(August 15, 2016 at 4:43 pm)Esquilax Wrote:So then Religion would work as a catalyst accelerating tendencies already in motion.(August 15, 2016 at 3:52 pm)Arkilogue Wrote: You must be joking, religious have been the reason for humans' grouping into larger city-state/tribes since the dawn of civilization. They all rise and they all fall....and look what time it is. People need a unifying vision and context for their lives. Religions have provided that for better and worse.
No, man. Religion is the backdrop, not the reason. Humans- and those species most closely related to us- are social species by nature, it's our big evolutionary advantage, and the findings of anthropology bear that out, even before the advent of religion. Our reach and knowledge increased such that larger tribal groups could be formed, and religion functioned as a pretense for that, but it did so by parasitizing extant human traits. But it would have happened, religion or no; all religion did was step in front of our already extant desire for community and cooperation, asserting "see? That's me! I did that!"
Quote:Determine what? That it's better to push a giant rolling boulder from the side rather than stand directly in front and expect to stop it?
Determine that humanity will never be free of religion.
Well you certainly have your work cut out for you in the world at large. But until you get past the spears and arrows of amazonian tribes that eschew all outsiders, pockets of indigenous religion will continue.
"Leave it to me to find a way to be,
Consider me a satellite forever orbiting,
I knew the rules but the rules did not know me, guaranteed." - Eddie Vedder
Consider me a satellite forever orbiting,
I knew the rules but the rules did not know me, guaranteed." - Eddie Vedder