An Assessment of the Early Theories of Religion by Edward B. Tylor, James G. Frazer, Sigmund Freud and Their Nexus with Cognitive Theorizing

Abstract

From the world on go, man has been asking questions on the origin and formation of religion. These questions are as a result of the quest in man to understand his object of worship, the Supreme Being or the ultimate reality. Hence it has been ascertained that man is homo-religiosus and as such is religiously incurable. It has also been established that people have faith because beliefs make sense in so far as they hold value and are comprehensible. This is also evidenced in the level and quest for people’s religiosity in the present dispensation. Religion as it is practiced today developed from theories which are posited by scholars in trying to give their explanations to it. Among those scholars are Edward Burnett
Tylor, James George Frazer and Sigmund Freud who made their points from both substantive theory which is focusing on the value of religion for its adherent and functional perspectives which is more interested with what religion does. Their theories were not without some influence from their intellectual backgrounds. It is germane to posit that in trying a work of this nature, the paper makes use of library and internet sources in its research. The paper therefore finds that religion is an aspect of life that is very important to human life, hence the quest for every scholar to make
a contribution to it. It concludes that faith and believes arise from the normal function of the human mind of which the human minds acquire, generate, and transmit religious thoughts, practices, and schemas by means of ordinary cognitive capacities.

Key Words: Assessment, Theories, Religion, Edward B. Tylor, James G. Frazer, Sigmund Freud Nexus, Cognitive Theorizing