History of religion

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/history-of-religion

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

History of religion. Small Whale. https://smallwhale.org/articles/history-of-religion. Accessed 2026-09-23. Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What did people do when they buried the dead a long time ago?They put tools and ornaments with the bodies, showing they believed in an afterlife or a spiritual world.
2. How did early religions help people understand nature?They thought animals, plants, and weather had spirits, which helped explain natural events and brought people together in shared rituals.

Animism: The belief that natural objects, phenomena, and the universe itself possess souls or consciousness.
Cosmology: The understanding of the origin, structure, and evolution of the universe, often within a religious or mythological framework.
Secularization: The process whereby religious influence on social and cultural institutions diminishes over time.