Why is it that most (all??) societies we've ever heard of around the world and back in history seem to have

Question

worshipped a higher power of some kind, whether it be a Sun God, a Thunder God, maybe an Apollo, maybe Totems, maybe a Rainbow Serpent, maybe the God of Israel, maybe Allah (the same??), or maybe even the Virgin Mary, Egyptian Pharohs etc. etc. Do human beings have an inate drive to worship something that maybe cannot be Scientifically proved??? and why in this day and age does it seem a lot think it is an either/or question re God and evolution. Please explain.

Yes Mirko but are some Gods maybe more "real" than others. I am mainly asking are we somehow preprogrammed to contemplate a Higher Being and then down the ages work out that people long gone were wrong re their totems, being rowed across the river of death by the ferryman and all that type of thing??????

so Damddirt what you are saying here is that if you don't drink alcohol you will not be religious. Does this mean that the fundies are all drinkers????? (that is just a joke people!!). So did the people of even long gone societies not have the capacity to contemplate the wonders of their environment and whys and wherefores unless they were pissed???

Answer 1

It's the human condition to figure out why things work the way they do. This includes why humans are the way they are, and where they come from, and also a desire to make/test/rely on predictions such as X action should produce Y result, which lies at both the roots of science and magic.

A belief in Deity/totems etc, (ie the supernatural) does not preclude a "kind" of "scientific analysis". To me I see a great deal of similarity between system analysis, where complex systems are broken up into smaller units, and Animism. (in Animism it can be said that the "boxes" which do "information processing" can be considered alive/having a soul, where as in engineering, the processing is seen as being dictated by those who designed/created/evolved the system.) That then produces the inevitable, and really when you look at it closely, un-provable, debate about just what is "in charge" and how much control it exerts over the system as a whole.

When people lack a term to describe an idea they feel to be brilliant (an eureka moment) they tend to describe it as having properties in common with the best/greatest/biggest thing they know of. just look at the reviews of technological gadgets for an idea of just what I mean. In the ancient world, the Sun was seen to be a very good thing. Thunder was/is still very loud. Rainbows are pretty. (Not quite sure how totems fit in. I need to find out more about them)

If you don't understand how something works, but trust it to get on with it, you can end up performing something analogous to worshipping the thing. Many people don't understand how cars work, so they provide them with offerings, things like fuel, and maybe the odd new tire, (maybe furry dice?) and 99% of the time the car works fine. As they don't know "the big-end" from "the little end", they entrust the regular preventative ritual of having the car serviced to a mechanic, who for so long as the car continues to work, as far as the car's owner is concerned might as well be a priest. It's only if the ritual ceases to work do they consider changing religion/mechanic

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The remit/areas that science covers does not include topics covered by religion. Nor should it be claimed that science can ever answer religious questions. Religion covers many areas, ofter vague in scope. It's understandably that "religion" tends to get "a bit upset", when its careful deliberations regarding scientific result, is rendered obsolete by a new scientific discovery.

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damddirtyape212 has an example of something which happened. I wonder, how those people explained/remembered what happened to make the alcoholic brew. They didn't have knowledge of yeasts, so must have relied on a Lambic brew, where you don't need to add yeast seperately (it's allready there in/on the ingreadients, or it falls out of the air).

A friend of mine figured out that the story of how Odin got the Mead of Inspiration is (a convouted version of) a fully working Lambic brew She doesn't mind the recipe being given away so this is what you do. Make a wort of 1 parts honey to 3 parts water. Take an unsprayed apple (probably best if it's a cider apple, as they are known to have potent yeasts, and if started sometime in the summer) and float it in the wort. Put a little cracked wheat into the mix. Cover the bowl with cling film, and leave untill about Hallowene, at which point the yeast has eaten into the apple, giving it a distintive "cruchy" texture. (you can do apple bobbing to fish the apples out!) Take some of the mix, making sure that you get some of the sediment, and you are ready to make more mead, or get your friends started, by topping it up with more wort. So long as the brew is diluted by new wort, every few weeks or so, the yeast never dies off, and the brewing process contiues indefinately. (I've not come accross anyone who's been badly affected by the live yeast, and it's a great way of being a good host for Heathen blots. You can even use the mead to make a really good bread without adding yeast per se)

How would you explain why this recipy works, without invoking the existance of yeasts?

Answer 2

reality is our own invention, therefore there are no false perceptions. i don't wonder about it at all, the only way "music has sucked since the 80's" is a valid statement is if one has listened to all music made since then. otherwise, how do you know? sure, there are lots of people that get hung up on the label and genre thing to the point that they limit themselves musically. each person defines what is or is not music for themselves, i don't think there is anything false about that, unless someone is defining music for them. i'm sure extreme metal is inspiring, new, and exciting, i'll take your word for it. i'll just throw this out...i was born in 1957, and i have recollection of hearing music in 61 and 62. there is an incredible amount of music i have heard and seen by an equally incredible amount of bands and "artists". even at that there is an even more incredible amount of music i haven't heard. with the internet i've come across an awful lot of music i have never heard, or maybe heard just a few times. most of the time purely by accident. no matter what year they were from, some of those little discoveries were just as inspirational, new, and exciting to me as if they had been released 2/15/11. yeah, there are lots of people that are narrow minded enough to refuse to acknowledge that another person could be capable of enjoying something they don't. and there are a lot of people that feel they have to fight, gnashing at the teeth, defending the music they cherish. i've seen it here in R&P, it cracks me up. it's music, not 10 rounds of bare knuckle boxing. now, most importantly. don't believe that oliver stone hollywood crap. the late 60's were not all peace, love, dope, and rock and roll like they would have you believe. i remember 1968, if you didn't get killed in the tet offensive you probably got your head bashed in by the chicago police. many people thought america was falling apart. there was nothing naive about that, and it changed many people's minds about that changing the world thing. music reflected that change just like you said. ma4: you can't measure creativity, if it's creative to you then it's present. *yes, but green acres, laugh in, and the partridge family were an escape from the troubles of the times. besides am top 40 radio and other variety shows, conservative ed sullivan was one of the few places where many of us could see and hear great musical acts of the day.

Answer 3

The way I see it is that with hard times, bad weather, and unfruitful planting people before science, would tend to hold an outside entity responsible for the losses and gains of life. It made the fact that we couldn’t really control our surroundings that much more simple to deal with. Most people would just say “It’s ‘fill in the blank’s’ will” and hope for something better. Although there are many religions were you can sway the gods will there are just as many were your helpless. Most times what adds to a Deity’s design is the weather and land. If the weather is harsh and cold so are the deities; where as if the land is warm and tropical we find gods who a bit more compassionate. Of course that’s not across the board and I’m not a scholar. Hope it helps some!

Answer 4

The simplest answer would be that, whenever man ran into a question he could not find the answer to himself, he looked to another for it (where did the sun come from, why am I here, who came up with the idea for rice krispies anyway?)

The more knowledge man gains, the more questions he ends up creating, and believing in a 'God' (basically a vast database of knowledge) allows man to forgoe an endless search of answering questions constantly, in order that he may spend his time simply being. In many ways, a belief in God acts as a stopgap: "whatever I don't know, God will tell me about later."

As for whether or not God can be proven scientifically or not, it does seem rather ridiculous that a creator (whoever one may believe it to be) can create light but not know the exact speed at which it travels, or understand that wavelength corresponds to color. One can easily postulate that science and faith approach 'God' from two different but parallel, and eventually conjoining, perspectives (smell the flowers or calculate how tall they grow, classify them by color and pollen dispersal.)

As for the debate between God and evolution, one might consider it better as a debate between faith and rationality. In many ways, to have faith is to be 'rational' before the explanation, while rationality requires it afterwards (the explanation must make sense first.)

Answer 5

Let me address the second part of your answer first.

The theological aspect of your question has been pondered by many, many scholars and for many lifetimes. Someone can dedicate their life to one aspect of one question and still not come up with a conclusive, simple answer. You cannot arrive at a simple, concise answer because there is not one.

Now for the first part. What has most all societies that have ever existed had that is common to all of them? The answer is:

ALCOHOL!!!

Every society has been able to distill some sort of alcoholic beverage ever since God created Adam and Eve or ever since the first monkey picked up a stick and killed another monkey (thereby creating the human race). Throughout history; both advanced and primitive societies have been able to make something to drink.

Answer 6

It's the need to think someone is guiding us, that we do have a purpose on this earth. It's also the fear of thinking just the opposite- that maybe we were just created by some big bang and we're just coincidentally here.

I can understand why people fear the latter, but I'm a little more realistic than that. I'm fine with knowing we're coincidentally here. I don't feel like a part of my life is missing because I don't believe in a God, instead I try and make sense of what is real, and what can be proven true.

Answer 7

There are lots of schools of thought on this one. The most objective answer I have heard is that humans have a built-in need to understand their origins. The proliferation of creation "myths" (myths in this context meaning stories, not urban legends) throughout history can be thought of as humans' method of trying to understand from where they came. This concept fits with God, Allah, Zeus, and the theory of evolution. Whatever you believe, the underlying concept shows that humans were, and are, curious about life's origins.

Answer 8

DEAR VERA,

IT'S SO SIMPLE.

IN THE BEGINNING EVERY UN EXPLAINED NATURAL PHENOMENA WAS ASSIGNED A NAME. BECAUSE OF THEIR UNEXPLAIN- ABILITY AND THEIR POWER, THEY ALSO BECAME DIETIC.

AS SCIENCE IMPROVED, SOME OF THESE UNEXPLAINABLES WERE EXPLAINED AND LOST THEIR DIETIC STATURE.

"IF GOD DID NOT EXIST IT WOULD BE NECESSARY FOR MAN TO INVENT HIM", EVER HEAR THAT?

IN MAN'S QUEST FOR UNDERSTANDING, THERE ARE STILL UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENAS.THAT EXIST.

WHERE DID WE COME FROM AND WHY DO WE EXIST?

IT NEVER ENDS.

GOD IS NOT THE ANSWER, HE'S THE QUESTION.

THIS IS WHAT MOST PEOPLE BELIEVE, "GOD IS THE ANSWER", HE'S THE QUESTION. COMPRENDE?

IT'S ALL A BUNCH OF CRAP. ANOTHER WAY OF CONTROLLING THE MASSES.

IF THE GOVERNMENT CAN'T GET THEM, GOD WILL.

COME ON WITH THESE QUESTIONS. CHOOKY DANCERS, JIG SAW PUZZLES, NOW THIS!

OH MY goD!

WHY IS GOD SPELLED BACKWARDS DOG.

"DOG", NOW THERE'S SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN!

GET SOME REST. TRY TO COME UP WITH A BETTER QUESTION TOMORROW.

Answer 9

Blame the invention of fire while sitting around the fire you become warm and see forms in the flames[try it it works] when you relax enough you enter to higher potions of your brain[thinking becomes clearer and solutions to problems/questions come to you]they gave it a name and called it god.

Answer 10

It would take a little too long to elaborate. However, the conclusion would be: because there is SOMETHING about it. God/gods is/are real - it's our loss we refuse to see it.