[ExI] What is religion? What is god was The Meaning of the Universe

William Flynn Wallace foozler83 at gmail.com
Fri Jun 17 14:09:36 UTC 2016


On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 2:31 PM, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Now there is a fascinating but unanswerable question:  just what was
> the role of hallucinations in religions?

Why do you believe that question unanswerable?  dan

I was thinking of the origins of religion, which occurred so far in the
past.  After religions got started, then anything could be roped in to them.

bill w

On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 7:54 PM, Dan TheBookMan <danust2012 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 2:31 PM, William Flynn Wallace <
> foozler83 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Now there is a fascinating but unanswerable question:  just what was
> > the role of hallucinations in religions?
>
> Why do you believe that question unanswerable?
>
> > I do know of certain African tribes
> > where the shaman's qualifications must include hallucinations.  The
> > assumption is that he is in touch with the spirit world and perhaps can
> > communicate with it and pray for sick people or crops or whatever.
>
> Seems you're making an attempt to answer it, no? :)
>
> > How may paranoid schizos have been raised to the top in society as
> > a result of their disease?  In this case 'disease' is not the operable
> > word.  "Gift" would be.
>
> My guess would be very few if any. I imagine, though, they might be used
> as dupes by those at the top.
>
> > Back to God.  He is just not a very interesting character.  But Jesus'
> > older brother is:  Satan.  Satan appears everywhere but my favorite
> > is Loki, the mischievous Scandanavian god and trickster - and Coyote
> > in the Navajo religion.
>
> This reminds me of Justin Barrett's book _Why Would Anyone Believe in
> God?_. I believe Barrett, who is making a case from cognitive science on
> why belief in god(s) and spirits are so prevalent, is trying to make
> religious belief okay, but we can still learn a lot from him. For instance,
> that certain types of fictional entities are more appealing than others --
> a talking tree vs. a merely invisible one. Why? They have agency and can
> communicate with us. (In the invisible tree example, it can't really do
> much save get in the way. That's actually Barrett's example too.:)
>
> Regards,
>
> Dan
>   Sample my latest Kindle book, "The Late Mr. Gurlitt," at:
> http://mybook.to/Gurlitt
>
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>
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