Western Arrogance in Early Religious Studies

Why was there such an obsession among scholars with presenting the “origin and development” of religion in the late nineteenth century? 

During the nineteenth century, after Darwin’s theory of evolution was publicized, scholars began to see how a more scientific approach would be useful outside of biological fields. By using more deductive reasoning and looking for evidence in religion, scholars sought to find how religion might have developed.

Darwin is said by many, though not himself, to have killed God. If God didn’t create man, then he may not have created religion. If biological species had evolved, perhaps religion evolved as well. By tracing religions’ histories and looking at the “primitive” religions, they sought to trace and understand the development of world religions from “primitive” to “civilized.”