The Genesis of the Idea of God by Salama Moussa
Historical and Intellectual Context
Published in 1912, The Genesis of the Idea of God by Egyptian thinker Salama Moussa emerged during a period of sweeping intellectual transformation in the Arab world, spurred by the influence of European modernity.
The book was essentially a translation and condensation of the ideas of English writer Grant Allen, part of a wave of works that sought to explain religion through a materialist, evolutionary lens inspired by Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
In his introduction, Moussa set out his methodology:
“My inquiry into this subject is purely scientific, free from ulterior motive… We are concerned only with the history of beliefs and their progression from paganism.”
Yet this claim of scientific neutrality was met with skepticism, as critics noted his sharp criticism of Christianity alongside his relative silence on Islam. In retrospect, this avoidance seems less like inconsistency than calculated caution—an attempt to introduce radical ideas in a context where open critique of Islam would have been socially impossible.
Salama Moussa: Intellectual Biography
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Cultural Formation: Born in 1887 in the village of Bahnbay near Zagazig, Moussa traveled to Europe between 1906 and 1910. In France, he encountered the ideas of Voltaire and Marx; in England, he joined the Fabian Society and absorbed the influence of George Bernard Shaw and Darwin.
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Intellectual Orientation: He championed a decisive break from Eastern traditions in favor of the Western model, advocating secularism, socialism, and women’s emancipation. For Moussa, religion was an obstacle to progress. He declared: “Man has nothing to rely on in this universe but his reason.”
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Context for the Book: The work was shaped by the rise of atheistic and secular currents in the late 19th-century West, which Moussa linked to a “crisis of meaning” brought about by church corruption and the triumph of secularization.
The Evolutionary Foundations of Religion
1. The Primitive Origins of the Idea of God: From Ancestor Worship to Myth
Moussa argued that belief in God originated in humanity’s fear of death and ignorance of natural laws:
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The belief in spirits: Early humans interpreted death as a “long faint” due to their inability to distinguish it from temporary unconsciousness. This led to the idea of the soul separating from the body, reinforced by dreams of the dead.
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Worship of corpses: The first religious practice, he claimed, was the mummification of bodies or the creation of effigies to which food was offered, fostering the idea of the tomb as a temple.
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From ritual to myth: Over time, tales of the deeds of the dead grew into exaggerated myths, preserved by a priestly class who compiled them into “sacred books.”
Moussa summed it up starkly:
“In short, the worship of corpses is the origin of all present-day religions.”
2. The Development of Religion: From Polytheism to Monotheism
Moussa described three stages in religious evolution:
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Tribal Stage: Worship of deceased tribal leaders, who were offered sacrifices—an origin, he argued, of prayer. Example: the Kombamba people of Africa.
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Pagan Stage: As some ancestors gained wider fame, they were elevated into gods, often with specialized roles (rain, war, fertility, etc.).
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Monotheistic Stage: A consolidation of many gods into one supreme deity, as in ancient Egypt’s Osiris-Isis-Horus triad, which he claimed later fed into Christian Trinitarianism.
3. Christianity as a Case Study in Religious Evolution
Moussa devoted much of the book to Christianity, which he portrayed as:
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A syncretic blend of pagan myths:
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The “incarnate god” (Christ) borrowed from the deification of rulers such as Alexander the Great.
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The Virgin Mary derived from the goddess Isis.
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The Eucharist evolved from sacrificial offerings.
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A continuation of pagan rituals:
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The cross as a symbol of Osiris.
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Churches as sacred tombs.
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The priesthood as heirs to Egyptian temple priests.
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4. Islam: A Tense Silence
Moussa largely sidestepped direct criticism of Islam, though he briefly suggested that:
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Islamic practices such as the veneration of saints were continuations of ancestor worship.
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Monotheism in Islam was itself a historical development rather than divine revelation.
This section, however, occupies only a few lines—vastly overshadowed by his pages of critique of Christianity.
Scientific and Intellectual Problems in the Book
Major Critiques:
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Selective Evidence: He ignored monotheistic religions predating Christianity, such as Akhenaten’s worship of Aten.
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Simplistic Evolutionary Model: He imposed a rigid “linear progression” from polytheism to monotheism not supported by comparative studies.
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Confusion of Similarity with Borrowing: He interpreted ritual similarities (e.g., prayer) as evidence of direct borrowing, neglecting their differing symbolic meanings.
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Darwinian Reductionism: He applied biological evolution too mechanically to cultural and religious phenomena.
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Anti-Christian Bias: He dismissed Christian theology as mere rebranded paganism, ignoring its complex internal logic.
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Lack of Scholarly Rigor: He cited almost no anthropological sources—aside from a passing mention of the Kombamba tribe—and admitted to omitting “many more examples to avoid prolonging the book,” which in English was only 45 pages long.
As one Goodreads reviewer put it:
“The book lacks any foundation of serious scholarship… it’s just shallow storytelling.”
Reception and Legacy
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Critical Reception:
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Religious circles accused him of atheism and blasphemy, especially after his notorious phrase: “Whoever has a corpse, let him worship it!”
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Intellectuals dismissed the work as superficial and unserious. Even his protégé Naguib Mahfouz once told him: “You have great talent, but your articles are terrible.”
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Readers’ reviews were harsh: on Goodreads, it averages just two stars out of five, with comments such as “nonsense and vulgarity.”
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Historical Impact:Despite its weaknesses, the book:
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Helped establish secular thought in early Arab intellectual life.
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Opened space for public debate on religion in Arab societies.
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Influenced a generation of thinkers (such as Ismail Mazhar) who embraced social Darwinism.
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Between Historical Value and Intellectual Failure
The Genesis of the Idea of God remains valuable less for its scholarly content than for what it represents:
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The Arab world’s encounter with Western modernity.
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The challenges of adopting Western methodologies without adapting them to local contexts.
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The dilemmas of early Arab secularism in confronting religious heritage.
Yet it ultimately failed to offer a convincing theory of religion’s origins, because of:
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Its reductive materialism.
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Its neglect of the spiritual dimension of religion.
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Its tendency to turn superficial similarities into causal claims without evidence.
The book stands more as an ideological critique than a scientific study—a point acknowledged even by Moussa’s admirers, who view him as a pioneer of bold questioning rather than a provider of final answers.
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