How did animism contribute to the origin of religion?
Animism involves the belief that spirits inhabit everyday objects in the world, and is probably the oldest type of religion. From animist spirits, it is a small step to move to a thunder god or sky god, then to a sun god, and so on. At first, the sun god would be constantly associated with the sun itself, but as the religion becomes more sophisticated, the sun god can go anywhere he is needed, returning to the sun to travel across the world and watch those below. The concept of an invisible, distant god is more difficult and is unlikely to occur until earlier animist concepts are well understood.
