to verify the validity of a given event or truth in history. It is a very efficient and “conformistic” method to validate what is uncertain. Nonetheless, it hinders the possibility for open debate in a rational context and it is easily transmissible through the masses. It is not surprising why Kant argued that “religion is the opiate of the masses”. A final argument as to why people are so passionate about their religious beliefs is that most people around the world are born into a family that already has a spiritual mindset, which is culturally learned, just like language. It is therefore very likely that if one is born into a Jewish family, that one will carry the religious beliefs of Judaism and not the ones of Hinduism. Obviously, it is not always the case, since certain individuals that were raised under the values of a particular religion can stop believing or can adopt the spiritual beliefs of another religion. The point, however, is that the majority of the population is born into a religious environment that most likely will condition any individual’s spiritual apprehension and beliefs.
