|
 Grav
Registered: 02/06/02
Posts: 4,454
Last seen: 11 years, 3 months
|
 Is the origins of religion just a form of science? 
#881167 - 09/12/02 10:49 PM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
I was stoned outta my mind last night, riding home from the ocean, and I was thinking about this...
Perhaps some early peoples and tribes created 'gods' for things like the sun and nature and what have you, to just have some way of identifying with the entities that provided them with life. Like "We dont know what the sun is, or how it works, but we know it makes us warm and everything have beautiful colors, so we will worship it."
Then as technology evolves we learn exactly what the sun is and how it works. We dont necessarily worship it but we know how important it is to our lives in just the same sense that any early peoples had.
It also brings up another thought in my mind..
Maybe in time we have distorted religions and such to be totally supernatural and absurd, when they were originally just meant as a form of acknowledgement of life. Maybe those same tribes would think it is very silly to live by these themes when we have proven their real existence..
heh, is this making sense?
|
Anonymous
|
 Re: Is the origins of religion just a form of science? [Re: Grav]
#881184 - 09/12/02 11:00 PM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
A myth is a traditional story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the world view of a people as by explaining aspects of the natural world.
Now Edith Hamilton says in her book, "Mythology", "Greek mythology is largely made up of stories about gods and goddesses, but it must not be read as a kind of Greek Bible, an account of the Greek Religion. According to the most modern idea, a real myth has nothing to do with religion. It is an explanation of something in nature; how, for instance, any and everything in the universe came into existence: man, animals, this or that tree or flower, the sun, the moon, the stars, storms, eruptions, earthquakes, all that is and all that happens. Thunder and lightning are caused when Zeus hurls his thunderbolt. A volcano erupts because a terrible creature is imprisoned in the mountain and every now and then struggles to get free. The Dipper, the constellation called also the Great Bear, does not set below the horizon because a goddess once was angry at it and decreed that it should never sink into the sea. MYTHS ARE EARLY SCIENCE, the result of men's first trying to explain what they saw around them."
|
mirrorsaww
newbie
Registered: 08/31/02
Posts: 43
Last seen: 21 years, 5 months
|
Re: Is the origins of religion just a form of science? [Re: Grav]
#881613 - 09/13/02 08:03 AM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
It would seem that early religion was in part concerned with manipulating or to guarantee some natural process.
e.g. to divine the hunt, for the protection of the community, for the rains to come, for the harvest to be bountiful etc.
I agree it was in part to understand, but I believe it was also a way to try and control these forces. Whether it worked is a different matter.
Maybe in time we have distorted religions and such to be totally supernatural and absurd, when they were originally just meant as a form of acknowledgement of life.
I wouldn't agree with this myself, as it is believed that they did try and use supernatural means to control nature. (just as people do today)
|
 WhiskeyClone
Not here
Registered: 06/25/01
Posts: 16,509
Loc: Longitudinal Center of Canada ...
|
Re: Is the origins of religion just a form of science? [Re: Grav]
#881721 - 09/13/02 08:56 AM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Maybe in time we have distorted religions and such to be totally supernatural and absurd, when they were originally just meant as a form of acknowledgement of life. Maybe those same tribes would think it is very silly to live by these themes when we have proven their real existence..
These have always been my thoughts about the origin of religion. Religion is still around only because of the momentum it carries, IMHO.
Imagine, for a second, a hypothetical situation: All religious belief was somehow purged from the minds of humans and no scripture or evidence of religion existed, yet all currently accepted scientific theories are still in place. Would any form of theism ever become prevalent? I would think not, because it wouldn't serve an immediate purpose. There would be no mystery about why we are plagued with disasters or how life formed. Belief in a supernatural being that, despite scientific evidence, supposedly created the world would likely be seen as outright lunacy.
I do believe that religion was an early form of science, but its benefits other than perceived understanding of the universe (such as security, guidance and tradition), were already well-established staples of humankind by the time more plausible theories of the universe's origin were put forth.
Good post, Grav. Get stoned more often! 
--------------------
Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it.
~ R.W. Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
|
|
Threaded
Previous
Index
Next
Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order 
Kratom Powder For Sale
Edit 
Reply 
1 2 3 all )
BleedingSickness
Swami
Huehuecoyotl
SkorpivoMusterion
gettinjiggywithit
