Do you think religion has been molded by social evolution?

S

Sir Lucius

Veteran XX
Spin off of the other topic, but just a personal thought of mine.

It's intersting that every tribe, culture, scociety of a backwater country has developed in one way or another a religion that governs their morals. Many people would explain this as a fear of death, and to a degree that may be true, but I belive there are other elements as well.

Let's look at death first though. Humans are obviously social creatures so in the beginning (we're assuming the bible is made up by the way) I'm sure early humans expirenced a form a grief too. Like if their entire family was eaten by a sabertooth or trampled to death by a mammoth. That aside they also feared what would happen when they die. Thus the afterlife.

But there seems to be morals that shaped their crazy rituals as well. Sex for example. When people go around fucking anyone and everyone they often develop stds (random thought, but do other animals get stds? :shudder: )So religeon said, "no more of that, no sex till marriage!" Or whatever have you, those who followed the religeon were not struck by god's wrath in their most private of places.

Also the jews do a lot of crazy shit, like the not eating pork thing. That came about b/c the pigs had a disease or something, I don't know the details, but their dietary restictions are really molded on the health standards of an acenient time.


So here we are today, killing God with science. I wonder what that means socially as a people? Will we exist like animals and just accept life for what it is? Will we destroy ourselves without a guidence (victims of our very own abilities to think)?

No point I'm trying to make here, just something thought provoking.
 
You should take a course in cultural anthropology. Religion is something that is found to be a cultural universal, which means it is found in just about every culture that has ever existed. As to that, these 'segments' of culture, like kinship, economics, marriage and family, religion, food gathering, the list goes on... but what you find about all of these is that they are all integrated and affect each other. IE. the way food resources are gathered or produced affects the religion and how the family structure works. Max Weber, who wrote on many religions and their affect on society, has one book called "The protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism". If you're interested in how religion can have varied affects on other aspects of culture and vice versa, I would suggest picking it up.
In India, you find that religion has permeated the way of life. It brought about the castes, which in turn effects marriage and family structure and also the economy.
The other thing you find about culture, is that it is always evolving to meet the needs of the environment. And as all parts of a society or culture are integrated, when one aspect is changed to adapt to the environment, the change will become systematic and begin effecting the other aspects or institutions. For instance, during the neolithic age, when agriculture was brought about, this left more free time for the development of specialized skills. Also, it caused the average size of families to increase, as more labor was needed. This is also where you see polygyny come in. As per religion, agriculture is inherently succeptible to changes in the environment, and this brought about superstitous beliefs, and beliefs that worship and sacrifice could please the gods, and prevent them from destroying the crop.

The resources on this topic are endless, I would suggest you take a class in comparative religions also... you begin to see how they're really all the same in some ways. Though there is marked ideologies.

Also, there was a recent book put out, which I havent been able to read yet, but it's called "Why God won't go away", it's written by a couple of psychologists, who take part in a field of study known as "neurotheology" One of the things they talk about is how, in meditation, wheter among christian nuns or buddhist monks, what happens is blood flow, and hence "conciousness" shifts from the parietal part of the brain, which is connected with "situational awareness" to the frontal lobes, where rational thought takes place... pretty interesting.

What you end up finding is that study approaches the "world of human affairs" from two directions... from the individual, or from the societal view points.
 
i dont think STDs were as rampant back then, with limited societies it would be hard to develop something like that. its more likely marriage was developed as a means to limit sexual activity because of the emotional turmoil it can bring in competition.

also, great apes experience things like grief as well, so its not really a question of when early humans did. im pretty sure they always have ever since you could call them human.

"humankind has reached a turning point
poised for conflict at ground zero
ready for a war
do we look to our unearthly guide
or to white coat heroes
searching for a cure?"
 
yes, families exist to control the economic and sexual relations of it's members. In societies where families go beyond the nuclear family (ie 2 parents and kids, like in america), you find that the individual is less important than the family... and you see more arranged marriages, as what they really are is the forging of an alliance between two families. As such, marriage is hard to define, but a general definition that will work here, is that it's a socially approved relation between man and woman for sexual and economic matters. As they will be producing new members of society, it is important for society to approve of this union and it's offspring, thus enabling society to absorb the offspring into it's culture.
 
Do you think religion has been molded by social evolution?

Absolutely, IMO.
Religion is an adaptation to the social/political/geographical etc. environment, as Faze said.
Not to say that it can't also be Maladaptive occasionally though... ;)
 
Gangrel said:
i dont think STDs were as rampant back then, with limited societies it would be hard to develop something like that. its more likely marriage was developed as a means to limit sexual activity because of the emotional turmoil it can bring in competition.

also, great apes experience things like grief as well, so its not really a question of when early humans did. im pretty sure they always have ever since you could call them human.

"humankind has reached a turning point
poised for conflict at ground zero
ready for a war
do we look to our unearthly guide
or to white coat heroes
searching for a cure?"
Click to expand...
There have always been STDs, not to mention that many other diseases ran rampant thoughout the ancient world.
Why do you think the life expectancy topped out at 40 back then?

No unearthly guide has ever done anything for me, but I have frequently reaped the benifits of the hard work of many "white coat heroes" as you call them. :shrug:
 
eh somehow i doubt it.. in a highly nomadic culture there wouldnt be enough intermixing for a rampant spread of STDs.. i mean sure they existed, but i doubt they were the reasoning


and thats a song, not some personal belief
 
Gangrel said:
eh somehow i doubt it.. in a highly nomadic culture there wouldnt be enough intermixing for a rampant spread of STDs.. i mean sure they existed, but i doubt they were the reasoning


and thats a song, not some personal belief
Click to expand...
Well that's the point. Religion developed these ideas when people switched from a nomadic lifestyle to a stationary agricultural one.

What song is that?
 
Gangrel said:
eh somehow i doubt it.. in a highly nomadic culture there wouldnt be enough intermixing for a rampant spread of STDs.. i mean sure they existed, but i doubt they were the reasoning


and thats a song, not some personal belief
Click to expand...
The only CD I've bought in the last year was Dream Theater. :eek:

ed: The song is "The Great Debate" from the album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence btw Neek.
 
Thx Kelster.
BTW where is my Vet2 status? I was supposed to graduate to the higher plane of TW Whoreness today. :(
 
dream theater == best band ever

great debate is specifically about stem cell research, but i thought it was a nice line for the argument.
 
Neek said:
Thx Kelster.
BTW where is my Vet2 status? I was supposed to graduate to the higher plane of TW Whoreness today. :(
Click to expand...
I heard it was fighting its way upstream to lay eggs in the river of its birth, but that was a while ago. I hope it gets here soon. I'm a bit worried. :[
Gangrel said:
dream theater == best band ever

great debate is specifically about stem cell research, but i thought it was a nice line for the argument.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I agree. :]
 
Sir Lucius said:
So here we are today, killing God with science. I wonder what that means socially as a people?
Click to expand...

It's called culture lag, their beliefs and rituals are stuck in a certain period while socially their culture is accepting new forms of 21st century ideals and businesses. If the people in question cannot adapt than the gap between faith and reality will grow bigger until a breakdown occurs.

this coming from taking one sociology class in college :)
 
Kelster said:
I heard it was fighting its way upstream to lay eggs in the river of its birth, but that was a while ago. I hope it gets here soon. I'm a bit worried. :[
Click to expand...
:huh: is my vet2 status a salmon now?
I think it may be time to lay off the petroleum fumes there kelster... ;)
 
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