Fear of the gods (page 2)

freedomlover

well said narkissos

sometimes I think it's amazing how we are all given the same "welcome/instruction packet" and yet we all come up with so many different *interpretations* and ways of *reading* it.

streets76

I think mankind has resorted to religion because of the fear of death. Somehow we just can't imagine death.

I read somewhere that science can be defined as the "search for truth," while religion can be defined as the "search for comfort."

Narkissos

Welcome streets76,

Interesting point you bring up about science.

It took time for science to break up with religion, and since it did it has become increasingly different in methods and applications (technology instead of magic for instance). However I wonder if the basic thrust for knowledge, with the ambition of representing (figuring out) the world and mastering it is so different. Knowing is the most straightforward answer to fear of the unknown, and it does modify the question a lot.

Robdar

Narkissos, I agree completely. But it isn't just religion that uses fear to manipulate us. Medicine, government and the Weather Channel are a few examples of those currently using fear to either take our money or to get higher ratings.

JamesThomas

seven006

Nark,

I think you are right on target. Just to add a little along with fear is also ignorance and the need to feel secure.

If you look at history and the almost total lack of understanding of things like science, physics and human psychology back then you end up with the mystical and then mythical components of religion that people still believe today. Virgin births, walking on water, zoo ships, the sun revolving around the earth and numerous other myths that were accepted as truth back then as well as today due to lack of understanding of what we know better now.

These myths and gods were then talked about, interwoven into other individuals own specific gods and myths then embellished on around the camp fires of the traveling merchants of the time then brought back to their own communities and marveled at. It was the traveling merchants of the time that met at the hub cities in the Middle East, exchanged their goods as well as their stories about their gods and their mystical powers to be feared. Then they were brought back news as well as these god stories to educate their own people about what was going on in other parts of the world. They were the CNN of the ancient world and believed as much as we believe the CNN news we see today.

This is how we have so many similarities intertwined in all the more popular religions. The flood, virgin births, walking on water, feeding disciples with a few fish and a loaf of bread etc. You can go to other religions and see very similar to almost exact myths that were told about their super human gods and recorded for history way before the Christian or Muslim religions existed and claimed those mystical stories as their own.

People back then could not dispute these myths because they did not have the knowledge we have today that shows them for what they are, myths. People back then didn’t understand things like earthquakes, floods and lightening so they made up these stories about these all-powerful gods and their wrath to explain them.

Natural phenomenon, death, and human wars brought the fear.

Telling them about their miracle working gods that would save them from the next one brought about their feeling of security.

Ignorance and lack of knowledge about science, physics and human psychology made them accept these myths as fact.

Mix it all together and we get religion.

Dave

Abaddon

Nark

I guess this experience was quite possible, and probably often realised, in the ancient world too.

They had CARparks!!??

Actually it was one essential ingredient in religious change (in a sense, henotheistic and monotheistic Yahwism start with blasphemy... of other gods).

A bit like the amusing comment (don't know whos it was originally) that the different between an atheist and a monotheist is that one disbelieve sin ONE more god than the other.

The question is whether we can overcome fear itself without a similar strategy (which of course doesn't need to be a theistic one). I feel we still need to name our fears, give them external existence, on the imaginary level, to deal with them. As long as we do so we are, in effect, playing a religious act, aren't we?

I think supernatural entities are a response to the unknown, a 'best fit explantion' for the inexplicable that although it now creates MORE questions than it answers (as most of the inexplicable is quite explicable nowadays thank you very much) is a very powerful meme hard to overcome with reason, as if under attack it can redefine itself so as to be unanalysable by reason.

I think that meditation, the I-Ching, astrology, prayer etc. are ancient forms of self-relective therapy where we use tools to get glimpses of our subconscious. They are totally meaningless out of context, but a mind can use them as tools for self-redaction and analysis.

LittleToe

Dider:
Nice thread "The Fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" But my question would be, does one remain in such a state of fear once one has come to know that Lord? How spoke the ancient sages? Gyles:

They had CARparks!!??

You don't remember the scene in Ben Hur, where he had difficulty parking his chariot?

Dansk

Hi Nark,

I believe you are spot on! However, I am now more Buddhist in outlook, but not subscribing to any one particular school as I believe they have all been corrupted in some way. Do we call Buddhism a religion or a philosophy? Whatever, I do not believe I do what I do now out of any fear. I do what I do because I believe it is truth: Samsara, rebirth, karma, etc.

Of course, there could be some underlying fear involved which I am not fully aware of. I guess that comes with over 50 years of human conditioning.

Very good post - as usual!

Love,

Ian

diamondblue1974

Just to throw this a little off tack; I did read somewhere about a theory that all Gods were man-made and therefore worship of a God was in essence a worship of ones self; perhaps this could be applied a little differently.

Applying this theory then if we feared God or Gods in a sense, we are almost fearful of ourselves.

Just throwing some idea's around; I confess I havent read enough of this theory to subscribe one way or another but I thought it was interesting in any respect.

DB74

Fear of the gods

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