Description

This video focuses on prehistoric, stone age societies and their perspective of the universe around them.  It asserts a lot that were we aren’t particularly sure of, but the video nonetheless provides a coherent picture of the earliest beginnings of religion in a very engaging way.  In the end, the video implies that stone age humans were just making sense of the world as best as they could from their very limited perspective they had of it.

Discussion Questions

• What roll does the pre-scientific concept of will/spirit play in explaining the world?  How does this lead in part to religious ideas?
• Why did early humans think the stars, sun, and moon were closer than they really are?  What other things might seem ‘common sense’ that we’re learned aren’t true?
• Is pre-scientific religious explanations of the world irrational and stupid?  Why or why not?
• Why do you think that creating stories is so important?

Keywords: religion, mythology, prehistoric, society,