Posted by garnet71 on March 23, 2009, at 10:41:00
In reply to Depression as a brain homeostatic reset, posted by linkadge on March 20, 2009, at 18:45:13
I thought it was worth mentioning, Linkadge, that some believe man created religion--but to some, that doesn't mean there is no God.
Religions coincide with changes in society. That's why in agricultural societies, people prayed to rain gods, etc., and organized their religions around harvests. Later on when people congregated in cities, it became political and means to gain power, and to gain followers that comprised an army - hence you're going to hell if you don't become a member of this church and offerings. Narcisstic leaders had used it to control people. Slavery and oppression again, brought about another type of religion---the concept of a savior.
But also, people, long ago, had to deal with famines and plagues and death on a massive scale, hence the development of an entity that punished them-it was a way to deal with all the hardship and an attempt to control the world around you-nature. People had hope because if they thought they did good deeds, bad things wouldn't happen. AFter that, in the englightment period (i think that's the one-or the Renaissance), is when people started turning to science as a means to explain the world around them and control nature. Building dams was one example. This eventually led to the current trend where many scientists don't believe in God. Of course, many scientists do believe in God-but in my personal experience, it's less common than outside of the science world.
Humans develop culture-beliefs, values, that help us explain the world around us. So when the world changes, religion changes.
Now that online connections are growing, I'd expect physical churches to become less common in 50 years, and big shift from religion to spirituality-just a guess.
I'm no anthropologist-so I'm not good at explaining how I look at this and articulating all the stuff in my head, but religion is a huge interest to me and wanted to share.
Humans will always look for creative ways to engage hope and to deal with pain. So in much of a sense, religions make us more human.
poster:garnet71
thread:886279
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090322/msgs/886664.html