Evolution of religion.

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21 May 2008, 4:21 am

Is religion still evolving.

For example everybody used to think that the earth was flat. The church also agreed that the earth was flat, but the church had to change their opinion like everbody else.

The bible was written a long time ago, some things in it maybe a bit out of date. Maybe it could be updated or something.

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Izaak
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21 May 2008, 9:49 am

It is, but not in the sense you suggest.

The first "religious thought" was animism. That is, the elevation of animal qualities to mythic proportion. Such practices include eating tiger claws for ferocity, or elephant brains for memory and wearing their skins to give their qualities.

This progresses through shamanism and things like wiccans or other celtic religions. In the western world we progress to monotheism and the eventual deification of things like weather gods (because animals no longer rule the lives, the season do) so we have rain gods and sun gods and earth gods. The transition from those gods (which the eastern religions never really progressed from) is of course, monotheism.

So in essence religion has evolved. But it's evolution is not the progression of Catholicism from flat earthers to young earthers to old earthers. It is more from mysticism to monotheism.

The basic error is still the same of course.

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21 May 2008, 11:06 am

No doubt. From tiger claws to cookies they call Christ. At least cookies won't become extinct.

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21 May 2008, 11:17 am

We as human beings are evolving. That's not to say we're always necessarily improving, but we are changing. For the most part, religion is a conservative force in that it resists change. If individual religions are changing, I suspect they do it largely to stay alive, or the "old believers" just die off with time.

But no, I wouldn't say religion is prone to evolving; it just rbegrudgingly reflects the process of human evolution by virtue of being a human institution.

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21 May 2008, 1:31 pm

MR_BOGAN wrote:

The bible was written a long time ago, some things in it maybe a bit out of date. Maybe it could be updated or something.

iamnotaparakeet
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21 May 2008, 2:26 pm

MR_BOGAN wrote:

For example everybody used to think that the earth was flat. The church also agreed that the earth was flat, but the church had to change their opinion like everbody else.

It was a matter of accepting the Science of the day, which was mostly based on the conjecture of the Greeks. BTW, it was geocentrism, not a flat earth that was the issue.

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21 May 2008, 2:27 pm

Religion had it's origins in naive animism based on projecting aspects of human social reality on non-human objects, that is thinking there are spirits, gods, demons, and other supernatural intelligences in everything. As human societies developed and became more complex this animism was abstracted into polytheism. Finally, during the period from 800BC to 200AD the rise of the various Old World philosophical traditions led to the emergence of the notion of "laws of nature" (Natural Law, Karma, Dualism of Good and Evil, Astrology, etc.) that weakened the notion of intelligent supernatural beings everywhere, leading to the emergence of monotheism (a single transcendent god, the basis of the Abrahamic religions) and pantheism (the cosmos is god, the basis of most eastern religions).

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21 May 2008, 2:30 pm

iamnotaparakeet wrote:

MR_BOGAN wrote:

For example everybody used to think that the earth was flat. The church also agreed that the earth was flat, but the church had to change their opinion like everbody else.

It was a matter of accepting the Science of the day, which was mostly based on the conjecture of the Greeks. BTW, it was geocentrism, not a flat earth that was the issue.

And the Catholic Church has based it's philosophy on that of Aristotle, which is why they went after Galileo, an attack on Aristotelian physics and cosmology was as attack on church doctrine.

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iamnotaparakeet
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21 May 2008, 2:38 pm

Odin wrote:

Stocism was pantheistic and was not Eastern. I have read Cicero, On the Nature of the gods and it is quite informative as to the philosophical/theological issues of the Stoics and Epicureans. Atheism also has its roots in ancient Greece.

Quote:

Protagoras doubted whether there were any. Diagoras the Melian and Theodorus of Cyrene entirely believed there were no such beings.

Quote:

What think you of Diagoras, who was called the atheist; and of Theodorus after him? Did not they plainly deny the very essence of a Deity? Protagoras of Abdera, whom you just now mentioned, the greatest sophist of his age,

iamnotaparakeet
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21 May 2008, 2:40 pm

Odin wrote:

iamnotaparakeet wrote:

MR_BOGAN wrote:

For example everybody used to think that the earth was flat. The church also agreed that the earth was flat, but the church had to change their opinion like everbody else.

It was a matter of accepting the Science of the day, which was mostly based on the conjecture of the Greeks. BTW, it was geocentrism, not a flat earth that was the issue.

And the Catholic Church has based it's philosophy on that of Aristotle, which is why they went after Galileo, an attack on Aristotelian physics and cosmology was as attack on church doctrine.

Basically, basing doctrine on something so flimsy causes such mistakes.

tharn
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22 May 2008, 12:25 pm

iamnotaparakeet wrote:

Basically, basing doctrine on something so flimsy causes such mistakes.

I find it's a problem with doctrine in general - especially based on authority. If you tell people, "you must believe this book/person word-for-word because it's absolutely infallible," and then someone comes by later and says, "Hey wait a minute! Have you considered blah blah blah..." then even if they are making REALLY GOOD SENSE, you have to call them a liar and probably kill them. Otherwise people start questioning the authority and thinking for themselves!

I find that real Truth isn't threatened by being questioned, in fact it tends to get clearer when questioned. If you have to cloak Truth in a doctrine and then punish dissenters as heretics, then either your grasp of Truth is poor... or you're trying to bully people into being sheep.

history_of_psychiatry
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22 May 2008, 12:28 pm

Religion is indeed evolving little by little. People now more than ever before are taking their religious texts and dogma with a grain of salt. As time goes on, so does the intelligence of humans (i hope).

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oscuria
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23 May 2008, 7:41 pm

Religion doesn't evolve, only the people do.

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oscuria
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23 May 2008, 7:42 pm

history_of_psychiatry wrote:

As time goes on, so does the intelligence of humans (i hope).

I believe you meant arrogance.

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24 May 2008, 1:16 am

Well from what i read from scavenging the Vatican's archive for ethic considerations regarding new technologies that promote human fertility, at least they adapt. =/

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26 May 2008, 2:45 pm

Hopefully more spiritual than religious
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