A Survey of the Origin and Evolution of Religion from the Points of View Edward Tylor and James Frazer

As a universal human phenomenon, religion is rooted in human nature, and human beings instinctively require a superior and supreme power. Besides this internal need for religion, attention to the meaning, function, and interpretation of religion has always been prevalent in the history of human thought from West to East, and scholars have always tried to comment on and analyze this fundamental issue of human life . From among the approaches that arose about the interpretation and explanation of religion, rationalism tendency—influenced by evolution—has stood up because in the establishment of religion, rationalism takes its genesis and evolution as manifestations of the evolution of human thought, and it takes the development and evolution of religion as equal. This approach considers religion as answer to the need of the cognitive need of human beings. In this anthropological approach, religion is the product of primitive human beings’ effort to identify objects and events in the surrounding environment. As a results, as the man’s knowledge of the world around him increases, the need for religion decreases .
Anthropologist like Edward Tylor and James Frazer have taken this view to the origin and evolution of religion. They emphasize on principles such as the bodily and cognitive unity of the mind, the survival principal, and the evolutionary intellectual pattern of human beings in order to interpret religion stages from animism and magic till monism and monotheism, which will eventually decline during the development of science .
Taylor regards anthropology as the best scientific method to achieve a universal theory to understand the origin of religion. Based on its psychological unity, religion in all times and places—despite its diversity—is a unique phenomenon and has an exclusive identity because the very existence of commonalities in all practices and customs of the people of the world is indicative of the basic similarity of the mind. According to Taylor, the whole world is also like a single country based on the fundamental principle of human intellectual and cultural development. So, any diversity in human species is not synonymous with diversity in kind, but it is the difference in the level of cultural evolution. This degree of cultural evolution can be found in all societies and, therefore, the cultural/cognitive evolution of human beings and the basic form of the human mind are all connected .
As a matter of fact, the religious and cultural evolution of primitive man to modern one is the evolution of human rationality. In his view, there are three methods to understand the howness of the evolution of human cognition: magical, religious, and scientific .
That is why Taylor differentiates between magic and religion. He takes magic not based on spiritual entities but on impersonal powers and forces. According to him, magic works in line with the principle of similarity and association, and because the things that are similar have a causal relationship with each other, so magic is pseudo-science, but it is rooted in false reasoning. Taylor’s view, especially that of religion and magic, has influenced Fraser to a large extent. On the word of Taylor, the belief in spirits that think and act like human beings abounds in in all religions. So, in his view, the essence of religion and religious myths is faith-animism. Therefore, Taylor has proposed animism as the source and origin of primitive religions, and he takes the following as the developmental stages of religion: animism, nature worship, polytheism, monotheism, and metaphysical thought .
The relationship between magic and religion is the key issue for Fraser. According to Fraser, the first and most important principle to understand magic and religion was that the life of primitive man centered around the struggle for life, such as killing animals by hunters. According to him, the founding reasoning principles for magic are two: (1) Anything can make something like itself or an effect resembles its cause. This principal is the very law of similarity. (2) The things that were in touch once will affect each other, even after separation. This principle is the very law of contact. Fraser believes that many religious practices and human traditions throughout the history emanated from this thought .
Fraser believed that the magical beliefs of primitive man was based on false reasoning, resulting from his ignorance and justifiable in accordance with the living conditions and performance of his early ancestors. So, magic may be like science but a false one, and that is why modern man does not buy it, for the world does not act in line with the pattern of empathy, contact, and resemblance that wizards appeal to. That is why religion replaces magic as its function declines. The fact of the matter is that magic is the very primitive and unsophisticated science through which early man wanted to control and possess material objects since both magic and science apply methods that are based on a coherent worldview—consciously and unconsciously—in order to achieve human goals. Fraser also considers the developmental stages of religion from magic to religion and eventually scientism and the scientific interpretation of facts .
This anthropological approach suffers from two fundamental points: (1) Lack of reliance on objective and historical data as well as proposed theories, which is a methodological issue in religious studies, (2) there is a content question because the presupposition that the elements, functions, qualities of all religions are identical, on the one hand, and lack of attention to metaphysical and sentimental dimensions of religion, on the other, are highly criticized by religious professionals .