Published December 24, 2009 | The faces of spirit in world religions
The religious or spiritual impulse in man appears at the beginning of man’s prehistory, before etchings on stones, drawings, cave paintings or cuneiform tablets would be used to record man’s belief in a spiritual world and his participation in it. Spirits, non-material images with consciousness and feeling, with thoughts and imaginations, were probably discovered when men and women began to dream of their lost and dead. The spirit stood apart from the world, could travel from one place to the other instantly, could fly in the heavens and hide beneath the ground. All world religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism have their origins in man’s discovery of the essence of a human, the spirit within the man.