ABSTRACT
The links between society and religion are closer than may appear from mere observation of world. In fact, cultural evolution, and even the evolution of society itself, has been thought of as depending largely on the institution of religion. With society as a starting point, it is possible to trace some correlations between social structures and godheads or supernatural powers. When society is complex, modern, and hierarchical, its godheads and supernatural powers reflect its hierarchies and ideals, with a supreme power—for example, God—as the highest point in the social and divine hierarchies. When nature and fertility are vital to a society’s survival, symbolic representations of nature and fertility are found in that society’s religious worship and rituals. Thus survival conditions of a particular society are automatically incorporated in that society’s religious symbol systems, frequently including a supreme symbol of a godhead.
