RE: The five "R"s that probably inspired the invention of god and religion:
June 1, 2013 at 11:38 pm
(This post was last modified: June 1, 2013 at 11:38 pm by Ryantology.)
Gods were probably invented to explain what could not be explained otherwise. He has remained a placeholder explanation for everything until better explanations supersede him.
Religion, as a purposeful establishment with rules and rituals, probably was invented for the reasons you laid out, but the beliefs at the core of those religions were probably just ignorant people trying to understand things beyond everybody's observational and experimental capacities. These kinds of beliefs were probably pretty sincere and not created with ulterior motives in most instances. Believers today have little excuse for such infantile thinking, of course, but virtually all believers today gain their belief early through indoctrination or cultural osmosis and (in the monotheisms at least) cannot reject them without risking what they are told is eternal punishment.
Religion, as a purposeful establishment with rules and rituals, probably was invented for the reasons you laid out, but the beliefs at the core of those religions were probably just ignorant people trying to understand things beyond everybody's observational and experimental capacities. These kinds of beliefs were probably pretty sincere and not created with ulterior motives in most instances. Believers today have little excuse for such infantile thinking, of course, but virtually all believers today gain their belief early through indoctrination or cultural osmosis and (in the monotheisms at least) cannot reject them without risking what they are told is eternal punishment.
