Burning ghost wrote:I have had this nailed down for a few years now. Just curious what religious people think religion is?
Please no silly definitions pulled from dictionaries. I am talking about the origin and original purpose that has led to modern religious practices. For me religion has a very obvious and clear beginning and there is ample evidence to back this up.
From my own studies of history, in particular most recently as told by J.M. Roberts the famed UK historian and professor, now deceased, in his book "History Of The World" (Penguin Books, 2002) -- history tells us that religion has existed since ancient times. Roberts surmises that during prehistory and in the Mesolithic Age, shamen appeared everywhere and their arts were chiefly superstitious.
Is that what you are getting at?
Later on, the priestly class in various civilizations then were used by warlords, kings, and pharaohs to cement their own power, with these autocrats being declared gods or sons of gods themselves.
Or is that what you are getting at?
We don't know much about the ancient Cretans or Etruscans, but we do know the Babylonians and Egyptians into Bronze Age times continued their veneration of their leaders as gods, whereas the Phoenicians and Greeks escaped this fantasy and separated gods from men. The Phoenicians and Greeks subsequent colonized the Mediterranean and thus religion and government became separate there.
The Greeks venerated their Pantheon enough to put Socrates to death when he mocked their gods and corrupted their youth.
The Romans venerated their Pantheon enough to persecute and slaughter early Christians of the first 2 centuries of the Present Era (A.D.) who did not bow down or make offerings to any Roman gods. By now certain Caesars again were declaring themselves to be gods or sons of gods however, and so thus being Christian became treasonous.
This all finally changed when Constantine issued his edict of tolerance for Christianity and all religions, which then married church and state in the Roman Empire starting at 325 A.D.
Would that be what you are getting at?
Anyway, by then Judaism was in decline and the Jews had been cast out of their capital, Jerusalem. Islam was born about 300 years later in the Arabian peninsula. Shinto would develop about that time in Japan as well. All the other major world religions in the East were already going strong.
When Rome split, and the Western Empire fell, Christianity survived there. The books and libraries of Rome did not suffer the same fate as Alexandria Egypt did time and again.
There was a long era of corruption under the Western Popes in Rome which led ultimately to the Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther around 1520.
From that point on, Christianity was divided into 3 schisms -- Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant. This has not changed. This is where we still are today, with Catholicism and Orthodox somewhat regulated out of Rome and Istanbul, but with Protestantism foot loose and fancy free everywhere else.
The English, Dutch, and German Protestants stopped taking orders from Rome anymore, and the age of colonization of North America began, and Empiricist Philosophy gave rise to revolution in North America and in France.
So what had religion become and what is it now? It is mostly an opiate for the masses.
People use religion to find spouses and get married and raise their kids. These are ordinary homespun people and religion provides them with their only available philosophy. Jesus is Immanuel Kant for most of them. And God has become their Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
Today in America the GOP uses religion to woo votes. The other major party (DEM's) tends to avoid religion and woo anyone else who wants to keep church and state still separate under the 1st Amendment. Thus the GOP becomes anti same sex marriage while the DEM's are pro, for example.
Now tell us what YOU think. And don't forget to spell out WHY you think that way, and WHAT are your supporting data?
- By Pattern-chaser
- By Stoppelmann
- By Cathal