The Origins of Religion in the Child

Abstract

This chapter proposes to treat the origins of religion solely from the perspective of the individual and not from that of society. It demonstrates that religion has an individual as well as a social lineage and that this lineage can be traced to certain cognitive need capacities that emerge in the course of mental growth. The chapter describes four cognitive need capacities with respect to age they first make their appearance, the problems of adaptation that they engender, and the corresponding resolutions offered by religion. Every social institution, whether it be science, art, or religion, can be regarded as an externalized adaptation that serves both person and society. From the standpoint of the individual, institutions afford ready-made solutions to inevitable conflicts with social and physical reality that one encounters in the march through life. During the school-age epoch the child is exposed to formal instruction and acquire a prescribed body of knowledge and special skills such as reading and writing.

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