Abstract
If we want to describe this development of religions as an evolutionary process, solving the issue of the natural evolving unit is a requirement for mapping out an evolutionary model in the first place. In this context, a religion can be understood as a distinct complex of belief and action, clearly separated from comparable units. Thus, religions are not random aggregates of individuals, whose religious convictions and actions manifest superficially in the same symbols, but they are units whose members recognise themselves as belonging to the same community of believers. Therefore, religion as a category or taxon is not random or accidental, but the result of a consensus of religious beliefs and actions, separated from other religions by discontinuities.
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Notes
- 1.
„Religion hat… die Funktion, die unbestimmbare, weil nach außen [Umwelt] und nach innen [System] hin unabschließbare Welt in eine bestimmbare zu transformieren.“
- 2.
See, for example, Smart (1992, pp. 11–25).
- 3.
- 4.
We see a similar scenario when considering the work of the historians of religion Jouco Bleeker und Geo Widengren. In this case, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrism, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Religions of China, Religions of Japan, and, finally, Religions of Illiterate People are all discussed under the heading “Religions of the Present”, yet these religions are in no way brought into a mutual context, nor are they linked with any of the precursor religions discussed in a further volume: Bleeker and Widengren (1969 and 1971).
- 5.
Darwin (1872) 1995, p. 38, concludes that: “Nevertheless, no certain criterion can possibly be given by which variable forms, local forms, sub-species, and representative species can be recognised.”
- 6.
Comparable to the information stored in the genes.
- 7.
“Vorstellungen, Einstellungen und Handlungen gegenüber jener Wirklichkeit, die Menschen als Mächte oder Macht, als Geister oder auch Dämonen, als Götter oder Gott, als das Heilige oder Absolute oder schließlich auch nur als Transzendenz annehmen und benennen” (Antes 1992, p. 1542).
- 8.
- 9.
At this point, a brief note is necessary to explain our using the term “Jewish” rather than Judaean to refer to the religion, people, and practices of the time. Some scholars navigating the periods generally referred to as Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity have in the recent years argued for the use of “Judaean” as distinct from “Jewish”, reasoning that Judaism in the form we know it today did not exist at the time and that ethnicity and geographical affiliation were very much important aspects in terms of self-identification. Mason (2007) offers a comprehensive overview of the arguments. For our current purposes, it is important to point out that Judaism in all its forms, from an evolutionary perspective, is a single chrono-religion (Judaism) even though features and characteristics have changed over the course of time. We have thus for taxonomic reasons decided in favour of the term Jewish/Jew (see further, Chap. 12).
- 10.
“Alle höhere Kultur hat sich aus einfachen Anfängen entwickelt, die materielle sowohl wie die geistige… So sind auch die großen Religionen der Menschheit aus primitiven Vorstellungen erwachsen und allmählich zu ihrer jetzigen Gestalt fortgeschritten.”
- 11.
“dass die Kulturentwicklung der Menschheit nicht als eine einlinige anzusehen ist, sondern dass in der Kultur der primitiven Völker verschiedene Entwicklungen vorliegen.”
- 12.
“werden sie jetzt mehr und mehr zu magischen Potenzen, über welche derjenige verfügen kann, der die heiligen Sprüche kennt und die vorgeschriebenen Zeremonien ausführt.” Von Glasenapp 1926.
- 13.
For a comparative approach in the Humanities, specifically linguistics, see Witzel (2012, pp. 188–194).
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Wunn, I., Grojnowski, D. (2018). Absolute Prerequisite: Systematics and the Natural Evolving Unit. In: Religious Speciation. New Approaches to the Scientific Study of Religion , vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04435-0_4
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