Religion, Magic and Science

Human beings face problems and perplexities throughout life. It would have been similar experience with the primitive people as well. The primitive man when faced with an insurmountable problem would have prayed and offered worship making a religious approach. He would have tried to coerce a superior unseen power into service      through magic. The two kinds of approaches would have been made to tide over difficult situations.

Frazer based on world wide studies arrived at two laws in classifying magic. The first law known as law of similarity includes homoeopathic and imitative or mimetic magic. The second law named law of contact is associated with contagious magic.

Homoeopathic magic is known among some tribes in Chota Nagpur and in the Ho tribe. The tribes of Chota Nagpur believe that thunder with its rumbling noise causes rains .In order to cause rains they imitate thunder by flinging down rocks and boulders down hills with the hope that rains will follow. The Ho tribe lights huge bonfires from which smoke curls up and hope that rains will follow.

Belief in natural and super natural phenomena in primitive people possibly developed side by side independently. The powers of two needed to be controlled through religion and magic. Religion is communal and has a congregated character and magic is surrounded by secrecy. While people respect the religious priest the magician is feared. The benign quality of religion is ostensibly the reason for religion to take deep roots in society.

Mechanistic procedures are involved in the pursuit of both science and magic. The difference is that the scientists deal with the natural world and the magician is concerned with the supernatural.

According to Fraser religion, science and magic are in principle similar but magic is based on wrong assumptions regarding causal relations. Magic has an element of amazement, expectation and uncertainty. In science there is expectation based on observations,experiment and analysis  of the data obtained  from experiment.Failure in science  may be due to inadequate knowledge and so continued  research on right lines may lead to success.Failure in magic may be the result of errors in performing  rituals.

In certain situations skills and capabilities possessed by people are of no avail and so religion or magic may be used as tools to gain what is desired. In magic certain objects are considered to possess powers which help people to get over difficulties. The sheer anchor of religion is faith and faith makes one to pray to His benediction.

Changes in Religion

Changes in religious belief and practice can be associated with the gradual evolution of a society from one social form to another.Over the past few centuries the impetus to change has been contact between different societies.European expansion throughout the world was not merely a political or economic conquest it included an attempt to conquer the minds of the subjugated people also through religion.

In many settings conquest has destroyed all or part of the existing religion of a people.This led to sometimes adopting the beliefs and practices of the conquerors especially when the conqueror success is associated with the superior strength of their gods.The religion which came to forefront was a result of syncretism or the conscious adoption of an alien idea or practice in terms of some indigenous system.

Spanish conquest of Central Mexico put an end to public worship of the primary gods,destroyed the priesthood and undermined the faith on the power of the Gods and the truth of religious teachings thus shattering the focal values of Aztec religion and culture.This didnt lead the Aztec to accept Christianity and instead hovered towards hatred.Slowly things began to change once the missionaries initiated education for the children.In these schools children were punished ,rewarded for outward adherence to the new faith.Older people began to add the images of Jesus and Mary to their collection of idols for worship.Catholics began to include modified Aztec traditional songs and dances to the catholic teachings.A crucial change led to widespread acceptance of Catholicism followed by setting up of image of Mary at the site of shrine dedicated to Aztec earth goddess.The Indian Catholics began to develop their own version of Catholicism.

Traditional indigenous religions do not always collapse or suffer because of conquest.People are able to retain something of their religion. In fact it serve as source of strength to the people.In Australia in spite of destruction of aboriginal religion at most places ,in south west Aborigines were able to cling to few of their beliefs and practices into the 20th century.Occasional ceremonies were held on the outskirts of the cities.