Re: What causes religion?
No … I think the question should be asked in another way … this is the question …
“Is there evidence that Greek, Norse and Egyptian religions have developed through time gradually changing?”
Now my premise for asking the question this way is that we in Islam claim that there were:
a) 124,000 prophets sent to all nations to deliver the news of Allah, the angels, the concept of worship, the concept of hell and heaven, etc …
b) That people changed religion to suit their needs or through the years people forgot about religion and introduced myth into what they already knew.
c) The concept of Allah (SWT) existed in pagan Arabia in the early 7th century CE, because their ancestors were from Ibrahim (AS) and Ismail (AS) whose religion was Islam … and by inference I suggest the same must be the case with other faiths too.
The common aspect in all these religions is some sort of concept of a “Creation story” - that how is it that we have what we have … ??? The idea of a Supreme God … is an indicator that gradually people introduced peers and supporters to the Supreme God. The gave the God and all the lesser ones human characteristics and human flaws … and so on …
What aspect do we need to look for in order to see signs of a developing religion - well we need to look for evidence that the faiths were simple and became more complex in time … If there is evidence for this then we have our basis …