Let’s go back a few million years, when civilization has not yet emerged from the mists. The development of whatever would become mankind in all its variations has begun almost imperceptibly but the genetic die has been cast and would emerge in force in Asia and Africa. Homo Erectus remains dated to 1.6 million years have been found in China, Homo Habilis from even earlier in South and East Africa.

Imagine, far in the past but before written language came into existence, it’s not much of a stretch to picture a group of hominids around an evening fire, on a clear night and under a moonless sky. The overhead from horizon to horizon is ablaze with sheets, streams and clusters of stars, the Milky Way, our galaxy, on knife edge like a superhighway across the sky.

Every group of individuals has a leader, some more easily identified as the most powerful, most skilled hunter, and shared with an old person may have been called on as the source of knowledge about all that has happened in the past and might offer insights into what is to come.

At this very instant, a religious tradition has come into being, a set of answers that explain all that is known about the clan’s existence.

The leader, or strong man, emerged as the clan’s head, responsible for the hunt, maintaining the fire, repelling enemies, in short, for the existence of the clan.

The leader claimed to have direct communications with the unknown, and many spirits were assigned to various parts of the daily life: the spirits of the forest, of the water, of the mountains, the streams, the food sources like the animals, the forage forest products, the air, the storms, etc. as many as were necessary to have a full and complete understanding of all the external factors affecting their lives.

Sometimes another type of leader might emerge, one that relied on a more intimate knowledge of the spirits, and who claimed to communicate with them better than the strong man leader.

In some cases, the strong leader might ally with the spirit leader and use that influence to “rally the troops” in time of need. In other cases, the spirit leader might become jealous of the power of the strong leader, and urge the clan members to seek his guidance instead of the strong leaders’.

Immediately following the development of religion came another recognizable development, internal conflict and the struggle for power and control.

The strong leader found that some people listened to the spirit leader more than just going along with whatever the strong leader had gotten away with for so long. There were some members of the clan who wanted answers, and the spirit leader was happy to tell them what they wanted to hear, in return for a chicken or coconut.