Religious instinct has been theorized by many scholars as a part of human nature due to the virtual universality of religion in human cultures. In other words, we are born with religious instinct, which will eventually lead to the establishment of religion as a fundamental social institution once our culture evolves past a certain level.[1][2][3]
There are no religious rituals observed in animals, including our close relatives, chimpanzees and other apes, although chimps were observed to have sometimes collective excitements for no reason.[4]
Archaeologists have established the existence of burial rituals among Neanderthals some 50,000 years ago.[5]
Carl Jung (1875–1961) theorized the collective unconscious, a residue of what has been learned in humankind's evolution and ancestral past. In his view instincts, the potential for creativity and the spiritual heritage of mankind reside in this portion of the psyche.[6] The religious instinct is apparently part of our racial collective unconscious, which unconsciously dictates our behaviour.[7]