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Post by geode on Mar 21, 2019 16:30:11 GMT
"In the search for a unifying theory to explain this trait of human evolution, many anthropologists settled on the “moralizing god hypothesis,” which argues that belief in a judgmental, all-seeing figurehead precedes the arrival of complex society. Popular religions hinge on the idea that humans may be punished if they do not follow a moral code (the kind that keeps you from killing your neighbor, or stealing their bread). That rule even applies to creeds without a deity — think karma in Buddhism. Dozens of studies since the early 2000s have offered support for that hypothesis. But a new international project suggests the opposite — that our desires to appease a moral god tended to develop long after a society formed. Their new study, published March 20 in Nature, evaluated records from 414 societies from 30 regions around the world that span the past 10,000 years of human history." "Aside from detailing when humans go from thinking “the gods are angry!” to the “gods are angry and it’s my fault,” the study provides a blueprint for exploring how other aspects of society evolved. Is inequality an early feature in the development of society, or is it born once a society has already coalesced? What about warfare, or music?" Link |
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Post by CoolJGS☺ on Mar 21, 2019 17:00:24 GMT
I would tend to agree that appeasement would be a slight reason to form society. It would like be used as a tool to keep a society in line and mirroring the expectations God placed on Israel.
That would be separate from belief which I believe predate society
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Post by lowtacks86 on Mar 21, 2019 17:08:03 GMT
It really depends on how you're defining society. Even our primitive hominid ancestors typically lived in groups/packs, it was a good survival mechanism. Conversely I'm sure they had no idea what the sun was and probably believed it to be some sort of god or other supernatural force.
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Post by Isapop on Mar 21, 2019 17:23:42 GMT
It really depends on how you're defining society. Even our primitive hominid ancestors typically lived in groups/packs, it was a good survival mechanism. The study described in the link deals with societies much more complex than that, and suggests that the moral, punishing gods only come on the scene once those societies are established. (The link also presents reasons for skepticism of this hypothesis.)
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Post by thefleetsin on Mar 21, 2019 18:12:11 GMT
party like a palestinian at a meat packing plant
if
your definition of divine rights
comes
anywhere near
the
real estate
we all hold ever so dear
then
by all means
exponentially ratchet up the fears
to match the
equal number of queers
you saw last weekend
at that gay bar
you would never be caught dead
going to
because i've blown through
more
devout jews
than that moses dude
had following him to the seaside property
that magically
is now
home sweet home.
sjw 03/21/19 inspired at this very moment in time by benny and our jets.
from the 'blitzkrieg series' of poems
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Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2019 1:16:24 GMT
Interesting. I always assumed that religion and religious thinking predated society, that it was a result of our desire to find explanations for things even if we have to make bad explanations up. Fascinating to think that it was more a result of the creation of wider societies.
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Post by CoolJGS☺ on Mar 22, 2019 1:29:31 GMT
The notion of appeasing a god is not the same thing as belief in that god.
Appeasement would be based on rule sets and even in Scripture, that ruleset was pretty slight prior to the Mosaic Law and was actually already based on a cultural standard as opposed to religious one.
Yes, the followers of God took extra steps of appreciation, but that wasn;t really reflected by society at large.
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Post by Zos on Mar 22, 2019 11:37:03 GMT
Society just needs at it's beginnings a basic form of dualism to explain why crops succeed/fail. Make the Sun the time of good and the dark the time of bad, allocate strange powers to them and call them Gods. Have a "bad" figure to explain why things go wrong. It's not difficult with a basic society.
What is bizarre is why it survives much beyond primitive society and that must be explained by people who want to use it to exert power or to gain privilege. Hence the huge wealth and power of organised religions and their insistence on getting rid of any "gnostic" insular type faith systems that preclude them more.
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Post by maya55555 on Mar 23, 2019 5:05:21 GMT
Cemeteries.
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Post by Rodney Farber on Mar 23, 2019 11:37:19 GMT
“Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool” – Mark Twain
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