The literature on the subject of religion's origins usually falls under three categories;

(1) the theological - religion emerged from a Divine revelation and the reason we practice religion is because there is a God or gods or supernatural forces. Religion is man's attempt to explain to himself this "fact" of a divine message usually conveyed via a shaman, prophet, or priest who acts as the intermediary of the Divine. This is still the majority view (i.e. of most people on...

There was a time when I was supportive of the Venus figurines as evidence of cult worship, but it appears I had been misled by the extreme popularity given to the work of a single researcher; Maria Gimbutas. Her interpretation of them as evidence for a Palaeolithic "Earth/Mother Goddess" was but one of many and is, in fact, not at all taken seriously nowadays by the archaeological community. As the years unfold, in fact, this theory is beginning to look increasingly like a product of her...