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I have written about secular origins before, in such books as Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things. This book deals with sacred origins. I wrote it to clarify the origins of hundreds of religious customs and practices existing in many faiths. I admit to having an obsession with learning about how things started. It is my hope that by focusing on the fundamental hows and whys
underlying religious practices and beliefs, I can rekindle in readers the excitement
and awe that we felt when we were first introduced to religion as children.
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On the book:
Each of us longs to believe that our own life - and all life - is not accidental and meaningless but has value and purpose. Assurance that this is so has
come from religion for billions of people since the dawn of history.
Anthropologists have never discovered a group of people who did not
harbor some sort of religious beliefs - in gods or goddesses, or in supernatural powers. Religion seems to be as old as our species and no doubt has its
origins in human reflection. Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I
here? Where will I end up?
Our word "religion" is from the Latin religio which meant "respect for
what is sacred, awe," and was rooted in the verb religare, "to bind." In medieval Europe, the word evolved to mean "a system of sacred beliefs and
practices that binds a people together."
Even the most religious among us tend, over time, to take religion for
granted. People have lost sight of the origins of sacred practices and customs,
the reasons for religious holidays, rituals, and symbols, the meanings of vestments, sacraments, devotions, and prayers.
Why, for instance, do we pray with hands joined together?
Why are there nine classifications of angels?
Who recited the first rosary?
Who made the first haj?
When did the first boy become bar mitzvah?
How do certain Christian saints come to be patrons of cyberspace? Of hemorrhoids?
Have all religions recognized a Satan?
Are there differences between the Jewish "Yahweh," the Christian "God
the Father," and the Islamic "Allah"?
How did millions of people move from the concept of polytheism-the
worship of many gods and goddesses-to the adoration of a single male deity?
Why don't Jews eat pork, why don't some Muslims eat certain vegetables,
and why did Christians once observe meatless Fridays?
Why does Judaism, but not Roman Catholicism, allow divorce?
How did the pope become infallible on issues of faith and morals?
Why did papal infallibility become dogma only in the summer of 1870?
What does sacred scripture from the Jewish and Christian Bibles and the
Koran really say about contraception, abortion, certain sexual practices, and
homosexuality?
The awe of religion we experience as children often dims with the rigors of adult life. Busy with careers and childrearing, we may end up worshiping by rote-and lose out on the magic inherent in the act of worship. Every now and then it is wise and helpful to go back to basics. In these pages you will find the origins of some of the
most profound and cherished religious beliefs. Some will be familiar. Others
may be shocking.
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