Is Religion an Attempt to Understand the World?

[EgoDeath]

It's an issue that's been debated on this forum here and there, but I'm not sure if we've ever really addressed this question and had an honest, dedicated discussion about it. From a psychological point of view, it's pretty obvious that, at least in modern times, religion is a way for many individuals to "answer the big questions"... such as:

-Why are we here?

-Did something or someone create us? If not, how are we here?

-Why is there something, rather than nothing?

-Does my life, specifically, have an individual purpose? (slightly different version of the first question)

...so on and so forth. In fact, there plenty of specific Bible verses, if we're speaking in concerns to Christianity, that seem to address at least some of these questions. In fact, entire books have been written about these attempts by Christianity to answer lifes big questions. Not to mention, using the DuckDuckGo search engine (a superior alternative to google, in my opinion), a simple search of "lifes big questions" reveals a multitude of Christian-themed websites with articles centered around the concept of how god and the Bible can help people answer those exact questions.

While this is hardly reason enough to make the sweeping generalization that religion is an attempt to understand the world by any person who considers themselves religious, it's certainly reason enough to believe that religion, for very many people, is an attempt to understand the world.

We see interesting examples of this in ancient Egyptian mythology, with the beliefs being held that Ra, the sun deity, literally sailed across the sky during the day, which was, clearly, an attempt by ancient Egyptian peoples, to make sense of the sun "rising" in the morning, and "setting" at night.

These are only a few ideas here, and I'm just thinking out loud; I'm interested to hear other people's thoughts. Do you guys think that religion was some attempt by ancient peoples to understand the world around them, or something else entirely? Or maybe a combination of things? If religion is a way to understand life's big questions, in modern times, and we have some evidence pointing us to the idea that it served a similar purpose in ancient times, we'd have to come up with some very solid reasons to think that the way humans thought about religion has changed drastically in order to argue that religion wasn't, once upon a time, a way to understand the world.

What do you guys think?

[ignoramus]

I think religion helps one cope with NOT understanding the world. Many people need simple fuzzy answers ...A sort of closure if you wish.

Science is the way if you want to understand the world in any sort of objective sense.

[EgoDeath]

I think religion helps one cope with NOT understanding the world. Many people need simple fuzzy answers ...A sort of closure if you wish.

Science is the way if you want to understand the world in any sort of objective sense.

Granted, science is a much superior way to understand phenomena around us.... but do you think religion was once an attempt at science, or an attempt at creating some narrative that allowed the world to make some kind of coherent sense to a people who had far more questions than answers?

[BrokenQuill92]

I think those first few millennia humanity was just trying to figure it out. But funnily enough right around the Dark Ages people started fucking up, and using religion as a power play.

[onlinebiker]

I think religion probably got it's start by some well meaning parent as an inventive tale to help the kids deal with the death of a tribe member.

Then the laziest member of the tribe - deviously co-opted these stories to control the more gulliable tribe members for personal gain.
....

Thus the priesthood born....

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

It's an issue that's been debated on this forum here and there, but I'm not sure if we've ever really addressed this question and had an honest, dedicated discussion about it. From a psychological point of view, it's pretty obvious that, at least in modern times, religion is a way for many individuals to "answer the big questions"... such as:

-Why are we here?

-Did something or someone create us? If not, how are we here?

-Why is there something, rather than nothing?

-Does my life, specifically, have an individual purpose? (slightly different version of the first question)

...so on and so forth. In fact, there plenty of specific Bible verses, if we're speaking in concerns to Christianity, that seem to address at least some of these questions. In fact, entire books have been written about these attempts by Christianity to answer lifes big questions. Not to mention, using the DuckDuckGo search engine (a superior alternative to google, in my opinion), a simple search of "lifes big questions" reveals a multitude of Christian-themed websites with articles centered around the concept of how god and the Bible can help people answer those exact questions.

While this is hardly reason enough to make the sweeping generalization that religion is an attempt to understand the world by any person who considers themselves religious, it's certainly reason enough to believe that religion, for very many people, is an attempt to understand the world.

We see interesting examples of this in ancient Egyptian mythology, with the beliefs being held that Ra, the sun deity, literally sailed across the sky during the day, which was, clearly, an attempt by ancient Egyptian peoples, to make sense of the sun "rising" in the morning, and "setting" at night.

These are only a few ideas here, and I'm just thinking out loud; I'm interested to hear other people's thoughts. Do you guys think that religion was some attempt by ancient peoples to understand the world around them, or something else entirely? Or maybe a combination of things? If religion is a way to understand life's big questions, in modern times, and we have some evidence pointing us to the idea that it served a similar purpose in ancient times, we'd have to come up with some very solid reasons to think that the way humans thought about religion has changed drastically in order to argue that religion wasn't, once upon a time, a way to understand the world.

What do you guys think?

I think that's a fair assessment.  Our most human quality - one might even say 'defining quality' - is our desire to suss things out, from the big questions ('Why are we here?') to the more immediate ones ('What's the best way for me to not get eaten by that animal with the great big teeth?').

Boru

[EgoDeath]

I think that's a fair assessment.  Our most human quality - one might even say 'defining quality' - is our desire to suss things out, from the big questions ('Why are we here?') to the more immediate ones ('What's the best way for me to not get eaten by that animal with the great big teeth?').

Boru

It's a fundamental part of being human, no? Making sense of things, organizing thoughts, labeling objects, people and places, etc. And yes, it's also fundamental to run from big thing with sharp teeth

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

An analogy I sometimes use is that Ugg uses a gourd to carry water from a spring to his nearby cave. Occasionally, it is inevitable that some of the water will spill onto the ground.  Eventually, Ugg notices that his spilled water looks a lot like what happens after a rainstorm - puddles, little rivulets and so on.  Not knowing anything about evaporation and condensation and vapor pressures, Ugg reaches inaccurate but not unreasonable conclusion that there is someone living in the sky with a really, REALLY big gourd that he sometimes spills. Based on his experiences, Ugg further reasons that Sky Gourd Man is kind of moody - sometimes he spills just a little water and doesn't seem to mind.  Sometimes he drops the whole gourd full and gets really, really angry about it.  Ugg starts to wonder if there might be a way to keep SGM happy...

And the rest, as they say, is thousands of years of oppression and intellectual tyranny.

Boru

[The Grand Nudger]

I could give a long winded version of this answer..but, no, it's not. While many religious systems contain a mountain of ipse dixit statements about nature, these don't serve the purpose of explaining nature, but of buttressing the central tenet of every faith, which is mans place in relation to nature, broadly.

Religion isn't an understanding or an attempt at an understanding. It's an assertion. What we wish for, or demand, or desire. Religion says that this is what is true. Not what we see. To use Borus example, above, religion isn't the notion that a man in the sky makes it rain - it's the system created to make the man in the sky do what we want, the system that describes our duties to the man in the sky, if he's going to do what we want. Religion is -always- about us, not The World™.

A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.

-Durkheim

[Ranjr]

Sometimes and in certain ways.  For instance, how can a regular person beneath the firmament, such a corrupt place ruled by demon spirits, have knowledge of a purely perfect being a full 7 heavens away?  Answer:  that perfect being sent a piece of himself to carry that knowledge to the corrupt world.  Not only that, the piece of god experienced the toil, pain and death of imperfect life in order to be a lasting conduit between Earth and 7th heaven.

That's one highly speculative way an Essene Jew may have tried to understand the world at the time.  Beyond that, as with most religions, Christianity is an attempt to gain following, unite communities and spread as a dominant way of thinking.  It's a way to control people through their desire for a better life.