Are you religious? Or what do you believe?

I feel like understanding that the Abrahamic religions didn't begin as monotheistic religions is probably the most important detail that modern individuals fail to understand.

Chimps in West Africa have been observed, as a group, laying what can only be described as offerings at the base of a dead tree.. This goes way back to our very beginnings...

This video was a literal life safer. I was freaking out, panicking and I was about to spend the day in bed under the covers. Then i saw this. I decided i should do something and to shut out the intrusive thoughts that quite literally squeeze my heart to a pulp and turn my brain into a discoball from hell, reflecting only the worst of myself experiencing-and going through- life. I got up. Put my headset on and decided the mop the communal staircase area. I decided to it twice😂. I took my time.All the while, my head is filled with a soothing voice that eases my nerves. My breathing aligns with the phrasing of his speech. My brain is getting a dopamine boost because it is being rewarded with the treat of history, religion, society, humanity. I have just finished and this small task has exhausted me. But I stuck to something for almost an hour and completed it. Nothing that was said in this video was new to me but it provided more depth and expanded my understanding of things that interest me. But more than that, it made me get out of bed. Which is nice. Its my birthday and i will consider this my gift! Well, that was enough self-indulgence and attention seeking for today.😂

Not gonna lie, I need 3 sessions to finish watching this 😂 They are such enjoyable sessions. It is enlightening to see the bigger picture which ties up many of your previous videos, a lot of archaelogical findings I've read about in the last few years, the holes in our current body of knowledge, and so much more. Thank you, may your days always be blessed with perfectly steeped tea ❤

_And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for ten thousand years, Göbekli Tepe passed out of all knowledge._

There were a thousand quiet nights throughout our history where parents told their children the story of the animal that died to create the world. Sometimes they were the only ones doing it for miles around, but the story survived. That's really comforting to me.

As an anthropologist interested in the H. naledi alleged burials, I love your channel so much. I recommend it to students quite often. Thank you for the immense work this must have taken to put together. I'm a detective of physical human history and you're a detective of the intangible side of human history (which is much more difficult, IMHO).

You're a breath of fresh air for people who are just interested in history and all culture's mythology and stories. So many Far-right / right-wing people obfuscate the Indo-European history nowadays it's a sad time. Thank you for being an academic and keep up the great work.

It makes sense that our earliest rituals were centered around death, since our closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, are known to mourn their dead.

"It appears as though people have first worshipped the dead. They did so perhaps out of fear, a feeling of gratitude for their forefathers and leaders, or a belief that they might resurrect in one form or another." (Nicolae Petrescu, The Primitives). That said, I couldn't be more pleased with your video, my dear Jon. The profoundly emotional impact of death has inspired the prehistoric man more than the sky with its Sun and Moon or the Earth with its fauna and flora to sacralize the cosmos.

Lots of Polynesians have flood myths, which speaks to how long ago those stories were told. The more you go down the rabbit hole of myth the more complex and beautiful it becomes.

The practice of using red ochre goes back a long time and is widely spread from Blombos Cave in South Africa to Es-Skhul Cave in Israel. Our ancestors even went to great length to create the right hue of red by mixing and burning materials. At Blombos they found an ochre processing kit. I was glad you talked about Sima de los Huesos but why didn't you mention the oversized hand axe of rare rose quartzite that shows no marks of having been used as a tool? This hand axe named Excalibur by archeologists was cached along with the twentyeight Homo heidelbergensis bodies in the shaft. Why create an oversized tool from a rare material and never use it but place it with your dead? It all seems like deliberate symbolic behaviour. Stone age people spend time and energy on things not related to their survival. You could argue that they sometimes even took risks for symbolic purposes like making cave paintings deep underground. Crawling through thight spaces with their ochre kit and lantern to place dots and circles. Certain cave's with symbols in France have their entrance underwater. Makes you wonder how much is lost to the sea.

I recently read a report about the Plague being responsible for wiping out the Neolithic Anatolia Stone Builder Culture that spread out across Europe, even going as far as building Stonehenge. I have to wonder what the world's religions would have looked like if this pre-pottery Neolithic culture had survived. As always, thank you for your thought provoking content!

Always a welcomed visit Jon. Always a thoughtful, and a thought-provoking encounter. Your insights and efforts inform and inspire like no one else in the KZfaq Universe. Thank you.

The oldest religions believed in today probably reside in sub Saharan Africa. That’s where all Homo sapiens and hominids originated, so it’d make sense that some aspects of the oldest belief systems are still believed, wholly or in part, there.

This is seriously the best video I’ve seen on this matter, thanks for the open minded knowledge. You even lets us know what scholars are not sure about, Dope

It is such a privilege to be able to access content at this level on YT. Thanks so much for your work ✌️💕🌻

Thank you for this video or rather this course as it fells like I've just attended a university level lecture. The question of the oldest belief has plagued me for many years so to see how much effort you've put into answering this is appreciated. As to your question: I teeter somewhere in the realm of paganism and animism for my own religions as I've found it just makes me feel good to think that there might be someone to ask for help and hints off passed away loved ones in day to day life. Also, I've heard or read of possible ritualistic behaviour in Homininae, specifically Chimpanzees. If that is true, the fundamental ideas needed for religious beliefs may come from as far back as our combined last ancestor. Imagine that!

Hey there I'm watching this as a Muslim alhamdulillah and I just got to say watching these types of videos I feel like it's important to go outside the box and learn your history

So glad my algorithm suggested you! I am a huge fan of deep dives, world religions in a historical context, documentary style content, and ASMR. You have melded all my fave themes with an absolutely beautiful voice and eloquent delivery. Moreover, your background is gorgeous!! Editing is great, camera and sound quality are excellent, and you have a comfortable/approachable energy that makes me feel safe. I can tell you’re a passionate soul and I just love finding content creators that are true experts. Cannot wait to check the backlog for more interesting creations!! :)

My favorite theory of the origin of religion is that early humans evolved to believe in Animism. To quote a Disney movie lol "I know every rock and tree and creature Has a life, has a spirit, has a name". Basically early humans who were naturally superstitious attributed agency to inanimate objects were more likely to survive. They started out recognizing false patterns. So assuming a noise in the bush is a lion because last time it was actually a lion. These false patterns evolved to be more accurate and helpful. Maybe don't eat poison berries if you think there's an evil spirit making the berries poisonous. Over time these ideas became more personified until they became the first Gods.

Well done for not walking on eggshells around Islam like a lot of KZfaqrs do. I respect that :D Good video!

I'll always find it fascinating that early humans were correct in their assertion that "In the beginning there was nothing." It's hard to believe it was just a lucky guess, as it is so spot on -- according to our current knowledge -- as to the origins of, not only the Earth, but also the Universe as a whole. How did our ancestors come to this conclusion? It's a question we'll very likely never have a definitive answer to but it is one I ask myself all the time. It gives me chills to think about the ways in which humans intuitively knew the answers to the toughest questions of life and the universe before we even had the technologies that allowed us to look out in the depths of the solar system, let alone the galaxy or universe as a whole. It gives me hope for a better future when I learn more and more about our pre-history.

An incredible 77 Minute intro... Im gonna need a second cup of tea for this last part. AWESOME CONTENT!!!

I would like to see Jon cover the Minoans and/or the Mycenaeans and how they influenced Greek myth and culture. I would also like to see a video similar to the Aphrodite video only about Mithras and the journey he undertook. Keep up the good work, Jon. ❤

I've watched this maybe 3 times, cuz it's a lot to take in. Wow! I love how you tie it all together, how mythology and language and history and politics and archeology and everything else all affect each other and help complete the picture. Specialization is important, though generalization is too. Nothing exists in a vacuum. Thank you for helping us keep sight of that.

One of the best discoveries I ever made on this site is your channel, and this is possibly your best video yet! Looking forward to more videos on mythology, history, and, of course, more tea.

Thank you for this video. It was really nice to go on this journey of exploring how people might have thought. I would love to see maybe a continuation of this topic but concerning the peoples of Africa, Australia, the Islands, and the Americas. But I also understand that that’s a huge undertaking. But I would love for someone to trace those threads and helping us all see C how truly similar were all are in spite of the distances and languages and cultures. Thank you for what you do🤗

I knew a guy from Nigeria who practiced an animistic religion. He was a cool guy! Didn’t talk about it much because he got tired of explaining that his religion didn’t have gods in the traditional sense over and over again.

I have no adequate words for this excellent video. You touched on so many things that I have wondered about for so many years. I am elderly now, but ever since my first anthropology class in the early 60's I have carried with me visions of primates gradually becoming self consciously aware. Then came the generation that they no longer relied on the instinctual mind that did not wonder to the mind that needed ritualistic behavior to feel still connected to the great mystery. Somehow you touched on that for me! Beautiful.

I find the myth of the serpent/dragon the most intriguing because anthropologists have suggested there is an arms race between snakes and primates. For instance chimpanzees will call out snakes to others in the troupe and know how to spot them in the forest floor. Part of our color vision may have developed to discern snakes from the surrounding foliage. And snakes like the spitting cobra may have evolved long distance attacks to combat hominins that could throw rocks.

Thank you for this enlightening video! The age these myths may be is mindblowing and beautiful. I am filled with awe. So thank you for making this video. I am sure it took a lot of time, love, and energy to create it. After I finished watching this, I was getting into bed when I glanced at my nightstand and realized it is full of modern versions of these symbols in the oldest myths that you discussed. On my nightstand *alone*, I have a toy snake (I used to have a Mexican Black Kingsnake companion years ago--and is missed), a brass ("golden", if you will) apple to represent the fruit of immortality gifted to Hera, two little dragons made from leather that I have clipped onto my reading light, prayer/mantra beads with charms for specific purposes, and all matter of odds and ends. I then thought of my tattoos and the chthonic associations some of them have (relevant to ritualizing death, mourning for our deceased loved ones, and the underworld): for example, I have one dedicated to Apollo Soranus. The tattoo is stylized with "Celtic" (what "Celtic" means is also a hole to dig in!) knots. I have two wolves that are encircled by a green Ouroboros with the snake's mouth and tail meeting at the bottom of the Ouroboros, and a fire burning on the highest point of the snake's circle. I originally wanted the fire to be below the wolves as the Hirpi Sorani practiced fire-walking, just as today the folks who live there are now devoted to certain saints and continue the firewalking ceremonies. I don't think that the word "firewalking" really captures these ceremonies, the ecstatic devotion, or even provides an accurate image of this ancient practice. The descendants of the Hirpi Sorani are not walking. They are dancing. The myth about the river and the ferryman reminded me of the afterlife in Shawnee culture. Out of respect for the young man who trusted me enough to tell me about some of what the afterlife is like from his Shawnee culture, I won't go into details. I will say these beliefs do include crossing a body of water in the afterlife. I'm currently working on my M.S. in Thanatology, focusing on cultural anthropology as well as Death Education, so I was especially glued to your video while talking about death practices and burials with grave goods. Whenever I can an income again, I hope to make enough to support you through Patreon. You put so much of yourself into your videos and it shows! For now, I hope you accept my deepest gratitude. Be well!

Btw, can I suggest that you make more videos of this length? I enjoy listening to them while doing unproductive activities like playing video games, so that I get a bit of education while I do something not so educational. Thanks!

You've explained more to me about religion in this video than doing 3 years of divinity at school in the 70's.

I am actually getting so much better at understanding your particular way of speaking English that I sometimes forget to turn on the captions an do just fine! I enjoy your programs and the points of view and interpretations that you present. Always so logical and down to Earth.

legit one of only channels that i can watch videos all the way through without stopping, it's damn near the most interesting content on youtube.

As you requested suggestions for other religions or myths to have a look at, I would love to see some videos on East Asian mythology, for example Korean stories.

Hi, I have something to add: In my opinion, the best evidence of early Judaism being polytheistic originally is actually found in the story of Lilith and Jonah. Lilith is mentioned across multiple ancient texts, most famously the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the story of Jonah and the Whale mentions semites, among other peoples, worshipping multiple gods including YHWH. There are also the references to Asherah, which you have mentioned in other videos. This also tracks with other ancient religions, like the Egyptian faith, gradually shedding off deities to focus on one singular. Ra and Horus being folded into Amun Ra during that one Pharaoh's reign, though I forget his name.

OMG. I literally just discussed these topics with my bf a week ago. And this video just … appeared on my recommendation. Can’t believe it. Thank you for bringing this up. Love your content a lot. Love to see more! ;)

I'm always excited for Jon White's videos of religion and gods. I'm really impressed with the PIE and the possibility of having only 1 god which was worshipped from the start. The Sky Father's interpretation probably varied in/by different cultures which resulted to many gods..

This is such an incredibly broad and deep, inspiring and illuminating account of how we got to where we are today And I'm sure you don't get this one enough but THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUBTITLES they are SO HELPFUL and I'm sure it takes an amount of effort to make them

I have been trying to look for answers on what the earliest ever religions would be. Your video feels like a blessing 😉 Thank you for this.

As a religious studies student in uni, I really enjoyed this. Much love from Sweden

Another great video, Jon! It shows how much effort you put into making this and I hope YT algorithm does it justice. I was wondering, would you consider exploring the division of proto-Slavic peoples from the PIE groups and also their religion/mythology? Thanks for your work.

I tried to find the video, but for the life of me I can't seem to locate it. I believe it was a MythVision podcast that had a guest who was a historian specializing in the ancient near east, and they broke down the transformation of ethnic, polytheistic "Hebrism" into monolatric/monotheistic, religious Judaism as a result largely of the cultural interaction between northern, cosmopolitan Hebrews and southern, isolationist Hebrews.

Religion began when the first conman met the first fool. -- Mark Twain

If you are going to practice a Religion, there is only one true religion and that is the religion of Truth.

This was absolutely fascinating! Thinking about animalism, was it something we are predisposed to think or just one of the oldest ideas? I will never stop thinking about this. Brilliant video 👏👏👏

I love this deep dive!! I find it so fascinating how they are all in some way connected!! I absolutely love this channel!!! There are sooo many damn channels!! I am truly grateful to have found Crecganford!! 😊🙏🌙✨️❤️

It's my understanding that religion is a tool used by early cultures to create a social contract that helped many people live together in larger and larger groups.

I love learning about these topics because it’s so rare to find other channels doing the same thing and also making the connections between the past and the present.

I am speechless!! You never cease amaze me. I've watched this almost with a religious awe and with a cup of coffee :) This level of knowledge, passion and presentation is just the best of the best! I would like to ask few things: - A region to talk about (as you've requested in the video): I was very happy to see my native country Armenia appear on the map, since it is often overlooked despite that it offers unique insights about the surrounding cultures, their history, myths and languages. If you could talk about Armenian Highlands, about the reconstructions of oldest myths, religions and beliefs of those cultures that eventually fuse together to become Armenians, about the Armenian creation myth, connections with the epic of Daredevils of Sassoun and/or the founding epic of Armenians about Hayk, I'll be beyond happy, that'll be the best day of my life :) This is a quite challenging task, since huge parts of "pagan" culture in Armenia is wiped out by invaders, conquerors and new religions. But watching your videos I'm confident that we can at least have a rough reconstruction of those. I'm ready to help as much as I can - with translations, understanding the language context, finding books and articles, connecting with people and anything else you may need help to research for the video. - Another topic I would like to see on this channel - is how these myths are told, at least our current understanding of it. There is a woman that reconstructs the oldest music played by hitting rocks, there are examples of oldest musical instruments (some featured in this video), as you've mentioned - most myths are told in a form of poetry, etc. My assumption is that lots of myths are being told during rituals and using those instruments, and I'll be excited to know what is the current consensus about it. The evolution of forms of how these myths are being told - poems, hymns, fairly tales, lullabies and so on is a fascinating topic in and on itself. - I'll be happy if you at some point explore various points of views/attempts of reconstructing of neanderthal/homo naledi myths and beliefs, and/or present isolated myths and religions of African tribes and their possible unconfirmed distant connections to the myths/rituals of the rest of the world. I understand these might sound like a lot of speculation, but I'm really interested to see what is your intuition/educated guess about those a little bit more in detail. Thank you very much for putting so much work to create these videos!

Preparing a mug of tea as we speak, Jon!

Religion as a whole is way more interesting imo, than specific ones. Great presentation 👍

Considering rituals and mortuary practices and briefly entertaining a non-anthropocentric view, what should we make of elephant graveyards? This is the first time and immediately subscribed to your channel. I really appreciate your objective to remain neutral on a polarizing subject for a significant percentage of humanity.

I've noticed that many archeologists construct with suppositions based on romanticism. An alternative explanation for the creation of myths rests with psychology: our strong empathetic and sympathetic needs, our needs to create meaning, our needs to communicate, and our needs for connection, these all naturally create cultures and beliefs. Seeing our child die does not indicate the existence of an underworld or life after death but these stories definitely help to ease pain and grief. Sharing stories allows others to connect with a personal experience. Most importantly to me is that the age of a belief does not validate that belief as real or justify any subsequent developments in superiority of culture or religion. Triangulating the origins of story with genetics, cultural practice and linguistic development reaffirms that everyone alive today inherits beliefs and culture and language and genetics from the past. The only substantial conclusion that I can reach is that we are all related and connected. What I love about mythology is how creativity and psychology combine within an environment as attempts to explain experiences. Animism allows many observable and dependable insights into geology, animal behaviour, seasons and astronomy. Where these observations develop independently, an objective reality may be confirmed. To my mind, myths attest our creativity and desire for connection, core functions of our species.

Well Jon, another fabulous video/lesson. From the beginning to the end, I felt your content flowed like a river. Best yet in my opinion, but that's just me. Keep up the great work.

First time coming across this channel. As someone who is deeply interested in theology myself I have to say this was a fantastic analysis. Excellent work, subscribed!

I feel like you see where spiritualism may have come from when you look at non-human primate mothers with dead babies. I'm wary of anthropomorphising but there seems to be such grief and confusion and I can just imagine the reassurance that grief may have prompted in a species with language. Like "My baby can't have just gone! Where has it gone?" and someone trying to comfort with a story.

What a masterpiece of a video! Never had this much knowledge in only one video... And I thought the Hero's journey video was an absolute gem... Thank you, Mr. John for all of this journey. Once again you show why this is the best channel I've seen in years. Greetings all the way from Lima, Perú!

Love your videos! Yoruba myth is particularly fascinating and well- documented, and it’s similarities with European myth were studied by Frobenius a century ago. It also has a more recent history through the Atlantic Slave trade that presents a unique case study in how a single religious tradition can be transferred to and evolve in multiple context. A good place to start for Africa…

Your voice and speaking cadence is so soothing, I love to listen to this video particularly when I’m having a restless night. I enjoy your videos during waking hours too but this one is interesting to keep a restless anxious mind from wandering enough to be able to settle down for sleep. Keep up your fantastic work!

I just literally found your channel. Im on a journey of religion desconstruction. This has been extremely fundamental.

A master class in this subject. Vast amount of information composed logically to build a picture of religion origins. Thank you, yours are the prehistory classes I wish I had in college.

This was amazing! a real treat! i anticipated this eagerly after seeing it advertised in YT short and as per usual you didnt disappoint :D It was lovely to see your figurines again. i did find some replicas, but they were out of my price range sadly. If i couldve afforded one, it wouldve been the man-lion as i agree it is the most fantastic of all!

This vlog needs to be shown in every schoolroom, starting from the first grade all the way through the end of college. In its entirety.

A fantastic video, Jon. I can't think of another channel on KZfaq that will keep me engaged like this for an hour and fortyfive minutes - and I'm about to start watching another. Lots of tea is being had.

Excellent video. I was worried about the length, but very glad I stuck through the whole presentation. A couple of thoughts came to me along the way. The first is what I think is obvious about human advancement. That is that the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherers to settled farmers was very long, and likely had a long transition period of settled gathering. Settled gathering would be living where the most productive wild grains grew, which would transition into crop cultivation in time. This would seem to me to call for different spirits or gods to aid people in their endeavors. The gods didn't need to help people find food, but instead needed to bring food forth from the earth for them. And lastly, it seems likely to me that there were those who didn't believe in these gods, but cultivated belief anyway. It was probably some ancient Greek or Roman would said that thing about belief in gods: The common people believe gods are real, the wise believe they aren't, and the rulers believe them useful. It seems most natural that some percentage of people would develop skepticism, and recognize the imaginary nature of the gods, but their importance to ritual and (more importantly control) for the society. The gods look favorably on us and rewarded us with food. The gods are angry with us for our behavior, and brought a plague upon the fields. Whatever the circumstance, leadership could use the gods favor or disfavor with the people as a means of both avoiding responsibility for the leaders not providing grain, but also direct the people to other behavior or tasks in order to win back the support of those gods. I should note that these leaders may also believe in the gods as well. This seems like the seeds to the Abrahamic religions, as they are much more concerned with obedience of the population than some other religious practices. Religions that care less about the personal connection to the gods, and more about avoiding the wrath those gods are capable of.

I had hoped you would have explained in more detail how the Abrahamic Faiths were influenced and even generated from the other religions of their neighbors. Still, the great detail about the rituals and motivations for religions of Neolithic and even earlier population groups is good to know. Still good to help understand how we became who we are. I will definitely check out the videos linked within that I've missed.

Man’s oldest religion if we go back beyond written evidence and had to presume, was the worship of fire, and the adoration of the knowledge of how to create and maintain it. It is the foundation of civilization

Okay you got me to click the like button. Very clever and blessed be the algorithm. May it forever shine upon you.

Thanks a lot for your work, you are one of the best channels that i know. Thanks for the portuguese subtitles in your other videos, its amazing to be able to share such amazing detailed content with my friends and family.

To imagine the evolution of religious belief from animism to further personnification of natural powers and spirits into gods which eventually assembled into high gods and finally merged into monotheism feels quite intuitive, but in my researches I've recently came across many scholars who mentioned that about 50% of tribal people actually had beliefs in a withdrawn high creator god. So I wonder what you'd make of this, which is a theory I'm sure you've heard of, that they practiced a form of primitive monotheism which would have devolved into polytheism. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this and hope maybe, who knows, you'd make a video about it!

Thank you for one of the very best channels on KZfaq.

The beginning of creation in the book of Genesis is not the beginning but a myth attempting to explain all of creation..I've long had my doubts about biblical history which is why I stayed until the end..worth watching again along with your other videos. Thank you

Excited for a long video! I'd like see more about the African religions. I did hear somewhere it's difficult to piece together some of their oldest myths (bc of colonization, as you said), but what little I have heard seems very intriguing. My favorite videos are the Nordic ones, though :D

Great video! Recently I've discovered that conservative Protestants and Muslims view Catholicism as Polytheistic Paganism due to the adherents of the Trinity and Saints. So my view on the fundamental dynamic of religions is so much more subjective now. The observer and the practitioner tend to have different ideas. I tend to see Catholicism as similar to Hinduism, with both having their Trinity and their myriad of lesser beings i.e Saints/Angels and Daeva. I've also come to believe how arbitrary the terms god, angel, demon, etc. are. One cultures god is another cultures demon.

I believe that humanity will be lucky to survive religious people.

Really appreciate that you lay out how tenuous the information is. Researching earlier than say the classical period can be very frustrating when you first start doing it seriously. It was for me anyway, because I wanted to know things more concretely and unfortunately it just doesn't work that way in the real world.

I’ve just found your channel and have spent most of my day off binge watching. Your subject matter is utterly fascinating and is one I have been deeply interested in since checking D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths out of the public library around age seven. At age 63, I’ve often wished I could go back in time and make the decision to study comparative religion and mythology. That was my original desire, but I felt it was too impractical given my circumstances. At least, after a long career as a teacher and school librarian, I have the satisfaction of having passed on my passion for these topics to a couple generations of children.

You are doing the true work for pagans, thank you for your wisdom! May you drink of the draughts of wisdom and live forever!

I find it very interesting that the dragon mythology is one of the earliest mythologies. It feeds into a realization that occurred to me several months ago that is by no means a new Idea but new to me. Which is that the dragon mythology is not based on any external threat but that of our internal animal nature and specifically the nature of rage. We can observe rage in all primate species and we can observe that individuals have differing levels of rage. Even other species are incited to rage to stay alive or keep their hierarchies intact. Rage still exists in humans today and is just as deadly as at any other time in history. So any story about rage is likely to stay with us because rage itself still exists. The most interesting thing about the story is that the dragon holds the princess captive and un-accessible. Why would any external dragon not just eat a princess? It suggests to me that the idea is figurative. That the uncontrolled dragon within ourselves keeps the feminine form cowering and remote from us. Distrustful. Only by conquering the dragon within, that being our true animal disposition to rage, can we gain the trust of those around us including the trust of our ultimate desire, the connection with the feminine that will bring forth stable family and prosperity. I see this ideology as the most important aspect of spirituality and am entirely not surprised that it seems to be reflected by all religious ideologies in one form or another since the initial mythology. It really does appear to be the core that holds our civilization together.

One drop of water doesn't make an ocean, but you hit us again and again with evidence that there is something here. Seen some comments below some of your videos of people that just don't get it, I hope they don't discourage you. This is heavy, intellectual stuff and may not find the audience it deserves. But to me, this is potentially one of the most brilliant channels on youtube. Keep up the good work

Your videos and channel are just what I love most. The perfect blend of anthropology, archeology, religion, mythology, and history beautifully married. I just wonder, what type of undergraduate degree can I pursue to learn more about these things? Would it be more geared toward anthropology or what? I just know I want to spend my time studying and reading about these things. I previously pursued religious studies but I am unsure of what is best

Yes, I've heard of the KZfaq religion(s) (3:33). But it's a mixed lot. Some cultinism, lots of skepticism, some hedonism, a bunch of entertainmentnisms, and many, many doctrinisms. A plethora of paths to choose from. May the probabilistic-deterministic cosmos bless us all.

Omgosh, I’m a traitor! I’ve been listening to other people talking about your topics, and from some I learned different things, but they were rather monotonous and I just had to hear your wonderful voice again! I was so happy to see you, I wanted to give a kiss - so I did. . . :)😉🌹

A wonderful fast strikingly unbiased review of everything we cover on the Abrahamic religions in the first months of my course. I will recommend it to my students. I'll add here what I explain to students, who are often startled by the facts in Jon's lecture, that this lecture is only what 96% of American rabbis, priests, imams receive in their first weeks in Divinity school. it isn't contrversial. My students sometimes feel offended, as if their pastors had lied to them. That's a mistake about what a pastor does. They are a helping profession. They are there to strengthen, support and help their congregation find purpose amid life's built-in crises, by mining hope from a particular religious tradition. They're not there to teach a grad course in the history of middle-eastern religions. That's my job, and Jon's job. I'm supposed to consider why "Israel" means followers of El, not Yahweh (see Jon about minute 9:30); or why the Lucan gospel radically changes Jesus's last words on the cross from the defeated words which the earliest gospel, the Marcan gospel, reported. And I apologize in advance because it makes many of my students unhappy to learn this, but this course isn't a required course. Nothing in my course can destroy your faith in God, because faith is just another word for trust. Faith and trust begin where solid evidence ends. However, if you had started to confuse faith in God with faith in a particular document put together by my squabbling Jewish ancestors, you're going to lose some faith in how much solid evidence it provides. You'll have to decide if you've seen or felt enough to trust despite that. Consider that your pastors heard all of what you're hearing from scholars like Jon and myself, and much more-- yet still found enough trust inspiration to continue in your particular religion. You may too. But it's painful, that cannot be denied. Hang in there!

I've been trying to find this story from beginning to end for years. Thank you for producing this content. You earned a new subscriber!

Its interesting to think that not necessarily organized religion but ritualistic and abstract religious thought like animism and shamanism could go back further than the homo sapien species. It could even go back to the point of homo erectus which may have been able to speak crude languages. It seems the pattern is these ideas go back as far as complex communication does.

I was drawn to watch this video, not just by title, but the illustration. I am now going to try to watch all your videos and podcasts.

"The potter crossed his hands upon his breast and, bowing silently, shook his head, and in a voice filled with sweet humility replied: "My son, I am not god; I am only one who molds clay. I am a maker of gods, but am myself a creature of the earth."" [THE WAYS OF THE LONELY ONES: A COLLECTION OF MYSTICAL ALLEGORIES, By MANLY P. HALL, 5th REVISED ED., 1945, Ch. The Maker of Gods]

Fascinating discussion. I'm going to have to give this more than a few listens. Thank you.

When I look at the lion man figurine I don't see a human animal hybrid from imagination. I see a shaman wearing a lion skin, with the head of the lion on top of the shaman's head. It would represent a shaman during some sort of ritual. Shaman's often wear animal skins, bones, feathers, etc. My guess would be invoking the spirit of the lion either for protection, or for success in an important hunt. Not as some sort of specific deity, or first God, as you suggest.

I suspect that religion originated in our habit of dreaming at night. Our ancestors believed that dreaming was a manifestation of reality. Now we know better.

The GREAT COSMIC MOTHER is the original spirituality. It is not worshipping some warrior gods, but the miraculous ability to perpetuate LIFE as humans. Life only deserves our biggest gratitude.

Can you make a video on Albanian stories and religion? Or maybe add something into other videos since it’s not really well attested like others, though I remember seeing something in your database before it was limited.

We officially need a colab with Stefan Milo now

That was an amazing video! Thank you for pouring out so much work into this. I love to be able to follow the unwinding of narratives through time! I've been quite fascinated by this topic in the last year actually, I hope you will keep sharing more in that regards.

I just found your channel & I am so glad to be here. Apart from your great thorough research, your voice is extremely soothing. You have a good therapist voice, great for motivational audio books. I love long form videos too that delve deep. Thank you so much for sharing! I will be watching in the future!!!