Random thoughts : Evolution of god

by MisfitMeL 7 Replies latest jw friends

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  MisfitMeL

  Hmmmm not sure if it could be termed as evolution of god... maybe evolution of our consciousness? spiritual maturity?

  Some thoughts that occured to me as I was reading a number of threads around the forum... Maybe this idea has made an appearance before....

  Disclaimer : I am no expert in the history of human belief so I won't be surprised if I am wrong on my facts/chronology.

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  Ok so as humans evolved (this is from my perspective as an atheist so if you don't agree, too bad ), we started experiencing a consciousness and awareness that was different from other animals i.e. the ability to question, investigate and attribute unexplained phenomena to supernatural forces.

  At first, cave man feared the actual elements themselves... fire was worshipped, lightning, the sun, fearsome wild beasts etc. All of these things were awe inspiring and possessed far more power than a mere human.

  Then at some point, someone came up with the idea that these things were actually controlled by powerful beings or gods and that to escape such forces, you had to appease the god behind it. So you got the god of lightning, god of sea etc etc.

  Now this logically (or not!) led to a whole plethora of gods and goddesses springing up for every possible situation, even abstract ones like god of prosperity, god of goodwill and so on. I suppose tribes felt that whichever belief system that had the most number of dieties was more powerful than the others coz you've got all these big guns on your side right...

  But wait, there's an even better improvement... instead of having different dieties for your crops, health and laundry... you could have one all powerful god that could do all this and more! *snap* and then this god trumps them all!! Woo hoo....

  Now this god can do good AND bad things.... so that's not nice PR and people are starting to grumble... so let's make a good god and a bad god.. good guy always saves the day and when the sh*t hits the fan, we can all blame the dirty one. Excellent!

  However, good god GG is supposed to be more powerful than bad god BG, but BG is still allowed to run around playing pranks.... errr... ok.... even if BG is not really given much airtime, it still shows that GG is unable to do anything about the bad stuff which kinda ruins his all powerful reputation.

  So then BG is pretty much dropped from the scene and it's all down to us now and free will. GG is a big love, free hugs kinda guy and he wants us all to come to him. He wants us to chill out with him in a place called heaven, but everyone tries not to mention hell too much (unless you are a loopy fanatic). Hell turns people off. No, just stick to the heaven message and GG being all chilled out and loving. He's too far away to do anything positive out here but you still need him in your life.

  Not your cup of tea? Ok then, let's scrap GG and BG and just turn it all into this vague energy you feel around you, or some sort of karma.

  If that STILL doesn't tickle your fancy, you can drop it all and just get on with life.

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  Ramblings aside.... When we understood so little about our environment, the scary things were gods in themselves.... once we learned such natural forces could be tamed or useful, then there were gods behind such events.... needing sacrifices and appeasing to get them to cooperate.

  The more we learned, the less we needed a god for every little thing.... so we got rid of the silly ones and grouped the big ones into a single figure. But there were still problems with this, and the more and more we learn about our earth and universe, the less special god became
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  MisfitMeL

  Not sure why it got cut off there, but here's the conclusion in whole!!!!

  ---

  Ramblings aside.... When we understood so little about our environment, the scary things were gods in themselves.... once we learned such natural forces could be tamed or useful, then there were gods behind such events.... needing sacrifices and appeasing to get them to cooperate.

  The more we learned, the less we needed a god for every little thing.... so we got rid of the silly ones and grouped the big ones into a single figure. But there were still problems with this, and the more and more we learn about our earth and universe, the less special god became because everything that used to be 'mysterious' now had an explanation and didn't need a wizard behind it.

  The realm of god is shrinking and these days the only things he/she still has hold over are the big questions and the afterlife. I know some day we may find the answers to those too. We will never know ALL the answers but do you think as humans progress in their evolution, god will become extinct? Would we then reach a state of enlightenment never known before as
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  MisfitMeL

  Not sure why it got cut off there, but here's the conclusion in whole!!!!

  ---

  Ramblings aside.... When we understood so little about our environment, the scary things were gods in themselves.... once we learned such natural forces could be tamed or useful, then there were gods behind such events.... needing sacrifices and appeasing to get them to cooperate.

  The more we learned, the less we needed a god for every little thing.... so we got rid of the silly ones and grouped the big ones into a single figure. But there were still problems with this, and the more and more we learn about our earth and universe, the less special god became because everything that used to be 'mysterious' now had an explanation and didn't need a wizard behind it.

  The realm of god is shrinking and these days the only things he/she still has hold over are the big questions and the afterlife. I know some day we may find the answers to those too. We will never know ALL the answers but do you think as humans progress in their evolution, god will become extinct? Would we then reach a state of enlightenment never known before as we shed the clothes of infancy (And dependency on god's symbolic teat) and mature into adulthood where we are entirely responsible for the heaven/hell we create here on earth? Hmmmm......
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  MisfitMeL

  BAH!!!!

  *falls down and prays to the god of forums*
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  Satanus

  The primal spirituality, if it could be called that, that develped among tribalism the world over is called shamanism. While there is some variety in shamanism, a supreme deity concept was not popular. Shamanism was more about the spirits in the animals, etc, known as animism. The dead ancestors were seen as spirit helpers. Sometimes sacrifices were made to them. As well, the shaman had various spirit helpers, to whom he would sometimes make sacrifices in order to get them to work for him. Generally, he dominated them, as part of his being shaman. You should read up on shamanism. It was the hunter gatherer system.

  The more complex theology and divine hirarchies developed later, along w religions as farming and city states developed.

  S
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  MisfitMeL

  Aha! I had completely forgotten about shamanism! Thanks for letting me know Satanus, I shall do some googling on the subject :)
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  poppers

  Hey MisfitMeL, I enjoyed that very much. You could even take it a step further: Those who investigate this consciousness come to the realization that that is God, but instead of it being a personal God it is an impersonal God. And yes, this is where concepts of "enlightenment" enter the picture. This consciousness is one, not unique to the individual, and it is what "you" truly are - the appearance of the individual is a mental phenomena only, it comes and goes, while the consciousness is ever present. "You" are that consciousness/oneness, and not that illusory mental phenomenon known to others as MisfitMeL. In other words, this impersonal God is playing a game with itself, and all of the other players are lost in that game until they wake up to the true reality that is beneath the illusion, the oneness of consciousness. Life, then, is a journey not to some imagined God "out there somewhere" but to the reality that already exists within oneself right now - that is the journey of enlightenment, a journey that takes you nowhere, a journey that can only have its completion in the ever present now.
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  ziddina

  Hmm. Just a quick overview... In my studies (limited such as they are...), I came to view the somewhat questionable 'progress' humanity made towards war-mongering Middle Eastern male gods in these basic steps:

  Animism - the more primitive forms first, of course. I am amused to note that animism is incorporated into the very core of Christianity and is the essential basis for the celebration of the 'Memorial' - "Take, eat, for this means my flesh... Take, drink, for the wine means my blood..." (Dionysus' followers performed a similar ceremony involving wine, long before Christianity came along.)

  Of course, the beliefs that the bread and wine means flesh and blood arises from the primitive belief that harvesting the wine and cutting the grain 'killed' something which had a spirit, which had then 'given up its life' so that humankind could live...

  Goddess worship - and both Christians and Hindus alike still retain vestiges of said Goddess [plural, Goddesses] worship in their beliefs and practices today - in the case of the Hindus, they see clearly and acknowledge honestly that they are still worshipping various Goddesses; in the case of the Christians (and probably some of the other Middle Eastern religions, too) they have co-opted many features of the older forms of worship - the Goddesses - and given those attributes - or attributed those miracles - to the Johnny-come-lately Middle Eastern male deities.

  Male deities - the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and others began to phase out Goddess worship in favor of newer, male gods. There are several factors that led to this; it was realized that males had something to do with reproduction and subsequently the males claimed ALL responsibility for the conception of children. It wasn't until the last 100 years or so that science showed that males only contribute 1/2 of one chromosome to the production of a new life; the rest of the process of generating the 'life force' takes place in the female's body...

  Warfare was discovered to be quite profitable - at least, for the winning side... Males came to dominate much of the social landscape, and traditions of handing down property thru the matriarchal lines changed (concurrent with the increase in tribal conflicts and warfare) many tribal social structure into patriarchies. Males were needed to protect the tribal group, its grazing areas and property, from the marauding males of other groups; therefore the males gained much more significance and prominence within the tribal/social structure.

  Philosophical/Humanistic movements; the use of Greek, Hindu, and other forms of philosophy to 'humanize' the rigid, unyielding control of Literalist Christianity, or to replace the Puritanical Christianity with humanist, social empathy and awareness.

  And finally Atheism, as a result of further developments in science. So human evolution progresses...

  Zid