Quote:
Originally Posted by Veridical Fiction
That much is obvious and doesn't need explanation.
But the end, itself, is believed in by virtue of the tool. Experience is great and all, but out of religious context, it's nothing more than an experience.
Spiritual experience has been around far longer than organized religion. But prior to religion, it never had a face. Never had a name.
Religion, in my opinion, merely serves as that face, that name. It fits each and every spiritual person personally and when it doesn't, they whittle and carve away at it until it does.
To me, something that malleable could never be taken seriously.
If it ultimately ends up all being for my own personal benefit, then what difference does it make whether I worship Jesus or the BattleToads?
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it was disorganized but religion was there well before any of the Abrahamic or monotheistic religions. it seems that religion has doggedly pursued mankind throughout its history, no matter the culture or peoples.
i think most religion stems from humans' natural incapacity to grasp the sheer scale of the universe without resorting to explanation and myth. even today, modern science has sought to create a 'timeline' for the existence of the universe (which is in the greater sense a contradiction of scientific belief). it's much easier to say "THIS is how it all began" rather than probing the definitions of a beginning for which there can be no physical ascription ('in the absence of time').
i'd go so far to say that the big bang theory is no less just another extension of religion, a way to placate our own limitations for understanding of the universe as humans.