Walker wrote:
-" Without living ears to perceive sound, activity makes vibrations but not sound.
- Without a living capacity to perceive meaning, activity makes motion but not meaning.
- Religion appearing in every generation indicates that worship is as inherent as eating.
popeye wrote:
walker.
Certainly, history would indicate that this is the most prominent idea throughout all mankind and if there is no evolutionary development of the human psyche it will remain so. Even if this is the case, it is obvious we need a new mythology and not one geared toward a twenty-five hundred-year-old blue print for life in desert villages. I think of Einstein's statement, "It is time for man to grow up." meaning we really have to let go of this stuff. So, no religion is not as inherent as eating, it is not life-sustaining any longer but a source of division, conflict, and irrationality. The cosmos is a much grander vision that has endless room for expansion, surely we can mythologies this and let it guide us into the future. Perhaps we cannot do without for long a viable mythology but science and space explorations present us with a mind blow grander the stuff just begs to be mythologized. The present desert religions I think of as mental stagnation a decaying thing which just might be humanity's downfall.
I get your point, however, worship will always be … either worship of government, one’s own awesomeness, desert stuff, mountain stuff, secular stuff, or cosmos stuff. The stuff varies, and is not irrelevant but rather correlates with the capacity and proclivities of the individual. The shared root is the commonality of the worship gene, which will find expression either appropriate or inappropriate to circumstance, when not suppressed or recessive. We may be in cosmos time, but outliers in fly-over country still eat desert dust.
I hear you saying that because not too many folks these days are desert nomads, then religion rooted in desert wanderings have run their course and are inappropriate for the dense dwelling demographics of today’s digital folks with bodies in rooms and minds online. To that I say … the root of a religion is either strong or weak, it thrives or withers, and when it thrives it adapts. Take for instance, Buddhism. It has adapted to many cultures. Also, Christianity.
Don’t be surprised to see a digital Jesus crop up somewhere, a cultural branch growing from the strong root of love, forgiveness, and redemption that is Christianity that was born in brutal times.
(edited to repair the quotes)