[lbo-talk] Marxism and Religion

[Miles Jackson]

Chris Doss wrote:
> Isn't the belief in an afterlife and gods of some sort
> a near human cultural universal? The natures of those
> things may vary considerably, but I cannot offhand
> think of a single counterexample (though I am not a
> comparative anthropologist!).
>
>
>   
Not really.  Sociologists who study religion point out that the belief 
in gods tends to emerge when societies develop rigid political 
hierarchies (the "King" or "Chief" is mirrored in the spiritual world by 
a god or gods).  In hunting and gathering societies, belief in gods is 
the exception rather than the rule (animism differs dramatically from 
deity worship).

Miles