Place

Religion takes place only where there is a consciousness of contradiction between its ideal nature, as a representation of the highest being, and its actual existence in the world, which is as it were a negation of this higher being. Now, if it is proved that this consciousness, even in its most rudimentary form, is also inherent in animals, then it will be possible to speak of their capacity for religious feeling.

Therefore we must look for the beginning of religion only in the human race. When did she get here? Before answering this question, it is necessary to establish the fact that history finds all the tribes and peoples at a time when they already had religious beliefs and rituals. According to the testimony of ancient Greek and Roman writers, even the rudest savages discover the existence of their religious beliefs. Plutarch, for example, says that there are peoples who have no cities, no Commerce, no state system, but there is not a single people who would do without religious beliefs. The same idea is confirmed by Cicero. In modern times, among the vast majority of scientists and travelers who have directly studied the life and life of modern savages, the belief also prevails that no matter how advanced a tribe is, it always discovers religious beliefs and practices religious rites. It is true that there were isolated voices of some travelers, as if they had had occasion to observe such savage tribes (for example, the Kaffirs), in which there is a complete absence of any form of religious life; but Max Muller, one of the most authoritative researchers of religion, rightly considers these voices the result of an extremely superficial observation of the life of savages, due to a lack of knowledge of the language of uncultured Indeed, the missionaries (van der Kemp, Moffat, etc.), who lived for a long time among, for example, the Kaffirs, in whom the traveller Ling found no rudiments of religion, discovered in them quite clearly expressed religious concepts and worship.