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« on: May 10, 2005, 05:25:10 PM »
It's all your own fault. Y'all open this door. I'm just sticking both left feet in.
Something I wrote for another board.
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The scientific problem with theology is its history. Not the religious stories and writings but the independent historical records and artifacts that give a clear and reasoned history of religion in our species.
Primitive man used the spirits of the animals, plants and rivers upon which his very existence depended as the focus of his psychological need to explain what this "life" thing was all about. We're talking Homo erectus of 300,000+- years ago not the australopithecines of way back. Homo, it is believed, had the capacity to so wonder as evidenced by his stone trinkets of ornamental value rather than as tools. Some obvious "mother earth" and “pregnant deer” statuary and the like.
In Homo sapiens this focus slowly shifted to the great powers that seemed to control all the elements of the environment. Sun, moon, sea, wind, volcanoes, thunder and like that. With the advent of agriculture and stable local populations the local god had local appeal and was structured for the close relationships of the tribe. During this period the priests arose, self proclaimed, to read the signs and interpret the actions and angers of the gods. Since humans are as humans are the neighboring tribes were of course a lesser people with lesser gods and thus it was kosher to kill their men, enslave their women and eat their children most often at the behest if not the direct commandment of the local gods as interpreted by the priests.
Joseph Campbell wrote an excellent series of books on the power of myth as religious symbology and tracing the history of religious development. He writes about the strong rulers in Mesopotamia, like Sargon Of Akkade, born of a virgin so it is proclaimed, son of the (then) greatest Mesopotamian god Enlil. Sargon went on to conquer everything he could see, declared himself the true embodiment of Enlil and had the remaining priests in his conquered cities so declare this truth after beheading the local kings and ruling high priests. He installed his daughter as High Priestess of the Temple of the goddess Nanna at Ur and in all just helped himself to all the goodies by usurping the social powers (along with the gold, granaries, and gals) that were the purview of the local priests which had accumulated their powers and riches by taking credit for good harvests and fine weather as signs of their intercession with the great gods of the past millennia and the present great god Enlil and blaming catastrophe on those unbelievers, especially tribal outsiders and their lesser gods, who brought the wrath of Enlil down upon an innocent people except now Enlil was Sargon or vice versa and it gets confusing from there. One of the first known instances of man claiming divinity.
In the history of human theology, I suppose as differentiated from Canine or Equine Theology, monotheism is the new kid on the block. Still, the first major mono-theologies, in Egypt and the Indus river valley, were tribal in origin, of, for, and by the tribe with rules, laws and sacraments; a complete cultural morality that did not apply to outsiders. The same then were adopted by and applied to the three great modern mono-theologies of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Some may argue that these are all one theology owing to their common theological godhead - the god of Abraham. Bull. But that’s another tome for another time.
There is nothing in any present religious philosophy on this planet, no tenet, no myth, no story, no attribute, no miracle that does not have precedence in some other tribal religion millennia past complete with virgin births, attaining nirvana, water walking, parting seas, lotus blossoms, halting suns, miracles of healing, plagues of disease and the infinite love of the great god for the tribe and his ordered/inspired conquests and murders of “others” in city-states and territories of those not of the tribe. Like plants and animals, religions evolved from older forms taking the myths, stories and miracles of the past and adapting them to the new sets of gods.
The crux is this.
We know this history. We know where, when and why things happened. In all that history there is nothing to indicate, to suggest or reasonably speculate that some magical being with special powers has or had any effect upon any natural, non-natural, fattening or non-fattening phenomenon, action or inaction dealing with any living or dead, non-living or non-dead, person, place or thing of any kind at any time whatsoever anywhere ever. Everything we see and have seen, everything we experience and have experienced, everything we know (incomplete as that knowledge may be) about our species and our history, and through our intellect everything we know about any and all other species and their histories since the dawn of life on this planet and still further back than that, has reasonable natural explanations without having to resort to “poof – magic happened!”
There is no reason for any type of god to exist. There has been no phenomenon anywhere at any time that can reasonably be attributed only to the magic of a supernatural sorcerer. There has been no phenomenon anywhere at any time that cannot be more reasonably attributed to natural forces than to the magic of a supernatural sorcerer. Science cannot address and has no need to address any type of god since there is nothing anywhere in nature, the earth, the heavens nor beyond that reasonably indicates any gods would, could or should exist.
If we are going to leave open as scientifically viable the wild speculation of the maybe existence of gods then we must also leave open the wild speculation that there may exist a planet in the M67 galaxy accreted wholly from Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese (the real thing; not some generic store brand) with Chives. Science cannot say there is or is not some flavor of god because science has no reason to presume that such a thing, with or without chives, would, could or should exist. Gods are a scientific non-issue.
Theology started as a psychological salve to help explain this “why” question some newly sentient beings seemed to have asked when they came down from the trees. Then it acquired the tribal pack mentality with restrictive rules, rites and sacraments. Finally, there is its usurpation by the political establishment where it seems to have gotten stuck for the past three millennia.
And since we know the history of religion, its origins, its limits, its evolution, its very reason for being, then by the same token gods should be a human intellectual non-issue as well. A reasonable dispassionate reading of the history of Human Theology must conclude the same as the scientific treatment. There is no reason for any type of god to exist. There is no evidence such a thing would, could or should exist in our lives. There is no need.
So why do religious memes persist? I’m glad you asked.
Religious memes propagate by acculturation like knowledge of how long after eating you have to wait before swimming and how many times you need to say “I love you,” before you can screw the girl. The political/social reinforcement of this acculturation continues since it seems to serve a useful purpose in morally stabilizing and mollifying the sizable populations (hundred of millions) that now exist as “the tribe.”
No, I’m not saying a sinister government is perpetrating a religious hoax upon the populous. Our society, our culture, sees the propagation of religious memes as a good and necessary adjunct to the secular constraints on our actions by modern governance. In other words our society sees religion as helping secular governance keep us from eating each other.
That prevailing view is bogus. Religious memes really aren’t necessary and detract and separate more than they add and meld. Secular governance does quite well on its own. In fact it does better the freer and farther it spreads. Again, another tome for another time.
But we are going to have one hell of a time getting rid of religious memes. Some memes, like that really stinky advertising ditty that you absolutely hate, just keep pounding the inside of your head no matter what you do to get rid of them. Religion is a societal meme that is pounding within the collective heads of the broader global tribes and just won’t go away. Pity.