How Religion Began

B

Bob the Unbeliever

cogito ergo sum
Registered Senior Member
How Religion Began.

A Fable.

Once long ago, there was a Very Lazy caveman. His name was Oog. He detested needing to go out and hunt for food every day, as it was both Hard Work and Dangerous.

However, Oog had a very good imagination. He was also a pretty persuasive speaker.

Thus, Oog discovered that he had a Talent for Explaining Why Things Happened. Oog was just imagining things out of his head, but the others in his tribe began to come to Oog to Explain Why. Why This? and Why That? and so on.

Oog quickly discovered that he could ask for a favor in return for these explanations ... and people began bringing Oog food, and he would Explain.

Oog liked this new arrangement. All he had to do was lie around all day long thinking up new Explanations for Stuff, and people would give him food!

Oog had invented the Worlds First Profession: Professional Liar. (Or Shaman/Priest/Clergy, if you prefer the vernacular.)

Thus Oog became fat and even more lazy.

This went on for many years.

Then, one day, the son of the Chief was killed, as a direct result of an Explanation of Oog's. The Chief grew quite peeved about it, and immediately had Oog killed.

But, it was Too Late: Oog's "God Virus" idea had taken hold in the tribe. Soon, Oog's son was Explaining Things ...

...

And So, the Present Day: We still have fat and lazy folk that will, for a price, Explain Things with a Convincing Voice.

And THAT is how the God Virus infected the Human Race.
 
...or a concept of God, which seems to be the only concept that is not in some way tied to perception, is "born into" the individual, is an extension of self. Then, to explain this concept, man (Oog, presumably) imposed his limited perceptions onto this concept. His perceptions and attributes that he gave to the concept of God were likely wrong, and it was this limited ability to define the unlimited that is tarnished--it is not the conception that is wrong, but the inability to define it. And then, Uug, in self-defiance, tried to mask his concept of God and paved the way for others. Out of psychological gratification, Uug pointed a long, gnarled finger at Oog and proclaimed him a Liar--also a misnomer.

Then, Tog, from another society, with different perceptions of the world around him also tried to give attributes to this concept of God "born into" him with his perceptions. And Frog, also pointed a long, gnarled finger in his struggle with self (a struggle that we all have, but choose to deal with in different ways).

And thus, the birth of the concept of God was indoctrinated into the human lexicon--a simple set of vocal articulation never intended to convey everything that we can perceive, much less that for which he conceive, but can't perceive--and also the birth of the skeptic (because for every action, there is an equal and/or opposite reaction).

Max
 
maybe somebody asked himself "why is the world here" or "why is the universe here" "why is anything here"


then he thought maybe there is a bieng that created it all like somebody created me,


peace.
 
I still prefer Douglas Adams' version of events.... :D

"Where does the idea of God come from? Well, I think we have a very skewed point of view on an awful lot of things, but let’s try and see where our point of view comes from.

Imagine early man. Early man is, like everything else, an evolved creature and he finds himself in a world that he’s begun to take a little charge of; he’s begun to be a tool-maker, a changer of his environment with the tools that he’s made and he makes tools, when he does, in order to make changes in his environment. To give an example of the way man operates compared to other animals, consider speciation, which, as we know, tends to occur when a small group of animals gets separated from the rest of the herd by some geological upheaval, population pressure, food shortage or whatever and finds itself in a new environment with maybe something different going on.

Take a very simple example; maybe a bunch of animals suddenly finds itself in a place where the weather is rather colder. We know that in a few generations those genes which favour a thicker coat will have come to the fore and we’ll come and we’ll find that the animals have now got thicker coats. Early man, who’s a tool maker, doesn’t have to do this: he can inhabit an extraordinarily wide range of habitats on earth, from tundra to the Gobi Desert—he even manages to live in New York for heaven’s sake—and the reason is that when he arrives in a new environment he doesn’t have to wait for several generations; if he arrives in a colder environment and sees an animal that has those genes which favour a thicker coat, he says “I’ll have it off him”. Tools have enabled us to think intentionally, to make things and to do things to create a world that fits us better.

Now imagine an early man surveying his surroundings at the end of a happy day’s tool making. He looks around and he sees a world which pleases him mightily: behind him are mountains with caves in—mountains are great because you can go and hide in the caves and you are out of the rain and the bears can’t get you; in front of him there’s the forest—it’s got nuts and berries and delicious food; there's a stream going by, which is full of water—water’s delicious to drink, you can float your boats in it and do all sorts of stuff with it; here’s cousin Ug and he’s caught a mammoth—mammoth’s are great, you can eat them, you can wear their coats, you can use their bones to create weapons to catch other mammoths. I mean this is a great world, it’s fantastic. But our early man has a moment to reflect and he thinks to himself, ‘well, this is an interesting world that I find myself in’ and then he asks himself a very treacherous question, a question which is totally meaningless and fallacious, but only comes about because of the nature of the sort of person he is, the sort of person he has evolved into and the sort of person who has thrived because he thinks this particular way. Man the maker looks at his world and says ‘So who made this then?’ Who made this? — you can see why it’s a treacherous question. Early man thinks, ‘Well, because there’s only one sort of being I know about who makes things, whoever made all this must therefore be a much bigger, much more powerful and necessarily invisible, one of me and because I tend to be the strong one who does all the stuff, he’s probably male’. And so we have the idea of a god. Then, because when we make things we do it with the intention of doing something with them, early man asks himself , ‘If he made it, what did he make it for?’ Now the real trap springs, because early man is thinking, ‘This world fits me very well. Here are all these things that support me and feed me and look after me; yes, this world fits me nicely’ and he reaches the inescapable conclusion that whoever made it, made it for him.

This is rather as if you imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, ‘This is an interesting world I find myself in—an interesting hole I find myself in—fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!’ This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it’s still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise."
 
EmptyForceOfChi said:
maybe somebody asked himself "why is the world here" or "why is the universe here" "why is anything here"


then he thought maybe there is a bieng that created it all like somebody created me,


peace.
Click to expand...


Why assume that someone CREATED you?

Is an assumption, like anything else, why go there?

That you EXIST can be demonstrated well enough (cognito ergo sum) but your origins are a bit more difficult: you MUST rely on witnesses, as your memory of the event is non-existent.

Moreover, these "witnesses" have their OWN agenda ... can they REALLY be trusted?

You may have made observations about OTHERS origins, may have witnessed a birth of a baby, for example.

But, are you SURE this is How It Happened for YOU?

REALLY sure?

(more food for thought ... )
 
Religion is a personal set or institutionalized system of attitudes, beliefs, and practices pertaining to the worship of many deities in the past or the worship of one "true god" today. - Religion has been around for thousands of years ever since the first organized religion was being practiced by the ancient Sumerian civilization, who believed in and worshiped many deities. - The good news is that all holy books only contain fictional stories of fictional deities and demons. - The bad news is that there are so many religions today with so many hundreds of different denominations of people who actually do believe that those fictional stories are true stories. - Through the powerful force of belief religion will always have a great influence on world affairs until the end of time.
 
Wasn't there a thread exactly like this a few weeks ago? :bugeye:
 
For goodness sake, please act like humans. - Get rid of all of your churches and public hallowed places. - Quit doing things for god and let's see if god can do it. - Besides, if there is a god then I'm sure that god doesn't need your help. Truly, ~ Bona.
 
Honesty is the key that will unlock the door that conceals the truth. However, most of the classified top secrets are being hidden from the general public for good security reasons. Yet, the sharing of more learned knowledge with people will help reduce public ignorance and lead to a broader understanding and to a united hope for the future. People will be more hopeful and loving toward each other if they feel that their own personal interests are being respected. I am a humanist at heart, but I am also a deist who hopes that people will do the right thing to fulfill their own personal responsibilities to improve all of our lives by giving love and fairness to everyone without any bias or favoritism. - http://www.positivedeism.com/deisminanutshell.html
 
Once long ago, there was a Very Lazy Atheist. His name was Bob. He detested having to constantly explain to believers why his ideology was the One True View of the Universe and theirs was fantasy, as it was unnecessarily mentally taxing; he was already quite assured of his own superiority.

However, Bob had a good imagination, and a talent for explaining things...
 
"Early man is, like everything else, an evolved creature"

"But, it was Too Late: Oog's "God Virus" idea had taken hold in the tribe."

"Another possibility is that some prehistoric humanoid not much intellectually different from us happened upon the magic of shrooms."
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God has done such a good job of hiding Himself in simplicity before the coming destuction of the world that Man is bringing upon himself, that men are left sitting around contemplating the origin of their navels.
That's whats really sad.
 
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TheVisitor said:
Wrong, wrong and wrong...
The bad news is God has done such a good job of hiding Himself in simplicity before the coming destuction of the world that Man is bringing upon himself, that you all having taken these reprobate spirits meant for destruction into your souls and are left sitting around contemplating the origin of your navels even without the help of the "magic shrooms", like mindlesss fodder marked for destuction.
That's whats really sad.
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Wow. Why do you even use SciForums?
 
@the 'visitor'

Could be, could be...but incorrect.

Infact God, or 'God' is merely the answer for poor, stupid, unimaginative people, who need to 'belong' and feel that they are here for a 'purpose'.

God does not exist.

Peace for those who are willing to realise. :m:
 
God does not exist "in time".
He has not one minute less time than He did when He spoke the material universe into creation.
He is still God; there's no time with Him.
Eternal, no yesterday, no tomorrow, it's all now.
Did you ever notice the word "I AM"?
Not "I was" or "I will be." It's Eternal, "I AM!"
So far beyond our human carnal thinking, He can hide Himself in humility and simplicity in plain sight right before your eyes every day of your life and you walk right over Him.
 
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john smith said:
Infact God, or 'God' is merely the answer for poor, stupid, unimaginative people, who need to 'belong' and feel that they are here for a 'purpose'.
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I wouldn't be using the word "unimaginative" in that response if I was you.

God does not exist.
Click to expand...
Amen. Atheism is the one true faith.
 
baumgarten said:
I wouldn't be using the word "unimaginative" in that response if I was you.
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lol, quite right.I stand corrected. ;)


baumgarten said:
Amen. Atheism is the one true faith.
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The one true faith which will always be. Never waivering from its roots, and always backed by vast quantitys of evidence.Merely saying the word Atheist makes me sigh in pleasure! :eek:
 
john smith said:
The one true faith which will always be. Never waivering from its roots, and always backed by vast quantitys of evidence.Merely saying the word Atheist makes me sigh in pleasure! :eek:
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Or rather, backed by vast quantities of the lack of evidence. ;)

I like to keep it personal, personally. I don't have a god; you may or may not. Why proselytize atheism? You just become that which you most despise if you try.
 
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