Religion originated in fear. The primitive man found himself faced with certain conditions in his environment which threatened his very existence. Storms and lightning, floods and earthquakes, blew away or washed away his huts or houses, injured or killed his domestic animals and lay waste or turned to ashes his ready harvests.

In his state of fright against such ruinous events, he thought, given his undeveloped intellect and ignorance, that events are caused by conscious agents and so there must be agents of the frightful events.