(October 25, 2021 at 5:29 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: When considering the full breadth of observed phenomena, is it any wonder that hindus imagined a bunch of middle managers? "Fuck, this is alot"..said one, "yeah, must be whole organization", said the other. It's part and parcel to theism, to imagining gods and fundamental forces..as people.
I think the reason for that is that people start with curiosity.
"What is that?"
"Why does the wind blow?"
"What is lightning?"
etc.
The scientific answers are too complex, difficult to discover, very time consuming to discover, and it requires equipment.
Ancient humans went with the lowest hanging fruit: “Some guy is doing it.”
1. So, I think these old religions started with animism.
2. Eventually, they get upgraded to the status of superhumans.
3. Eventually, someone decides to create various stories about them interacting with humans or interacting with each other.
4. Someone decides to carve a statue or draw a picture. They always seem to look like human. Sometimes, they have a dog head, elephant head, crocodile head, bird wings.
They are essentially a combination of things that humans see in their environment.
For example, they don’t put a rocket pack on them.
They don’t have glasses.
They don’t have a pocket watch.
They don’t have a pocket calculator or iphone.
5. At some point, someone decides that the bad weather, diseases and other problems are caused by upset gods or upset spirits.
They think that perhaps they can make a deal or become friends with a gods. They offer gifts. They offer food or they give a human to them by killing them.
So, you end up with the idea of sacrificing.
For example, in the Tanakh, the jewish god wants Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abraham was about to do it. The god is happy that he was going to do it and finally tells him not to do it. He gives him a goat to sacrifice.
6. In the case of judaism, they have fused their gods in 1 guy. In the case of Zoroastrianism, they have fused their evil gods into 1 evil god and they have fused their good gods into 1 good god.
This makes 1 or 2 super duper ultra god.
Humans like to worship power.
It’s also difficult for a human to memorize hundreds of god names and the stories that go along with them. Reducing it to 1 god also reduces the stories and it makes it easier to remember.
7. The evolution of religion is part of the evolution of humans. Eventually, science gets developed enough and comes into conflict with the claims of religions.
Along with science, you have skepticism and logical thinking.
And you end up with forums like this one. We come here to enjoy the evolution.
