- Joined
- Nov 18, 2016
- Messages
- 48,308
- Reaction score
- 25,566
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Liberal
Man is a religious animal
Just as Man is a social animal,
Just as Man is a political animal,
Indeed just as Man is a rational animal
So too is Man a religious animal
From the primitive cave painting to the Sistine Chapel,
Man has tried to connect with Divinity
Before the later revelations,
Before the visions and covenants that came later,
Before the tribal organization of religion,
From the very beginning
Man sought connection (religare, to bind fast) to the Spirit
Religion is in Mankind's DNA
Religion is in the nature of Man
To deny the religious impulse in Man
To decry the religious experience in Man
To defy the institution of religion
Is the Height of Folly
Is the Depths of Despair
Religion is the Signature of Man
Some things have been near universal and all human societies throughout history. Religion is certainly one of them. But so have slavery and misogyny and primitive tribalism. To say that religion has been universal throughout the history of man and therefore something to just be excepted, or even be lauded, I still think there slavery and misogyny should be too.
I am not saying religion is necessarily bad. But I think the argument that just because something has been universal among human societies to date necessarily means that it is an inevitable part of human nature is not accurate. If anything that the study of anthropology, sociology, and history have shown is that human nature is far more malleable than we have ever imagined.
While it’s true that religion has been almost near universal all human societies, there is nothing inevitable about it.