Overview of Belief Systems
Introduction – The Big Questions
Humans have been asking these big questions for thousands of years: Why are we here? Do we have a creator? What happens when we die? What’s the meaning of life?
Somehow we still don’t have clear answers. But people do believe in many different explanations. Some believe in an all-knowing, all-seeing god or many gods. Others believe in a spiritual connection that we share as humans and with the Earth. Historians call these diverse ways of thinking “belief systems” or “systems of belief.” All of these belief systems seem to be trying to answer these “big” questions about life’s meaning and our place in the universe.
However, “systems of belief” do not match up exactly with religious beliefs or with religious organizations, sacred books, special buildings (such as temples), and holy practices. Of course, these are all important parts of human history. Many religious people consider their beliefs, rituals, and practices as sacred because they come from God (or gods). Most Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians and many Buddhists would be examples. But many other people have participated in systems of belief without referring to the divine, or “god-like.” You will see that in your studies of Confucian China or Ancient Greek philosophies. Throughout human history, many varied belief systems and experiences have sprung from our big questions.
These varied systems of belief and rituals have evolved over time. They shaped the changes in how we interact, in our communities, and in our understanding of the world. Here’s an overview of some of these changes.
The Human Spirit – Our Earliest Belief Systems
The creation of belief systems probably begins with humanity itself. Thousands of years ago, primates evolved into consciously thinking human beings. We call this a cognitive revolution. The distinct human ability to think abstractly and communicate about things beyond the “here and now” may have led to the creation of a spiritual, and eventually, religious world.
The earliest systems of belief imagined a spirit world, often invisible, that existed alongside the physical world of human communities. For example, some foraging communities may have created ritual songs or dances. Some may have staged mock hunts to please the spirits in the natural world. Some spirits were attached to certain people, families, places, or objects, while others controlled certain aspects of life. There was an incredible amount of diversity across societies. These spirits weren’t gods, and their belief systems were not organized religions like we have today. Instead, the whole of the natural world was a part of this spiritual world. Such a system is often referred to as animism.
In animistic communities, spiritual beings could be nice or mischievous or downright evil. People dealt with the spirits according to these qualities. Sometimes specific rituals such as dances or sacrifices were performed to please the spirits or ask for aid, or to get answers. At other times a diviner or a shaman communicated with the spirit to get something they wanted. A diviner received messages from the spirit world, and a shaman entered a trance-like state to visit the spirit world. Many early belief systems also aimed to contact ancestors who had passed into the spirit world. Everything was connected from humans to nature to spirits—such as ghosts, fairies, monsters, and demons. Humans asked these spirits for protection and well-being amid the harsh realities of Earth-bound life. In this way, belief systems provided comfort for people in a frightening, uncertain world. Animism served our ancestors well. It offered people meaningful connections to the world they inhabited and united communities through common rituals and beliefs. It remains a common system of belief among many people today. Some historians, such as John and William McNeil, think that these animistic systems of belief deserve our respect: “[n]o worldview has lasted nearly so long nor explained so much to so many so convincingly” (The Human Web, 18).
Faith Communities – Organized Systems of Belief in Early Societies
As communities became larger and more structured, some belief systems changed. This probably had much to do with the development of hierarchies, or ranking of social groups, brought on by early farming societies. As these societies were formed and farming created food surpluses, specialization of labor and social hierarchies developed.
Certain members of society became specialists such as priests and priestesses who communicated with gods and goddesses. Additionally, as religion became more structured, it gave rulers a way to establish common practices and beliefs. Such ideas bound together everyone living in the state. The increased organization of religion gave rulers more control over their subjects, especially when the ruler claimed to be a priest-king or divine. These more structured beliefs systems usually had a pantheon, or collection of gods and goddesses, with a main or supreme god or goddess at the top. They also had creation stories about how the world and humans began. As exchange networks grew and empires began conquering new territories, these religions and their stories began to spread. Eventually, belief systems began to change. Some local community spirits and rituals were included into the wider pantheon of gods and religious practices.
God on the Go – Portable and Universal Systems of Beliefs and Ideas
Another major change in our systems of beliefs and ideas began in some regions around 3,000 years ago. Networks and connections were increasing then among Afro-Eurasian peoples. Many started to transform their specific, local belief systems to make them more portable. The ideas were also more universal, in that they were open to people outside their local community.
German philosopher Karl Jaspers argued that these portable and universal systems of belief were different from those that came before in three important ways. First, unlike previous belief systems, these did not depend on local spirits, rituals, or ideas tied to a specific place. In those older systems, worshippers had to be close to the sacred place—such as a river or shrine or temple—to be able to perform the rituals or to communicate with a spirit or god. These new systems were “portable” in that they could be transported to different regions. They could perform the rituals and communicate with the spirits, gods, and goddesses just about anywhere. A collection of sacred writings helped make the belief systems transportable to new places. These texts helped ensure that new and existing believers would be able to perform the rituals as intended by whoever wrote them down. It was also a way to ensure they were sincere in their devotion to the faith.
Second, these new systems of belief were accessible to people beyond the local or original community of believers. We call these systems “universal” because they could be practiced by anyone willing to learn and accept the required beliefs, ideas, and rituals.
Finally, along with belief and ritual these systems inspired a change in behavior. In one way or another, the new systems encouraged people to be selfless, self-disciplined, self-aware, and cooperate with others. Some examples of these systems were Confucianism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Daoism, and Zoroastrianism, among others. Many of these portable, universal systems of belief established compassion, charity, respect for life, and care for children as important and necessary behaviors. The earlier non-portable, non-universal belief systems may have often called for these qualities as well. But the new systems made these characteristics part of their sacred scriptures and rituals. They guided how people lived their daily lives.
These portable and universal systems of belief affected and were affected by the expanding networks, increasing populations, and more complex societies such as empires. Over time, some of these systems of beliefs or ideas became popular. Some even became the dominant system among most people. Historians refer to these portable faiths as “world religions” or universal belief systems.
Conclusion
Ideas have continued to expand across global networks into new areas. And so, new followers join these world religion communities every day. But localized belief systems still exist, including more spiritual or animistic practices. In addition, people have blended many of these belief systems throughout history in a process called syncretism. And even after thousands of years of human history and the formation of belief systems, most of these religious and spiritual systems of belief are still trying to answer those same big questions that began the article:
- Why are we here?
- What’s our place in the universe?
- What’s the meaning of life?
Bob Bain
Bob Bain is Associate Professor in the School of Education, and the Departments of History and of Museum Studies at the University of Michigan. He also is the director of U-M’s World History and Literature Initiative and the faculty lead on the Big History Project. Before coming to the U-M in 1998, he taught high school history and social studies for 26 years. Bain’s research centers on teaching and learning history and the social sciences in classrooms, on-line, in museums and homes.
Bridgette Byrd O’Connor
Bridgette Byrd O’Connor holds a DPhil in history from the University of Oxford and has taught Big History, World History, and AP U.S. Government and Politics for the past ten years at the high school level. In addition, she has been a freelance writer and editor for the Big History Project and the Crash Course World History and U.S. History curriculums.
Image credits
This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0 except for the following:
Cover: Hands of a Tibetan monk with an ancient prayer book while he is reading in the assembly hall of a monastery in Central Tibet. © guenterguni / E+ / Getty Images
In this page from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puck, a fairy from the spirit world, makes trouble in our world. Shakespeare’s imaginative setting is based on a variety of actual beliefs from long before his time. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_midsummer-night%27s_dream_(1874)_(14764406192).jpg
Oracle bone from Shang dynasty China, c. 1600-1046 BCE. A diviner carves a question into the bone to ask if anything bad will happen in the next 10 days. The Shang ruler wrote that he asked the diviner’s question to an ancestor in a worship ritual. By Editor at Large, CC BY-SA 2.5. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CMOC_Treasures_of_Ancient_China_exhibit_-_oracle_bone_inscription.jpg#/media/File:CMOC_Treasures_of_Ancient_China_exhibit_-_oracle_bone_inscription.jpg
Sahure, pharaoh (divine king) of Ancient Egypt, who reigned from 2490 to 2477 BCE. By Keith Schengili-Roberts, CC BY-SA 2.5. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SahureAndNomeGod-CloseUpOfSahure_MetropolitanMuseum.png#/media/File:SahureAndNomeGod-CloseUpOfSahure_MetropolitanMuseum.png
Page from an eleventh-century CE Quran from North Africa, housed in the British Museum. By LordHarris, CC BY-SA 3.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IslamicGalleryBritishMuseum3.jpg#/media/File:IslamicGalleryBritishMuseum3.jpg
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