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EEEEthical Philosophythical Philosophythical Philosophythical Philosophy…In Practice…In Practice…In Practice…In Practice

Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense

Topic for April 26, 2015

What We Owe To Organized Religion

The ININININEVITABILITY EVITABILITY EVITABILITY EVITABILITY of Religious CCCCONCEPTSONCEPTSONCEPTSONCEPTS

And How And How And How And How Organized Organized Organized Organized Religion Created Religion Created Religion Created Religion Created Our Our Our Our Human Human Human Human World World World World

Summary

In An Atheists History of Relief, the author begins with the

somehow-startling but should-be obvious idea that

“humans are unoriginal creatures.”

“Put them in similar” (circumstances with similar) “needs and fears…and (people) will

generally come up with similar ideas about the world.” (p. 7) He explains how our religious

ideas developed from the simple arithmetic of our psychological functions, over time.

Even today, undisturbed aboriginal people invent similar world views; e.g., no society has

failed to invent gods. “There is no such thing as a new religion.” It’s how we roll.

Looking back at the ancestors in Western civilization, this is how, when and why they

invented the ideas that (even unbelievers) find very familiar today.

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The Oldest Evidence Of Religion

Evidence of our earliest belief in spirits is a 33,000 year old figurine

discovered in Southwestern Germany1. It is of a man with a lion’s head,

carved from a mammoth tusk and worn smooth by ancient fingers. The

author posits that the statue offered reassurance to its owners through

belief in alternate realities2; an invisible world of spirits that can be bribed

to help them. .

Overview

Humans have a powerful ability to imagine what others are thinking, psychologists call it Theory Of The Mind . With this ability they can imagine invisible personalities

controlling things important to them such as the weather, animals, plants, the success of

hunting, etc. These invisible personalities (commonly called spirits) are believed to have

their own goals, intentions and powers. This invisible world of invisible spirits we call

religion. The author posits that religion essentially (A) provides comfort in a painful and terrifying world and (B) reflects our worse fears.

Since humans relate to each other on the basis of reciprocity, they imagine that the same can be done with spirits. Give them what they want and they will give you what you want. (17) 3This logic leads to the universal human practice of making sacrifices, offerings or what we call today, religious contributions. It can be given in any thing of value; animals, food or human sacrifice4. Today it mostly given in money; with the

exception of a few rabbis in New York City who still kill small animals.

Religion and morality were invented at roughly the same time. But the original morality

was not between people, it was between people and gods. Of course the gods couldn’t communicate what they wanted, so for some psychological reason, they were assumed to

be spoiled two year olds. They demanded attention, adoration, obedience and simple

pleasures like the smell of roasting meat. (Check The Old Testament for a truly infantile deity.)

1 It was ironically found by in 1939 by Nazi SS archeologists, probably looking for evidence of Aryan purity. http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/23313 2 The accepted theory is the figurine represents a shaman having a vision of himself as a lion. In this trance state, induced by

drugs, dancing, rituals, psychosis, etc. he discovered another world invisible to others during normal consciousness. This invisible

world was only in his mind, but he believed and presented it as an alternate reality that was essentially reassuring. 3 The earliest known powers attributed to spirits were to (A) heal the sick, (B) control animal movements and (C) improve the

weather. (8). 4 Moloch was a very popular ancient religion that required the faithful to throw their infants into a temple fire. It is believed that

the religion was popular because of Moloch’s assumed power. If Moloch could get people to sacrifice their children, he must be a

very powerful deity. The circular logic is funny, but the modern Philosophy of Religion is based upon much the same thinking.

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Morality between people evolved from the idea that treating the gods the way they wanted to be treated was a good survival strategy.

Trance States

Altered states of consciousness are universally seen as voyages to the spirit world.

Reverie induced by hallucinogens, rituals, music, meditation,

intense prayer, speaking in tongues, etc. are all trips to

slightly different experiences of awareness. In that place, it

is believed that information could be gathered and commun-

icated back to the normal world.

Early cave paintings often show animals without hooves

because (it is thought) they were representing animal spirits in the spirit world. The

universal skull cult assumes that the spirits of the former (dead) owner communicates

with the new (living) owner. With the same odd logic applied to a child buried in the

cornerstone of a house (see footnote 7,) it assumes that the deceased would want to

protect the property of the person who killed him.

Human Sacrifice

Universally practiced, ritually killing a person of value5 as an offering to the gods6

(and/or to sanctify something) is hard wired in humans. Evidence of this practice has

been found in England as late as Shakespeare’s time.7 Human sacrifice is very popular in

America today, but is never identified as such.8 One of the marvels of the socialization

process is how something can be utterly obvious, but defined into invisibility by the

culture. (See page 9.)

The Aztecs did it on an “industrial scale,”

capturing and killing hundreds of thousands

annually from neighboring societies.

Northwestern European bogs have preserved

the bodies of many such sacrifices. The Bog Man did not work during his life and so was apparently reared to be a human sacrifice.

He was garroted and dumped into the bog.

5 virgins, children, individuals raised for that specific purpose, captured warriors, etc. 6 The following details are not in the referenced book, but come from other sources. 7 Bodies have been found buried in the cornerstones of new buildings throughout the world. The idea was that the spirit of the

decedent, usually a child, would somehow be motivated and able to protect the building. 8 The national military sacrifices young, pure and patriotic soldiers to sanctify the nation. Statutes of war heroes in every town

testify to the power of death to make holy.

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Religion, Agriculture, Cities and Writing

It had long been assumed that organized religion sprang up along side the first cities,

agriculture and writing. But perhaps the order was different. Agriculture was invented

by religions institutions (temples) through the administrative power of priests.

Organized religion came first,

through its organization agriculture was developed,

which made possible the creation of cities,

then writing and mathematics were invented to facilitate administration.

Hunter gatherers first settled down, not as farmers, but as hunter-GARDNERS.

(Agriculture is very different from gardening. Agriculture

requires organization, planning, resources, coordination,

harvesting and storage.) Cities were made possible by the

productivity of agriculture, not gardening. Agriculture was

organized by religion leaders; writing and counting were

invented to administer agriculture.

Building Religious Places

Around 9,500 BCE the inhabitants of Goebekli Tepe9 hauled10 huge stones

up to a nearby mountain summit to build a temple. In

a single construction cycle of 75 years, a dozen stones

(ten meters high and weighing ten tons) would be cut

loose, shaped, hauled up the mountain in placed in

position.

In 2,570 BCE, the Egyptians did the same amount of work every five minutes. But why?

It is now thought that hunter/gatherers in small groups needed to trust only a few

individuals, people they knew. But as societies became larger, more people had to be

trusted and relied upon. The brilliant way they (and we) found was to assume the

reliability of strangers through a shared moral code. The moral code was implanted by the shared rituals, myths, images and ceremonies of the group religion.

9 Pronounced go-BEK-li TE-pi) 10. The inhabitants didn’t live on the mountain summit in present day Turkey, only built there temple there.

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The purpose of the temples as Goebekli Tepe was to share a religious mythology, thus a

moral code of behavior. Many of their ideas are very much with us today. The concepts

of an AFTERLIFE and RESURRECTION are the foundations of modern religions today.

We know very few little about the motives of the Goebekli Tepeans, but we know a lot

about the Egyptians. The Egyptians did all that back breaking work to create a pleasant

afterlife for their pharaohs.11 The workers weren’t slaves, they were well paid

craftsmen who supported the project. Giza was a spiritual Cape Canaveral, a massive project that they believed would ultimately expand knowledge and benefit all.

The Importance of Goebelkli Tepe

Goebekli Tepe (Turkish for the potbellied hill) was built by truly Stone Age, pre-

agricultural people (12,000 years ago) They were hunter-GARDNERS just out of the

Ice Age. With their meager resources, they built stone temples, presumably to worship

their gods (animals carved in relief). Over a thousand years, they built and then buried

dozens of them. On top of each buried temple they built a smaller version. Finally they

buried the last one on top of what had by then become a small mountain. Excellent Youtube Explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFmqF7WDEHA

Religion came before agriculture and cities.

The Invention of Morality and Sin

Early religions in Mesopotamia were very complicated affairs involving hugely complex

rituals. They invented the concept of sin meaning a mistake in performing rituals. It was assumed that if you suffered a misfortune, it was because you had “sinned” (made

an error in performing the required rituals.) Spiritual judges called “daemons12” would

inflict punishment for “sins.” A guilty person could only know that he had sinned when

misfortune struck him. They assumed that “punishment was proof of guilt.” (25)

11 All Egyptians believed in a dark and dismal afterlife, but only the elite were able to live forever in bliss. 12 Plato wrote that Socrates that believed that he had a guiding daemon, which told him what to do.

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They assumed (as many do today) that the older a religious text is, the more authentic

it is13. Scholars in Nineveh collected new (old) texts. They preserved writings

describing rituals written in dead languages, not spoken at that time for 1,000 years.

Similar Religious Ideas Inevitably Develop

The author posits that there are certain religious concepts that humans will

independently invent in unrelated cultures. Everywhere humans have invented such

ideas as (1) spirits, gods, demons, etc.14 (2) a dark afterlife (3) an assumption that

trance states communicate with the spirit world, (4) making deals with the gods such as

food, animal and human sacrifice (5) a happy afterlife for the elite (6) a happy afterlife

for non-elites through their efforts, not inherited privilege (7) apocalyptic end-of-the-world scenarios creating a perfect world (8) group identification based on religions (9)

new variations invented by dissidents unhappy with the old faith

The Inevitable Afterlife

Along with spirits, all societies imagine an afterlife. At first it is always dark, dismal

and unpleasant. As living conditions improve, the elites dare to imagine a more pleasant afterlife. As conditions for the general population improve, there is democratization15 of optimism. A

happy afterlife is anticipated by non-elites aristocrats and

finally by the common people.

13 The Dead Sea Scrolls are preserved as holy objects today. 14 Witches are not universal. They appeared only in Europe and Asia. 15 It is thought that what ended the temple complex at Goebekli Tepe was this democratization. Smaller settlements built their own

temples and worshiped locally, rather than traveling all the way to Goebekli Tepe. The complex at Goebekli Tepe was gradually

buried and downsized over a 1,000 years until it was completely lost.

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New World Religions

Populations Totally Separated from Old World Cultures, Independently

Invent the Same Concepts

Human Sacrifice: (160) by the “Aztecs on an industrial scale.” (162) for “keeping

supernatural powers well disposed towards them.”

Afterlife’s Dismal: New world populations independently invented the concepts of a

dreary, dismal afterlife located under the ground. (157) In several societies they were

beneath ball courts. Sacrificial games were played above the underworld.

Afterlife’s Happy: A happy afterlife for an elect few; courageous warriors, those killed

by other societies, women in child birth, etc. (165) The Aztecs never got to a happy

afterlife, but that may have been because they were interrupted by the European

invasion.

I give An Atheists History Of Beliefs A-.

The information brings into focus the essential necessity of coordinating human efforts.

Inefficient as the individual is, in order to survive, people have to cooperate in complex

tasks. That means that someone has to tell individuals to do different tasks. (Bob, go

do X. John do Y.) Then they actually do it.

Whatever that takes

to get them to work in a coordinated effort

is necessary for their own and group survival.

By some anomaly of evolution, the brains of most people are vulnerable to believing

someone who tells them that he is getting orders from invisible beings.

Go figure!

What do you think?

Sebastian Z. Twit April 27, 2015

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Later Reflections

The Father of All Modern Religions

Zarathustra (1200 BCE) found Zoroastrianism. (36) Does any of

this sound familiar? (A) It saw the world as a struggle between

good and evil, the powers of light and darkness (B) in three

stages (paradise, the imperfect present and a later, renewed

perfection.) (C) A person’s happy afterlife depended upon his

behavior on earth and (D) bowing five times a day. (E) The world is ultimately saved by a

messiah (born of a human virgin and a god.)

Standard Religious Stages to Success

The author says that successful religions always follow similar steps to success. Do any

of these sound familiar?

(A) The founder was educated and charismatic, always selling his ideas to the less

educated poorer classes. He promises better conditions for his followers.

(B) He or his followers get the backing of the government or someone wealthy.

(C) He is posthumously promoted to the status of a god.

(D) After a few generations, the religion becomes the very thing that the founder was preaching against. (45) For example, Christ’s message turned into the

Roman Catholic Church. Buddha’s non-theistic philosophy of non-attachment became a “ritualized religion organized to satisfy the spiritual needs of the

rich elite.” (45)

(E) Schisms develop as some dissident sub-groups try to get back to the founder’s

original message.

(F) The establishment church suppresses the dissenters.

(G) Frustrated, the dissidents invent a prediction that the deity will intervene to

put things right. The dissidents come to expect an end-times event which

although terrible, leads to a happy perfection.16

16 This is surprisingly common throughout history and even today. For example, the Jewish revolt against Rome that caused the

destruction of the temple, the workers revolution and workers paradise for communists, “the Rapture” among evangelicals today, etc.

The assassination of Anwar Sadat of Egypt was based upon an end-time scenario. Allah would have been forced to intervene if

things could be brought to an intolerably bad state. This scenario is very common among traditional believers of all kinds.

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High Places and Low Places

High places (mountains, trees, pyramids, constructed mounds, church steeples etc.)

universaly seem important to religion. Where did Moses get the Ten Commandments?

On a mountain.

Low places are also frequently important. Caves are

frequently imagined as being the location of spirits, the

dead, etc. The most famous place in the Roman world was

the Oracle at Delphi. It was in or over a cave where a vent emitted subterranean gases which can cause dizziness or

hallucinations.

Culturally Defined Into Invisibility

A culture can define anything (even if it is obvious to all) into something else that serves it interests. For example, Evangelical Christians commonly believe that Jesus was pro-

family, pro-capitalism, pro-nationalism even though he specifically spoke against those

things. He is assumed to be concerned about sex, birth control, abortion, war, child

molesting, slavery, etc., even though he uttered not one whisper about them. This in the

face of the fact that evangelicals say they believe that every single word of the Bible is

literally true. When asked about this contradiction, they normally become loud and

hysterical.

We Just Do What We Do and then A Few Get Through The Keyhole

People like to believe that humans are unique, that we can adapt to new conditions. No

problem is too big, somebody will consciously invent some new technology.

This book suggests that we pretty much just do what we are programmed to do.

Historically, homo sapiens have had huge die-offs in which 99 % of mankind vanished.

Then, a tiny group with a new skill (in this case religion) spread everywhere because

there was no competition. This process is not scientific invention of new technologies,

but rather a biological innovation through massive die-offs, a useful genetic mutation, no

competition, multiplication etc.

Most hominids have not made it through their keyholes. Why should we assume that we

will make it through our next? Even if we do, we wouldn’t then be the same species.