One of the things that defines humans is the ability to conceive of, think about, and discuss the future. Included in this is the ability to worry about the future and the uncertainties which it may bring. Thus, it is not uncommon in many societies, perhaps most, for some people to be concerned with being able to predict, and perhaps even control, the future.
In his book Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought, Pascal Boyer writes:
“People want to understand events and processes—that is to explain, predict and perhaps control them. These very general, indeed universal intellectual needs gave rise to religious concepts at some point during human cultural evolution.”
Divination—actions intended to foretell future events—has been and continues to be an important activity in most human societies. In hunting and gathering societies, a shaman would go into a trance to see where the game animals would be for the next day’s or the next week’s hunt. As societies became more complex and the number of different anxieties about the future increased, so did the number of different ways of attempting to divine future events.
Anxiety about the future tends to be more intense in times of rapid social and cultural change—times when the old ways don’t seem to be working as well as they did in the past. These changes can be the result of natural environmental factors such as drought, crop failures, flooding, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and climate change, or they might be due to human-caused factors such as wars, economic collapse, and new technology. Rapid changes often mean that the people’s religion no longer reflects the reality of the world, religion no longer provides an adequate explanation of the world, and thus religion must change if it is to facilitate harmony among the people. Here is where the religious prophet comes in.
Throughout the world, there have been individuals who have had mystical experiences in which they believe they have met with a god, with the ancestors, or with some other supernatural entity and as a result of this experience have a great wisdom, a new path, which they then share with others. At this time, the prophet will announce what is wrong with the world, the means for overcoming the problem, and what the world will be like after the problem has been overcome. Unlike other prophecies which simply tell of possible future events, the religious prophecies tell people how they must change in order to prevent chaos, to stop “evil” from ruling the world.
The religious prophet must be able to convince others of the validity of the message from the spirit world and thus create a belief in the need to change their religious beliefs and actions. During times of intense and rapid sociocultural change, many people are seeking solutions—prophecies, as it were—to help them adjust to the change and therefore people are more willing to believe what the religious prophet says. British philosopher A.C. Grayling, in his book Life, Sex and Ideas: The Good Life Without God, writes:
“Credulity, insecurity and desire form a potent combination in the human psyche. Together they make us eager to believe any nonsense if it purports to yield a glimpse of the future, or offers even the slenderest hope of success in love or fortune.”
With regard to belief, Sigmund Freud, in an essay republished in The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever, writes:
“Thus we call a belief an illusion when a wish-fulfillment is a prominent factor in its motivation, and in doing so we disregard its relations to reality, just as the illusion itself sets no store by verification.”
With regard to the stories by religious prophets, skeptic Paul Kurtz, in his book The Transcendental Temptation, writes:
“Invented by prophets and poets out of the creative fabric of imagination, superstitious longings, forebodings and dreams, they are eagerly devoured by a grateful audience. It is astounding to discover that the greater the untruth, the more unlikely the fairy tale, the more outrageous the myth, the more likely is the fact that large numbers of people will cleave to it.”
While a good story coupled with charisma is often enough for a religious prophet to gain followers who are willing to believe in the new version of the religion and to change their lives, it sometimes take more than this. One of the patterns found throughout the world involves death. It is not uncommon for the prophet to die, and then miraculously return to life with stories of the afterlife and commandments from the supernatural world. In other cases, the mythology of death and resurrection seems to appear long after the prophet’s actual death.
The impact of the religious prophet can be seen when the prophet dies and does not return to life. In many cases, perhaps most, this is the end of the new religious movement. In some cases, such as that of the Prophet Mohammad and the American Indian prophet Handsome Lake, the religion continues.
Religion 101
Religion 101 is a series of essays about religion in a very broad sense which includes traditions from around the world. Some of the recent essays from this series have included:
Religion 102: Agnosticism
Religion 102: Biblical Archaeology
Religion 101: The Meaning of Ghosts
Religion 101: Some Findings from Biblical Archaeology
Religion 101: Ceremonial Human Sacrifice
Religion 201: Reincarnation
Religion 201: An Introduction to Ancestor Worship and Veneration
Religion 102: Naturalism