(May 2, 2011 at 5:10 pm)darkblight Wrote: Religion is mans first attempt at explaining the world around him, at least that which he does not understand. When people were sick I suppose praying was better than doing nothing, but as time has progressed we have developed more intelligent applications to heal the sick, explain the tides, explain why the sun rises and sets, rain, earthquakes, stars etc.
The more we understand about the natural world the more watered down religion becomes.
This is the purpose of religion, now of course religion has been used for good and bad, most here would think the bad outweighs the good, but it was necessary for us to get to a point where we can sit on a computer and discuss why it is not needed. Evolution works slowly and in a social sense to me it is apparent that some feel they still need religion to deal with life and some do not, and as the Not's begin to number more I believe we will find ourselves in a society that is better off for it.
That is certainly not the purpose of the invention of gods. People were always interested in studying themselves the nature, and in giving 'scientific' (i.e. proven) explanations to what they see - there were people in antiquity interested in cosmology, for instance, and in medicine (practical methods of healing). In old times (or only in some 'religions') the clergy was also dealing with healing (i.e. medicine). In Judaism, the clergy was the one who was supposed to study the scriptures/laws deeply, and were acting as judges to the people (i.e. when people had a problem that is solvable by laws, they appealed to those who learn and study the laws - the priests). There might be even things like a religion to have started from a very wise philosopher, and people to add fairytales as the time was passing. As for the present, most if not all religions do not have as purpose the explanation of the physical world around. They are rather concerned with life after death.
Anyway, it is somewhat difficult for the 21st century man to imagine the beliefs, day-to-day life, philosophies of the people 4000 years ago or more.
