Power imposes belief. at least on the lower orders. the priestly class tells everyone else their gods' demands, and the faithful obey. the system is enforced through a system of bribes, threats and bonding rituals - which, again, include alternate sacrifices and celebrations.The dynamics between power and belief are complex and interact. Ideas of gods and God may be used to protect power structures and, similarly, analysis of such beliefs may influence the nature of social systems. — Jack Cummins
i don't understand 'religion emerged after magic'. Emerged from what? What kind of magic precedes it and how is that magic distinct from religion?With the history of religion, which emerged after magic, there were ideas of coercion and sacrifice. — Jack Cummins
The sacrifice and resurrection of a young, virile god or semi-divine entity in order to benefit humanity appears in many early agrarian civilizations. it represents the cycle of seasons; death in winter, rebirth in spring.Even in Christianity, Jesus represents 'the sacrificial lamb', to atone for human 'sin'. — Jack Cummins
there's no guarantee those power structures will endure.There may be small steps but if it is likely to be thwarted by hierarchies of power, which represent the interests of the elite. — Jack Cummins
How may the development of ideas about 'gods' or one God be understood in the history of religion and philosophy?. — Jack Cummins
To understand the development, one has to understand the intuitive rationality of animism, and the counterintuitive nature of the modern, dead world. One has to disabuse oneself of modernity. — unenlightened
The tremendously enlarged universe of modern cosmology is conceived as a field of inanimate masses and forces which operate according to the laws of inertia and of quantitative distribution in space. This denuded substratum of all reality could only be arrived at through a progressive expurgation of vital features from the physical record and through strict abstention from projecting into its image our own felt aliveness. In the process the ban on anthropomorphism was extended to zoomorphism in general. What remained is the residue of the reduction toward the properties of mere extension which submit to measurement and hence to mathematics. These properties alone satisfy the requirements of what is now called exact knowledge: and representing the only knowable aspect of nature they, by a tempting substitution, came to be regarded as its essential aspect too: and if this, then as the only real in reality.
This means that the lifeless has become the knowable par excellence and is for that reason also considered the true and only foundation of reality. It is the "natural" as well as the original state of things. Not only in terms of relative quantity but also in terms of ontological genuineness, nonlife is the rule, life the puzzling exception in physical existence.
Accordingly, it is the existence of life within a mechanical universe which now calls for an explanation, and explanation has to be in terms of the lifeless. Left over as a borderline case in the homogeneous physical world-view, life has to be accounted for in the terms of that view. — Hans Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life:Towards a Philosophy of Biology
How may the development of ideas about 'gods' or one God be understood in the history of religion and philosophy?. — Jack Cummins
Science, similarly to religion may be embedded in mythic understanding. What do you think, especially in relation to the concept of myth?
If we could ask the medieval scientist 'Why, then, do you talk as if [inanimate objects like rocks had desires]?' he might (for he was always a dialectician) retort with the counter-question, 'But do you intend your language about laws and obedience any more literally than I intend mine about kindly enclyning? Do you really believe that a falling stone is aware of a directive issued to it by some legislator and feels either a moral or a prudential obligation to conform?' We should then have to admit that both ways of expressing are metaphorical. The odd thing is that ours is the more anthropomorphic of the two. To talk as if inanimate bodies had a homing instinct is to bring them no nearer to us than the pigeons; to talk as if they could ' obey laws' is to treat them like men and even like citizens.
But though neither statement can be taken literally, it does not follow that it makes no difference which is used. On the imaginative and emotional level it makes a great difference whether, with the medievals, we project upon the universe our strivings and desires, or with the moderns, our police-system and our traffic regulations. The old language continually suggests a sort of continuity between merely physical events and our most spiritual aspirations.
The Discarded Image
Humans realise the human imagination and contribute to it, as aspects of the dreaming mind, as part symbolic reality, but whether it exists as an independent realm, as qualia, is a good question. — Jack Cummins
I am sure that there is an overlap between magic and religion — Jack Cummins
Which are the exception?t is true that religion does involve belief in the supernatural in most instances, but not always — Jack Cummins
Miracle means something not brought about by natural means: magic.I do see there being more than just superstition in miracles. — Jack Cummins
Okay. Catholic sides can be very persuasive. Certainly, there are events we don't anticipate and can't explain. But as science advances, the window on miracles is closing.It may be my Catholic side coming out but I do think that there may be more to miracles than many would admit. — Jack Cummins
Found that quote: — Wayfarer
A topic-adjacent interview you might find interesting:I am of the view that inner as opposed to outer, objective aspects of 'reality' are important here in the tradition of human understanding. Science, similarly to religion may be embedded in mythic understanding. What do you think, especially in relation to the concept of myth?. — Jack Cummins
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