RE: "How God got started", how god belief + basic reason + writing -> modern humans?
October 9, 2017 at 3:02 pm
(This post was last modified: October 9, 2017 at 3:45 pm by Whateverist.)
(October 9, 2017 at 1:36 pm)Minimalist Wrote:Quote:His arguments hinge on very slim evidence.
Whereas your arguments hinge on no evidence and you think that is preferable.
BTW, Zoroastrianism far pre-dates Plato. If I have any complaint with the excerpt it is that it seems far too Euro-centric. The Greeks learned a lot from their association with the Persians.
You're a history guy, Min. Are there any sources for the Persian/Greek connection that is as accessible as this article you would recommend? My interest in the history is to get a sense of how people experienced the world and themselves in earlier times.
Like this author, I assume that people have always used reason to understand threats and to cope. I likewise assume people probably thought of the world as a kind of adversary with intentions, embodied by gods which could be supplicated or bartered with. Some kind of meta-noia was probably what pushed our developing power to reason. It doesn't surprise me that people use that capacity for reason to make room for the god(s) they have inherited. But for me it is a real question how vital god-belief had been in becoming what we are now and what if any pay off there may be for those still able to maintain it. (Not saying I want whatever it may be, I'd just like to understand it.)
