Origin of religion

[Laharl]

Re: Origin of religion

Buddhism isn't exactly a religion as we look at it. It's basically a guy, named Buddha, that said "These are principles on which to live" and people follow those. His ideas on Nirvana and such are not based in any doctrine other than his words. He's not some God, just a man that had some interesting ideas on how everything works. You can be Buddhist and still practice another more orthodox Western religion.

[Afrobean]

Re: Origin of religion

Buddhism isn't exactly a religion as we look at it. It's basically a guy, named Buddha, that said "These are principles on which to live" and people follow those. His ideas on Nirvana and such are not based in any doctrine other than his words. He's not some God, just a man that had some interesting ideas on how everything works. You can be Buddhist and still practice another more orthodox Western religion.

Ok then, what about Shinto?

ps with how Buddha is venerated, I'd say he's right on the same level as a god in most people's eyes, even if he isn't literally defined as one by the religion.

[Laharl]

Re: Origin of religion

Just because someone is viewed in a god-like status by the rest of the world doesn't make him a god.

My comment was purely to point out to people calling Buddhism a religion that it's not a religion so much as a way of thought. It'd be like calling Nihilism or Existentialism a religion. That is all I meant.

Shinto is a pretty interesting religion. I'll have to talk about the little I know of it when I return from class, though. Gotta run.

[dragonschild]

Re: Origin of religion

There are a lot more feasible explanations aside from that of hallucinogens. How can you explain the creation of the Eastern religions such as Buddhism, or Islam, where intoxicants are forbidden?

Well..... almost, Japanese priests of Soto Zen who are Buddhist are allowed to consume alcohol. Followers of Hinduism used marijuana, and consumed Soma.... which is still debated as being the fly agaric mushroom or ephedra, whatever it was.

Im not sure if it can be proven, but was there a religion that has been given credit for the first of religions? And if not which came first? Paganism? Humanism? Animism? Polytheism? I think Astrotheology was the earliest recorded religion, but I may be wrong.

[Cavernio]

Re: Origin of religion

I find it odd that someone has to hypothesize that drugs were involved in some of humans most basic behaviours, such as language and religion. If the brain were not already adapted to such things as religious feelings and the capacity to learn language, then chances are the effects of psilocybin on the neural pathways in the brain wouldn't be the same simply because the brain itself would have been different. I mean, all of evolution is almost like what came first, the chicken or the egg, but I'd say its a pretty safe assumption that we developed the capacity for the feelings involved in religion, which then were shared among other people and people got organized about it, and developed into a religion of some type. I would definitely say its safe to say that drugs were definitely involved in the development of religions, but not that they were necessary.

Aside: What sliipstrike said about headbangers, our visual cortex is back there, and its probably caused by cells firing in response to pressure. Your eyes respond to pressure in such a way when they're close and you put pressure on them. You see blobs of color. Of course, the retina isn't visual cortex, so whatever visions are seen when hitting the back of your head are doubtlessly much higher in detail.

[Laharl]

Re: Origin of religion

Hey Cavernio, get on MSN more. :P

[MalReynolds]

Re: Origin of religion

And trolling CT in a thread that has legitimate discussion I think is slightly more offensive than telling someone who can play nice that they deserve a ban for talking to someone else that can play nice... And debate worth a damn.