Where is animism found today

That has all changed. How to Witness to Animists The starting place for witness to someone who holds an Animistic worldview is to bring them to the possibility of the existence of only one God. Animistic belief recognizes divinity in all of the created order — material objects, heavenly objects, animals and departed human spirits. Any particular Animistic belief system cannot even provide a reason why its own system is better than some other Animistic system. There simply is no means of arbitrating between them.

The basis for belief is simply based on the assertions of its adherents. Once you are able to create doubt within the person due to the fact that they cannot give any reason why their faith might be the truth, an opening has been created which could lead to an opportunity to share the gospel message.

In doing this, you must start with a thorough explanation of the God of the Bible. They must understand the distinction between their belief in many gods and the One God of the Bible. Once they understand who God is, you may then proceed to the condition of mankind as fallen, as well as the problem created by the fall regarding our separation from him.

Finally, you can explain salvation by sharing how God provided a solution to the separation problem and the steps they can take to receive Christ. Summary To be effective in your sharing, though, you will have to do your due diligence. You must make the effort to learn about the basic foundation of Animism as well as the particular belief system of the person you are interacting with.

Worldwide, Animism is actually quite large. In America, not so much, but definitely growing. As well, in many parts of the world trees are regarded as the abode of the spirits of the dead. Just as a process of syncretism has given rise to cults of animal gods, tree spirits tend to become detached from the trees, which are thenceforth only considered to be their abodes. Here again it is evident that animism has begun to pass into forms of polytheism.

Some cultures do not make a distinction between animate and inanimate objects. Natural phenomenon, geographic features, everyday objects, and manufactured articles may also be seen as possessing souls. In the north of Europe, in ancient Greece, and in China, the water or river spirit is horse or bull-shaped.

The water monster in serpent shape is an even more pervasive image of the spirit of the water. The spirit of syncretism manifests itself in this department of animism too, turning the spirit immanent within natural forces into the presiding djinn or local gods which arose at later times.

Beside the doctrine of separable souls with which we have so far been concerned, there also exists the animist belief in a great host of unattached spirits. These are not transient souls that have become detached from their abodes; they are, instead, concrete realities with their own independent existences. These spirits are often considered malevolent, and, in this fashion, take on monstrous or animalistic forms.

For example, among the Ojibwa people of Minnesota and Ontario, the spirit world was populated with a great number of evil spirits that existed among the esteemed ones: monsters, ghosts, and most notably the Wendigo, an ogre which consumed human flesh and was said to cause psychosis.

Typically, spirits of these types manifested themselves in the phenomena of possession, disease, and so forth. Along with such conceptions of spiritual evil we also find the idea that spirits of the deceased can also be hostile beings, at least at first.

After extended durations of time, the spirits of dead kinsmen are no longer seen as unfriendly. As fetishes, naguals, familiar spirits, gods or demi-gods, they may even come to enter into relations with man. The fear of evil spirits has given rise to ceremonies of expulsion of evils, designed to banish these entities from the community.

Because of the often-malevolent nature of such spirits, as well as the various ills that can befall the individual soul or the community at large, the animist community almost always develops a system of spiritual technology—Shamanism. Shamanism refers to a range of traditional beliefs and practices that are united around a common method: the use and control of spirits. While shamanism is often seen as a healing tradition, in some societies, shamanic teachings also include the ability to inflict suffering on others.

Shamans have been credited with the ability to heal illnesses, control the weather, curse enemies, divine the future, interpret dreams, and project themselves astrally including the ability to travel to upper and lower spiritual worlds. Regardless, shamanism and animism are intimately inter-related: animism provides the religio-philosophical framework and shamanism provides the techniques and technology for controlling or at least harnessing these forces.

Most animistic belief systems hold that this spirit survives physical death. In some instances, the spirit is believed to pass into a more leisurely world of abundant game and ever-ripe crops, while in other systems, such as that of the Navajo religion, the spirit remains on earth as a ghost, often becoming malignant in the process.

Still other systems combine these two beliefs, holding that the afterlife involves a journey to the spirit world upon which the soul must not become lost. This journey entails much wandering as a ghost. Further, in many parts of the world it is held that the human body is the seat of more than one soul, some of which allow a person to survive after death. Among the peoples of the island of Nias, for example, four are distinguished: 1 the shadow and 2 the intelligence, each of which die with the body , as well as 3 a tutelary spirit, termed begoe , and 4 a spirit which is carried on the head.

These latter spirits survive even after death. Similar ideas are found among the Euahlayi of southeast Australia, the Dakotas of North America, as well as many other tribes. Just as in Europe the ghost of a dead person is held to haunt the churchyard or the place of death, other cultures also assign different abodes to some of the multiple souls.

Of the four souls of a Dakota, one is held to stay with the corpse after death and another in the village, while a third goes into the air and the fourth goes to the land of souls. Numerous other factors from its worldly life, such as whether or not its funerary rite was properly observed, also affect its status in the spirit realm. From the belief in the survival of the dead arose the practice of graveside rituals such as the offering of food or lighting of fires in honor of the dead.

While this may have occurred at first as an act of friendship or filial piety, it later became an act of full-fledged ancestor worship. In animist societies, the reverence for the dead is not finished with the successful passage of the soul to the land of the dead. On the contrary, the soul may return to avenge its death by helping to uncover injustices or identify murderers, or simply to wreak vengeance for itself. There is a widespread belief that those who died a violent death become malignant spirits and endanger the lives of those who come near the spot where they died.

For example, in the Malaysian culture, the stillborn child or the woman who dies in childbirth becomes a pontianak , a spirit who threatens the life of human beings. As a result of such spiritual threats, people resort to magical or religious precautions in order to repel their spiritual dangers.

The number of cultures that have upheld animist beliefs is almost impossible to report accurately, as the belief system has been held in its various iterations by innumerable cultures throughout history. Numerous tribal and hunter-gatherer cultures maintaining ancient lifestyles have also maintained animistic beliefs, and many still exist in the contemporary world.

Although the religious beliefs vary immensely between each of these cultures, they all hold to the basic tenet of animism—that there is a plurality of souls, spirits or consciousnesses.

Modern Neopagans, especially Eco-Pagans, sometimes describe themselves as animists, meaning that they respect the diverse community of living beings with whom humans share the cosmos.

Who practices animism? Which group practiced most animism? What country founded animism? Is animism practiced today? Is animism the oldest religion? When did humans start believing in God? Is God and Jehovah the same? What is the real name of Jesus?