>From: Bill Bartlett <billbartlett at enterprize.net.au>
>Religion is is the ultimate expression of authority. Early humans didn't
>have the resources (or the need) for the scientific method of enquiry,
>where all existing wisdom is subject to challenge. Customs changed and
>knowledge increased very slowly, and anyhow the "why" questions are a
>luxury when you are struggling for survival.
---
Not at all. Premodern socities engage in metaphysical speculation all the
time. Bushmen work, what, 8 hours a week? Hunting and gathering is not
labor-intensive.
---
>So many things that your ancestors have discerned about the world must
>simply be accepted without question. Otherwise, if every member of the
>tribe gives up the hunt and becomes a philosopher, the tribe will starve.
---
People became shamen. How many people in modern societies become
philosophers/scientists? Almost none.
---
>
>Material circumstances. You need security, leisure and access to great
>resources to be a scientific scholar. Few pre-modern societies had any of
>that.
---
There were/are premodern socities with a great deal of leisure time.
Considerably more than most moderns have.
---
> >--
> >It does beg the question. :)
>
>What question?
--- I meant that it assumes that religion must a priori by reducible to material circumstances, and that such a reduction exhausts the content of religion. In fact, you can reduce anything to anything. I can reduce Bill Bartlet to his relationship to my pencil if I want to.
_________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail