The Ghost Cults
Fear of the dead and belief in spirits—how ancestor worship and ghost fear established religious practices that persist today.
Summary
Long before organized religion, humans developed elaborate rituals and practices to deal with their overwhelming fear of ghosts and the dead. This 'ghost cult' wasn't about worshipping higher powers, but rather an primitive insurance policy against supernatural disaster, leading people to destroy homes where death occurred, perform intricate deception rituals to fool spirits, and develop complex mourning customs - many of which subtly influence our behaviors even today. This fascinating evolution from ghost fear to spiritual understanding marks humanity's first steps on the long road toward discovering genuine religious concepts.