Religion
Related: About this forumAnachronism
Last edited Mon Apr 1, 2019, 11:34 AM - Edit history (1)
...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anachronism
Anachronism
An anachronism (from the Greek ἀνά ana, "against" and χρόνος khronos, "time" ) is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of persons, events, objects, or customs from different periods of time. The most common type of anachronism is an object misplaced in time, but it may be a verbal expression, a technology, a philosophical idea, a musical style, a material, a plant or animal, a custom, or anything else associated with a particular period in time that is placed outside its proper temporal domain.
(snip)
Behavioral and cultural anachronism
The intentional use of older, often obsolete cultural artifacts may be regarded as anachronistic. For example, it could be considered anachronistic for a modern-day person to wear a top hat, write with a quill, or carry on a conversation in Latin. Such choices may reflect an eccentricity or an aesthetic preference.
Emphasis added.
How anachronistic is it, in this day and age, to assume you can acquire positive/ethical morality from Bronze Age philosophies that were poorly translated and transcribed in the Iron Age and perpetually re-transcribed by hand during the Dark Ages?
How long will it be until that cultural norm goes the way of chattel slavery?
How long until religion becomes a full-on cultural anachronism?
guillaumeb
(42,649 posts)Do humans still act in much the same ways as humans from 5800 years ago?
Is philosophy still taught in schools, including the Greek philosophers?
We no longer uses horses to pull loads.
We no longer draw water from a well.
We no longer use a bow to hunt for our food.
But we still behave in the same basic ways as our ancestors of 10,000 years ago.
We are still motivated by the same urges.
To pretend otherwise is to pretend.
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)marylandblue
(12,344 posts)He said, "we still behave in the same basic ways as our ancestors." How do we know which behaviors are "basic" and which are not. No doubt, if people still do them, they are basic, and if nobody still does them, they aren't.
So religion must basic because there are enough people around who still practice it. Living in small nomadic bands of 150 people or less is not basic even though we did that for 98% of human history, because almost nobody does that anymore.
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)"Basic" human behaviors are:
1) Religion
2) Any social ill religion has been unable to remedy (i.e., DREAD INTOLERANCE)
marylandblue
(12,344 posts)Religion is about "faith" which he thinks is something you have whether you believe in deities or not, so "faith" is basic, but if everybody has to have faith, it's just another word for having a brain.
Intolerance is "tribalism" again defined as a universal something that everybody exhibits, even hermits I guess.
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)It's all very deterministic for a guy who believes in free will. But I'm probably misframing, or something.
guillaumeb
(42,649 posts)Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)marylandblue
(12,344 posts)We do religion differently, philosophy didn't exist and we even do our oppression differently. It's not just technological differences, it's much deeper than that.
The vague "Creator" you worship and try to find in ancient texts would have been totally incomprehensible and pointless to them.
MineralMan
(148,008 posts)We no longer draw water from a well. - Many rural dwelling places continue to rely on well water. In fact, there are rural communities everywhere that do. Indeed most municipal water supplies rely on wells. We don't use buckets and a windlass to get the water, though, any longer. Electric pumps handle that work.
We no longer use a bow to hunt for our food. - Bow hunting is a very, very popular thing in many states, which often have a separate hunting season for bowhunters. Every year, tens of thousands of bowhunters take to the field. Bowfishing is also a popular sport, and most fish caught that way are eaten.
We do behave in the same basic ways as our ancestors. We seek mates. We form social groups and societies. We look for answers to our questions. We fight wars and commit crimes. All the same. We just have different technology.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)We actually have knowledge that we can use now to generate moral and ethical systems that are FAR superior to what they wrote down. guillaumeb is (again) being disingenuous so he can continue to defend religious privilege.
MineralMan
(148,008 posts)Not necessarily informative, but it's diverting. Rarely do we get to see someone go on at length about something, only to demonstrate the opposite of that person's intended point. '
Diverting and instructive at the same time. It's like, "Here's how you should NOT make your case."
It's Tons of Fun!
Voltaire2
(14,880 posts)There were no schools and no philosophies to teach either 5800 or 10000 years ago.
Work horses and bows are in fact anachronistic. Wells arent.
Could you rework your response so that your examples cited to prove whatever point you were trying to make actually belong in the categories you placed them in?
Was it your point that religion is grouped with work horses, bows, and wells as anachronistic? Or with Ancient Greek Philosophy as a academic subject?
vlyons
(10,252 posts)from our own mind can wave a magic wand that suspends the laws of physics, the laws of thermodynamics, to rearrange reality to conform to our wishful thinking. It's why I don't believe in the so-called "power of prayer." There is no creator god.
LuvNewcastle
(17,047 posts)Ya gotta have faith.
vlyons
(10,252 posts)without any evidence whatsoever that it works without any input of work and effort. That people sometimes experience the outcomes that they wish for, just means that they have not understood all the complex causes and conditions that resulted in an outcome.
LuvNewcastle
(17,047 posts)Life sucks for a lot of people in this world, and they think religion helps them cope with some of life's pitfalls. They don't like to think that the cosmos is indifferent to them. It hurts their sensibility that they are special. Religion doesn't really help, though. While it might help one person cope with life, it might turn another person into a violent zealot. The religious often use their religions as an excuse to act out hidden desires.
Cartoonist
(7,558 posts)Do they still make them. I mean real ones. I've seen costume quality (poor).
MineralMan
(148,008 posts)a line of such hats. They're not cheap, though.
https://www.delmonicohatter.com/category/Top-Hats-Opera.htm
Cartoonist
(7,558 posts)I see they group them together with some Top Hats and call them Steampunk Hats
marylandblue
(12,344 posts)and live long after the social and political structures that created it. Modern religion is only partly anachronistic. It preserves some things from earlier times, but changes others to fit in with the new structures.
Pope George Ringo II
(1,896 posts)I'm not sure we're ever going to be fully successful in eradicating it, though. There are just so many people so vulnerable to it.