3 ms·
Which is not a bad thing. Religion developed to cope with the unavoidable misery of human existence through a coordinated belief in an imaginary afterlife free
by msamwald 9y ago
Which is not a bad thing.
Religion developed to cope with the unavoidable misery of human existence through a coordinated belief in an imaginary afterlife free of that misery.
Enlightenment, science and technology showed us that most of this misery could be alleviated by advancing our technologies and social structures, while also revealing the imaginary nature of ideas of an afterlife.
The tragic thing is that we might live in the worst time of all: religion is obsolete, yet the transformative changes possible through technology might very well stay out of reach during our lifetimes.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Balgair 9y ago> Religion developed to cope with the unavoidable misery of human existence through a coordinated belief in an imaginary afterlife free of that misery. Maybe. Gobekli Tepe is turning out to be very surprising, and it's only 10% uncovered. There may be even more paradigm shifting things in that rubble. I'd treat your thesis as theory for now and wait to see what we'll dig up. Not saying you are wrong at all, but big things are afoot in religo-paleontology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe
- wu-ikkyu 9y agoWhat about Gobekli Tepe indicates otherwise? It is supposed that it was constructed by hunter-gatherers, which typically worshipped the animals they hunted as idols. Such animals have been found engraved into the ruins.
- Balgair 9y agoMy reply was to say that such strong statements about humans and religion are perhaps unwise at this time, considering we may be going through a paradigm shift in our understanding at this time. The statement is not wrong, per se, but caution is advised.