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Monday, October 20, 2008
What is the Origin of Religion?
Did religion develop during prehistoric times simply to explain things that could not otherwise be answered? Like worshiping the Sun God, or God of the Harvest, or God of the sea. Is this really how Paganism developed? If so, and there really is one true God out there, then why did he wait so long to reveal himself, and why did he only originally reveal himself to the Hebrews ignoring all other populations of the earth, while allowing Paganism and other religious beliefs to rise? None of this makes sense when stepping back and looking at the eternal plan of salvation.
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Bishop Rick: Did religion develop during prehistoric times simply to explain things that could not otherwise be answered? Like worshiping the Sun God, or God of the Harvest, or God of the sea.
Belief in an afterlife, belief in a non-corporeal God or gods, and belief that ritual or prayer can change the outcome of events is universal across all kindreds and peoples and tongues. These elements persist even in isolated cultures which are officially atheist, such as North Korea, where Kim Il-Jong is exalted to godlike status, complete with domestic shrines. Yet the lower animals demonstrate little if any religious sensibilities. To explain this, we must explore whether human brains have a "religious" center in the cerebral cortex, an architecture hard-wired to provide a religious response and experience.
If so, and there really is one true God out there, then why did he wait so long to reveal himself, and why did he only originally reveal himself to the Hebrews ignoring all other populations of the earth, while allowing Paganism and other religious beliefs to rise?
The rise of the Abrahamic God concept coincided with the invention of writing. For the first time, it became possible for men to codify their ideas about God and transmit them faithfully to future generations rather than trusting their ideas to an oral history which is subject to being corrupted over the generations by contradictory responses generated by that "religion center" I spoke of earlier.
The problem with this is that it also locks in, as dogma, certain tribalist attitudes about slavery or gender roles which are superceded by the normal evolution of society. What does all this have to do with Linux? Think of traditional religion as Microsoft Windows, controlled from a central "Mecca" (Redmond), closed to debate, one size fits all. Classic religion certainly fulfills the needs of the "God center" of the brain, but it only does so in certain pre-described ways which may leave some questions unanswered. For 90% of users this is good enough. The last 10% will seek open-source theology.
If you subscribe to the evolutionary development of mankind, you would have to agree that early hominids also lacked this "religious" center in the cerebral cortex. The earliest hominids were more animal-like than man-like. As they evolved into what we classify as homosapiens and neanderthals they started exhibiting a belief in the afterlife by performing acts like adorning their dead with jewelry and burying them.
I would have to believe that all religion rose out of what we classify as paganism with its earliest roots going back 100s of thousands of years. I agree with your statement regarding the invention of writing. I think that (or thereabouts) is when the world began its shift away from paganism towards more centralized god figures.
I would have to believe that all religion rose out of what we classify as paganism with its earliest roots going back 100s of thousands of years. I agree with your statement regarding the invention of writing. I think that (or thereabouts) is when the world began its shift away from paganism towards more centralized god figures.
We can even see the last stages of this evolution within the pages of the bible itself. At first the Hebrews practiced henotheism, which is the a form of monotheism that admits the existence of other gods. This is seen in the commandment by Yahweh/El to have "no other gods before me" which only makes sense if other gods are held to exist. After the Hebrews became fully monotheistic around the time of the Babylonian Captivity, the injunction against idolatry remained on the books, but it comes across as an overreaction to misguided rituals which could have no effect since the invoked deity did not exist and therefor could not make good on any promises. The dualism of Christianity explains this by merging all Baal worship or Marduk worship (or even the veneration of Mary) into Satan worship and elevating Satan from an angel to a near deity in his own right.
Like the Linux kernel, religion has evolved with incremental steps, but unlike the Linux development process these steps have not been properly documented. We can see the final "source code" of religion by examining sacred texts, but we are forced to deduce how it evolved by looking at inconsistencies within the scriptures and how they relate to the religion is it is practiced today.
I agree. One might also say that the religion kernel has several forks making it difficult (if not impossible) for a common code base.
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