Religion

Grayson

Conspiracy Cafe
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1,117
Religion

THE ORIGINS OF RELIGION

All living organisms constantly compete for limited resources. Organisms that are better equipped then others in coping with their environment, have a better chance of surviving and thus replicating themselves and their genes. This mechanism is the essence of evolution. Evolution, in turn, is one of the three essential ingredients of life itself. Life on earth began with the process of evolution. Without evolution, there can be no life.

The evolution of man conveyed to him advanced traits that positioned him above other animals on the ladder of evolution. His primary battle for survival, comfort and prosperity involved constant competition and conflict with his untamed environment, with nature. He perpetually faced danger, not only by competing human beings, but also by adverse natural events such as floods, hurricanes, droughts, thunderstorms and many other perils of nature.

Man was able to cope successfully with some adversities, but he felt powerless to deal with many other events in nature that filled him with fear and awe. A thunderstorm often turned out to be the precursor of more serious events such as rains, floods or hail. Thunder and lightning made primitive man wonder if superior beings inhabited an invisible world in the sky and invoked various cataclysmic events.

It would be natural for humanoids to appeal to such superior beings in the sky in order to solicit their help. It seemed reasonable to assume that these powerful, superior beings, these gods, were punishing humans for unknown reasons or merely for their pleasure. From this viewpoint, it required little imagination to try to appease these gods by appealing to them by means of prayers or by sacrifices of men or beasts.

Sometimes these prayers and sacrifices seemed to bear fruit and sometimes they did not show any results whatsoever. Due to his lack of knowledge, it was difficult for primitive man to distinguish between miracles and cause/effect relationships. He merely presumed that prayers were sometimes effective in appealing to the gods. When a violent storm eased, he attributed the event more to the effect of his prayers, than to the fact that dry air had just replaced a cold front. Man had no insight in the processes of nature. He lacked knowledge, science and rationality.

Since prayers and sacrifices seemed to be effective at times, man ascribed their lack of effectiveness at other times to improper or insufficient prayers or sacrifices. Unpredictable responses to his prayers generated feelings of fear and awe and strengthened his submission to his newly created gods.

We can trace the origins of religion to the prehistoric development of man between 500,000 and 100,000 years B.C. It was during this long period of human evolution that religious emotions and motivations became hard-wired into the human brain and genes.

During subsequent periods of human evolution, from hominoids to Neanderthal man to Cro-Magnon man, these primitive forms of religion imbedded themselves ever more firmly into the genes of human beings. These genes for susceptibility to religion and superstition remain among of the most pervasive and powerful motivators of man.

By means of prayers and alleged miracles, religion provides the illusion of security and comfort in this life and the promise of a splendiferous life after death, What more could man ask for?

Work in progress: Grayson--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Part II appears when you try to kick this over. :p
 

StarLord

Senior Member
Messages
3,187
Religion

It has been said that the very first job classification or avenue for employment was prostitution. While the sentiment may have endured over the centuries, if you thought about it, you would come to the realization that there was a niche for "work" long before we could have surmised. Superstition has plauged the human consciousness since the beginning of what is known as the Iron Age.

Before that time at the beginning, known as the Golden Age (some 750,000 years ago or more) , mankind had all of his inherent gifts intact from before birth arrive with him when he incarnated here in the physical. Telepathy and Omnipresence via attention were a given. Direct communication with all the animal kingdom by means of a kind of telepathy (by use of concentrating on pictures) was a standard means of communication. There was no real effort required to sustain a source for food as it was so abundant. Mental and Spiritual endeavours were specifically directed towards self realization and then God realization. Harmony ruled amongst all living things here.

Then came the Silver Age and things began to change. Mankind had to lend a hand in the upkeep of sustainable sustinence. Not everybody was of a like mind. Harmony may have needed an effort to maintain. Spiritual abilities had to be re-learned but they were easily attainable.

Then the Iron Age and from there to the Lead Age or Kali Yuga as the Brahmist may call it. If I had to guess as to where to place the most successful types of civilizations, they would have to be around the Gold and Silver Ages IMHO. They would include Mu, Lemuria, Atlantis, Hyperboria. These are not ficticious.

As a side note, due to the total negativity here on this planet, there is a running joke amongst it's visitors that "The Earth is the armpit of the Universe" cruel but correct. You will not find a place like this in all the cosmos. Here you learn, you remember, or you perish quickly. Something like the unsaid collorary denoting the scarcity of old fools as fools seldom survive for long here as Karma reigns supreme. Nobody rides for free, Nobody gets away with anything. If you owe, you will pay. PERIOD.

As all these ages passed and mankind "forgot" his regal lineage, foolish notions and reasons for the why of it all abounded. The very first profession here about 5,000 years ago was of course the priest craft. Very rare was it back in that time that a stupid priest lived long. One needed to be both shrewd and have a 6th sense about him when it came to predicting the outcome of the weather, war parties, births and deaths. Their sense of timing rivalved todays politicians and magicians. They were also quite adept at seizing the moment when it came to taking advantage of others superstitions in every day life. Why hunt or till the soil or go root and tuber gathering when you can be fed and pontificate surrounded by all the amenities, a dry cave and fire, apprentises, acolytes.

Depending on how far along the path one is, will dictate the ability to sense male bovine excrement when it is being served by the clergy under the auspices of "Devine Mystery" or some such verbal claptrap.

Religion cannot be ingrained in your genes. However, what can be left there is the fear of being taken for yet another life long ride of smoke up your backside and promises that come to fruition when you check out. If you are having problems with this line of thought, go rent "Life Of Brian" by Monty Python. If by the end of this film, you have still not "got a clue", both myself and Paul will help you, you poor, poor, person.

Fear of the unknown is one gaurantee that churches will exhist. You have a choice. You can either stand up, start walking, start searching for yourself. Or you can play Simon Says based on some dissimilar path by people who thought they understood what some Spiritual Master was talking about over 2,000 years ago and not take part of your own spiritual evolution. Either way is ok. One way is about a thousand incarnations quicker. But rest assured, ALL paths lead to Rome eventually.

A psychologist or Psychiatrist I cannot remember which, made an experiment in Canada I believe it was. He raised a child and made damn sure that any and all information of the world had absolutely no information what so ever regarding religion, the search for God or self exploration, spiritualy speaking. That child, eventually at the age of puberty or just later, began to worship the Sun as a power greater than himself.

We ALL come to the realization sooner or later that there is a power greater than us and that instinctively we require that knowledge if none is forthcoming on it's own.
 

Grayson

Conspiracy Cafe
Messages
1,117
Religion

Nice post Starlord. I add this to the mix though, just to keep you on your toes.

Prehistoric Benefits of Religion

A survival benefit accrued to prehistoric man with regard to the deification of those aspects of nature that he considered beyond his control, the Supernatural. Without such survival benefits, the inherently irrational belief in gods and a life after death could not have permanently imbedded itself in the human brain and genes.

As man found it advantageous to organize himself into small groups or tribes, a genetically imbedded religious belief system enhanced the advantages of communal living.

In primitive societies, definite survival benefits connect to the belief in the supernatural. Humans, who had a god or a group of gods whom they feared and were willing to obey, acted with a high degree of cooperation. Fear of punishment from their god or his priests would be a powerful force for socialized behavior.

Under these conditions, individuals subordinated their urges and passions to the commands of their gods. This coordination of activities resulted in civilized behavior and a distinct benefit for survival.

The commands of the gods, as communicated by their priests, worked to the advantage of a particular civilization and its individuals. Groups of people, held together by the glue of a religion, would thrive and enjoy the increased efficiency and production resulting from increased cooperation.

Since a pre-packaged moral code is associated with all organized religions, a belief in the supernatural would also lower crime within a society. The priests or witch doctors established a moral code of conduct. The alleged supernatural powers of the gods enforced this morality system. A fear of all-powerful gods deterred people from engaging in hostile or destructive acts against other members of their society. The resulting low-crime environment represented another very distinct survival benefit in a primitive, god-fearing society.

This consolidation of a society around mutually accepted beliefs also served to reinforce its resistance to external threats, such as attacks from other tribes. By merging his resources under the promised umbrella of a Supreme Being, early man enhanced his chances of surviving an attack by other societies.

The concept of security is an extremely cogent motivator for human beings. In importance, only the survival instinct and the sex drive surpass the quest for security. The need for security is merely a projection of the survival instinct into the future.

It is a well-established psychological fact that people who think alike, meet alike: Baptists congregate with Baptists and Jews congregate with Jews. By coordinating their individual activities with other persons who shared common religious beliefs, this coalescence of spiritual motivations provided for the security and survival of the members of a religious group.

On the other hand, societies that had no gods and thus did not cooperate with each other as well as their god-fearing neighbors did, were disadvantaged with respect to survival. Such atheistic societies would either not come into existence at all or they would not be able to compete efficiently with their devoutly religious neighbors. These early atheistic societies would eventually fail to survive, enhancing the evolutionary propagation and predominance of those genes that compelled adherence to supernatural belief systems.

Thus, a distinct survival benefit imbedded itself into prehistoric societies that engaged in the worship of gods or other supernatural beings.

During the prehistoric development of man, he could rely only on his physical prowess and very primitive tools. Many millennia of environmental hardships enhanced evolutionary pressures and honed the thought processes of man. He learned to rely on the power of his brain to an ever-increasing degree. Increased brainpower demonstrated the trend of evolution to increase complexity because increased complexity provides for a higher degree of specialization.

Advanced specialization provides for improved adaptability to changing environmental conditions. The development of life from a simple amoeba to the complex brain of modern man demonstrates the relentless evolutionary trend towards higher adaptability by ever-increasing complexity and specialization.

PART III coming to a thread near you--------------------
A wrok in progress: Grayson------------------------------
 

Judge Bean

Senior Member
Messages
1,257
Religion

I intend to prove that human beings are inherently atheistic, having evolved from anthropologists.

Get me my notes.
 

Grayson

Conspiracy Cafe
Messages
1,117
Religion

Originally posted by Paul J. Lyon@Jul 11 2004, 05:47 AM
I intend to prove that human beings are inherently atheistic, having evolved from anthropologists.

Get me my notes.


Ha ha haaaaaaa! Oooh! You Rum Bugger Paul.
 

deepthought

Member
Messages
166
Religion

May I suggest you read the works of Laurence Gardner
'Bloodline of the Holy Grail' and 'Genesis of the Grail Kings'

This guy has done his homework, and an acknowledged expert in his field.
You will learn much of what has been deliberately hidden from common knowledge.

I cannot recommend these books highly enough. they should be made compulsory reading in all schools, instead of the perpetuated lies that have been rammed down the throats of the public for centuries!
 

CaryP

Senior Member
Messages
1,432
Religion

"Organized religion is for weak minded people." Jessie Ventura. That about sums it up for me.

A recovering Catholic.

Cary
 

StarLord

Senior Member
Messages
3,187
Religion

chaotic religion...........hmmm wouldn't that be fun? No one knows where they are going, no one cares, a million different takes on the underlying principles, why, that sounds like democracy. Still, 72 virgins woulda been nice.
 

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