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morfe M
morfe Mar 10, 2006 14:38:03
Replying to Littlestone

"we have to start from the premises of what might have been the most important things in their lives."

Isn't that (probably) the living world around and within them? Along with that is a global commonality of tribal/familial legend and creation myths, which hold the connection between themselves and the world around them/us. Without delineating Maslow's pyramid of need s and all that hoohaaa, it could be suggested that any hierarchy is subject to change. If religion is to be always secondary, it's odd that religion crops up in times when all other needs aren't being met. This could suggest that there is not simply (only) a pyramid, but a complex and fluid hierarchical scale of need beholden to the individual's/group's location in time, place and circumstance?

L Littlestone
Littlestone Mar 10, 2006 15:03:01
Replying to morfe

Yes, well summed up morfe. Perhaps it would also be relevant to look at the small, so called 'primitive' tribes still living in parts of the world; after their basic requirements for survival have been met what is then important to them, and how do they go about giving 'substance' to that importance.

Some really great thoughts coming out of this discussion and, as Hob pointed out above, it's nice to ponder, "...what was going on in the minds of the ancients based on reasoning rather than dogma."

P PeterH
PeterH Mar 10, 2006 16:37:49
Replying to morfe

Are there not several different types of religious needs?

In times of hardship, war, famine, plague, distress - there is the appeal to a greater power for deliverance.. "God help me!"

In times of stability and more adequate resources, there is a need to celebrate religion through the arts.."God is great!"

Then there is the need for power over others as expressed through religious hierarchies, intolerance, heresies, hell and damnation, social class.. "God is on our side and you'd better believe it!"

Above all, there seems to be a need that is still with us and why, after rejecting the teachings of orthodox religions, so many people revert to superstition, crank creeds and little green men. They just have to have something to believe in.

Animals don't question why they are here and who made their world but we do. The answers are still so obscure and the universe so bizarre and complex that we simply cannot understand it. So we invent religions with creation myths and super beings to tell us what we should do. Perhaps one day we shall grow up, accept responsibility for our actions and realise that this planet and this life is all that we have.