>"Religious belief" and "supernatural" explanations are different
>phenomenon.
>
>In essence, religion is merely a strategy for passing social traditions,
>including experience and knowledge, down through the generations.
There is no such thing as a religious experience or mysical experience? I've had them. Phenomenologicaly at least, they're very real, regardless of whatever the actual cause may be.
>Not in the sense of a pre-modern society without a set of social customs
>and beliefs, no. Clearly if there are no social customs and beliefs, then
>there is no society in any meaningful sense, just a collection of
>individuals. Likewise there will be no social customs without a way of
>passing them on to the next generation, and in pre-modern times there was
>no other way of passing on such a large body of knowledge, except as
>religious dogma.
---
Why? Why not just list the customs and describe them as part of the natural
world? Why the recourse to the "supernatural," to gods, spirits, totems and
so forth? (I am aware that premodern societies do not distinguish between
the natural and the supernatural; but i guess my point is, why are there no
rationalist pre-modern societies? Why does it take thousands and thousands
of years for such a thing to come into existence?)
---
>That is a full explanation for religious belief, its that simple. You may
>choose to religiously believe otherwise of course. ;-)
--
It does beg the question. :)
---
>Well belief in ghosts is quite a different kettle of fish than a cult of
>ancestors. We all definitely have ancestors. So belief in or even worship
>of ancestors doesn't necessitate a belief in any supernatural phenomenon.
>Some cultures believe that their ancestors live on, in the memories of
>their descendants, rather than believing they have some kind of existence
>independent of living breathing bodies.
---
Not that I'm big on anthropology, but I would think that is a late
development, a leftover, eviscerated remnant of a cult of ancestor worship,
as in exists today in Chechnya for example.
"Supernatural" is an amorphous idea anyway. Newton considered action at a distance to be supernatural.
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