article on origin of religious belief
by peacefulpete 3 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Elsewhere
For some time now I have believed that religion is man's first failed attempt at science. When you look at it, its sole purpose is to explain things that cannot be immediately understood.
There used to be gods in the heavens, but later we came to understand that they were the sun, moon, planets, comets and so on.
There used to be gods that caused thunder, but later we came to understand that thunder is a shockwave caused by lighting.
There used to be gods that caused lightning, but later we cam to understand that lightning is electrical discharges caused by static electricity in the sky.
There used to be gods that caused the seasons, but later we came to understand that the seasons are caused by the ways the earth moves around the sun.
There used to be gods who talked to prophets, but later we came to understand that these people had disorders (schizophrenia / cerebral seizures) of the brain causing hallucinations.
The list goes on and on... so many things have now been explained using completely natural phenomena. We are now to the point that the faithful have only invisible deities who do not interact with anyone in any direct manner. Some religions have been forced to describe ?god? as being the universe as a whole (Islam).
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Poztate
For some time now I have believed that religion is man's first failed attempt at science. When you look at it, its sole purpose is to explain things that cannot be immediately understood.
I think you hit the nail on the head with that one.Religious beliefs have had to constantly change as scientific knowledge shed light on a subject.
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Midget-Sasquatch
I think religion was the product of ancient people's dialectic with their world, and trying to understand it better so as to navigate through it successfully.
Since we have a knack for thinking symbolically and metaphorically about even the very concrete, it wasn't that hard a leap to postulate the invisible or spiritual.
I'm with Elsewhere and Poztate, the gods have been ascribed to smaller and smaller gaps in our understanding of nature.
But I'd have to say that religion probably also came about as a means to comfort a mind that realized its mortality, and maybe even to offer the hope of justice to a developing moral being within this rather amoral universe.