HOW ANIMISTIC BELIEFS AND PRACTICES EMERGED IN MODERN RELIGIONS
             Animism is the doctrine which places the source of mental and even physical life in an energy independent of or at least distinct from the body. Animism can be divided into three categories: Worship of the souls of men and animals, manifesting itself above all as worship of the dead(Necolatry); worship of spiritual beings who are not associated in a permanent way with certain bodies or objects(Spiritism) and the worship of spiritual beings who direct the permanent or periodically recurring phenomena of nature (Naturism). According to Sir Edward Tylor people originally envisioned the world as being alive with souls or spirits and on the basis of this understanding of nature, developed religions. He believed that nature is alive with spirits that have feelings and can be communicated with. According to his theory, early people formed their notion of the soul from their own experience of dreams, where people appear in a mysterious and immaterial fashion; from their experience of death, where seemingly the life force departs from the body; from visions and ecstasy, where one is temporarily transported out of one's body. Having got the notion of a soul distinct from the body people then project the idea of the soul on to the animals and things which they perceived in their environment.
             The practice of ancestor worship generated belief in spirits whose activities explained natural events and phenomena - gods who ruled the rain, the sky, fire, etc. This transition to polytheism is ultimately followed by a further transition to monotheism, where the powers of many gods are now ascribed to a single deity. One polytheistic religion that emerged from Animism was Hinduism, in which several gods are worshiped for their different purposes. Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Islam and Shintoism however, are monotheistic because they believe in one supreme being.
             In man...