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Is religion an imposition on society, or a product of a society's evolution?

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  • Is religion an imposition on society, or a product of a society's evolution?

    Another question which I was thinking on for a bit of time.

    A lot of people, specially in the West, tend to consider religion as something imposed on society, something which a few people made up, in order to make society confirm to their vision.

    On the other hand, the predominant Indian attitude is that religion is something that evolves out of society, and thus changes as society changes, but changes society as it itself changes. It's a much more organic relationship.





    After some thought, I came to the conclusion that this was primarily because the main "Western" religions, in today's context, are monotheist, and very legalist - that is, they mandate a code not just of morality and a set of spiritual or philosophical guidelines, but also a code of laws. This code of laws was not just in the form of general principles, but in the form of ironclad rules, leading to its being imposed by the religious authority of the times.

    The problem arose when this legalist code could not adopt to changing circumstances - given that it was dictated in God's name, changing it became impossible.

    The issue is that now, strictly following the rules of any monotheist religions is absolutely impossible.

    The further consequence is that this leads to a slow death of religion, for that which cannot change and adapt is doomed to perish.

    A question then arose: how can we salvage the good parts of the monotheist tradition, and renew and resurrect the tradition itself, which has fallen to sorry depths?



    There are two questions I would like to pose here:

    a) Does society influence religion more, and thus lead to an evolving religion, or is it the other way around, and
    b) Is there any way to rescue a religions tradition which has fallen into the "imposition" pattern, where it imposes itself rigidly and inflexibly on its society?



    I've already given my opinion on the first question. How would the posters here, who have been raised in predominantly monotheist societies, respond to the second?

  • #2
    You fancy yourself quite the little philosopher, don't you?
    "The French caused the war [Persian Gulf war, 1991]" - Ned
    "you people who bash Bush have no appreciation for one of the great presidents in our history." - Ned
    "I wish I had gay sex in the boy scouts" - Dissident

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    • #3
      Some say religion is a model to explain the world. It came up when there wasn't really an alternative model (like science) available.
      Blah

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      • #4
        It's a means of exercising control over people.
        THEY!!111 OMG WTF LOL LET DA NOMADS AND TEH S3D3NTARY PEOPLA BOTH MAEK BITER AXP3REINCES
        AND TEH GRAAT SINS OF THERE [DOCTRINAL] INOVATIONS BQU3ATH3D SMAL
        AND!!1!11!!! LOL JUST IN CAES A DISPUTANT CALS U 2 DISPUT3 ABOUT THEYRE CLAMES
        DO NOT THAN DISPUT3 ON THEM 3XCAPT BY WAY OF AN 3XTARNAL DISPUTA!!!!11!! WTF

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Kontiki
          You fancy yourself quite the little philosopher, don't you?
          Noticed that, did you?

          ...

          aneeshm, the beginnings of religion are lost in the mists of time. I imagine that it started out as vague mysticism to explain the inexplicable, and slowly evolved (heh) from there into something more solid.

          I don't think the first mystic sat around trying to come up with a way to fool people so he could be a priest and collect "sacrifices" to teh godz. I do, however, think that there were many such types along the way, along with the honestly deluded

          -Arrian
          grog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!

          The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by BeBro
            Some say religion is a model to explain the world. It came up when there wasn't really an alternative model (like science) available.
            That mostly just refers to the old religions, like the greek ones.

            The newer, successful religions (like Christianity) are much much deeper. Their point isn't the explanation of the world.

            Jon Miller
            (but it seems that many people don't take the time to study them to discover that)
            Jon Miller-
            I AM.CANADIAN
            GENERATION 35: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Jon Miller
              The newer, successful religions (like Christianity) are much much deeper. Their point isn't the explanation of the world.
              Maybe not exclusively, but wasn't it still part of it? The entire creation thing looks to me like a religious explanation for the world, humans etc....
              Blah

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              • #8
                Not just an explanation of the world, but an explanation of the human condition. Explanations of things like human suffering, disease, etc.

                -Arrian
                grog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!

                The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Jon Miller


                  That mostly just refers to the old religions, like the greek ones.

                  The newer, successful religions (like Christianity) are much much deeper. Their point isn't the explanation of the world.

                  Jon Miller
                  (but it seems that many people don't take the time to study them to discover that)
                  I think the Greek religion was deeper than just that.

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                  • #10
                    The mysticisms maybe, the standup greek religion was pretty simple.

                    Jon Miller
                    Jon Miller-
                    I AM.CANADIAN
                    GENERATION 35: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

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                    • #11
                      Creation is a relatively small part of the Bible. Only a couple chapters. Yes, explanation exists... but it definitely isn't the focus. And I, and others, would argue that even that is sprititual explanation, not scientific explanation.

                      Even the question of suffereing, while much more important, isn't the majority of what the Bible's point it. I would recommend you guys read it sometime (read it, instead of looking for it's unscientificness).

                      Jon Miller
                      (science didn't even exist when it was written, to expect it to be a scientific explanation is entirely misreading it)
                      Jon Miller-
                      I AM.CANADIAN
                      GENERATION 35: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

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                      • #12
                        I think that a code of laws comes from within the people.
                        Christianity, in example, doesn't come with a Code of Laws, other then "Love God above all and the other as yourself". Later many christians started to apply the laws of Moses upon all christians, but there's nothing in the New Testament that justifies that.

                        Maybe not exclusively, but wasn't it still part of it? The entire creation thing looks to me like a religious explanation for the world, humans etc....


                        The creation story of Gen hardly explains the world. It just says that God created the world and everything. Most religions do morely try to explain how things evolved from something into something else, and their gods are gods that belong within 'the universe' and make the universe what it is.
                        Formerly known as "CyberShy"
                        Carpe Diem tamen Memento Mori

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                        • #13
                          An imposition? Nice way of thinking of religion.
                          Although, I suspect that's the true basis for an atheist's views.
                          Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
                          "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
                          He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

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                          • #14
                            Note that the thread was created by a religious person, Sloww.

                            -Arrian
                            grog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!

                            The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.

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                            • #15
                              people created the church, not the other way around
                              "I hope I get to punch you in the face one day" - MRT144, Imran Siddiqui
                              'I'm fairly certain that a ban on me punching you in the face is not a "right" worth respecting." - loinburger

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