Dionysus Forums Archives - Religious evolution

04-11-2004, 10:14 AM

GermanHeretic GermanHeretic is offline

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Religious evolution

Is the decrease in the amount of gods some kind of religious evolution?

Belief started, as most anthropologists suggest, with believing in natural spirits living in nearly everything - trees, stones, ...

Then mankind brought up a pantheon of gods.

Then came up faith in a single god.

Today many people believe more in a cosmological concept than a personalised god.

Is it correct to say, believing in no gods, cosmic principles (other than laws of nature) is the ultimate top of religious evolution?

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Und sperrt man mich ein, im finsteren Kerker // Ich spotte der Pein und menschlichen Werke
Denn meine Gedanken, sie reißen die Schranken // Und Mauern entzwei - die Gedanken sind FREI!
(If you lock me away in a dungeon dark // At the pain and human works I laugh
For my thoughts walls and barriers do breach // The thoughts are FREE!)

04-11-2004, 11:44 AM

The Sun in Heaven

Quote:

32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. ~ Jeremiah 31:32-34

We also have to understand that the world is getting smaller all the time, and in order for people to get along and communicate, it reduces the number of gods (languages) that we can communicate with. But still, if we understood that there was only one sun in the sky which, in effect illuminates everything, perhaps only one God is necessary? Or perhaps even no God if, the truth were self-evident, as the passage above seems to suggest ... Or, at least eliminate the need for preaching.

Excerpt from Emanuel Swedenborg's, Heaven and Hell ...

Quote:

The Sun in Heaven

116. In heaven neither the sun of the world, nor anything from that sun, is seen, because it is wholly natural. For nature has its beginning from that sun, and whatever is produced by means of it is called natural. But the spiritual, to which heaven belongs, is above nature and wholly distinct from what is natural; and there is no communication between the two except by correspondences. What the distinction between them is may be understood from what has already been said about degrees, and what the communication is from what has been said in the two preceding chapters about correspondences.

117. Although the sun of the world is not seen in heaven, nor anything from that sun, there is nevertheless a sun there, and light and heat, and all things that are in the world, with innumerable others, but not from a like origin; since the things in heaven are spiritual, and those in the world are natural. The sun of heaven is the Lord; the light there is the Divine truth and the heat the Divine good that go gorth from the Lord as a sun. From this origin are all things that spring forth and are seen in the heavens. This light and heat and things existing therefrom in heaven will be treated of in the following chapters; in this chapter we will speak only of the sun there. In heaven the Lord is seen as a sun, for the reason that He is Divine love, from which all spiritual things, and by means of the sun of the world all natural things, have their existence. That love is what shines as a sun.

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So when the body dies, and consciousness departs, where do "we" go? ... Off to define another "reality" perhaps?

04-11-2004, 04:07 PM

GermanHeretic GermanHeretic is offline

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one sun - one god

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iacchus32

But still, if we understood that there was only one sun in the sky which, in effect illuminates everything, perhaps only one God is necessary?

Wow, I will immediately start to worship Baldr, the one and only German god of light == the sun.

06-11-2004, 12:10 AM

Societies change or evolve.
Religion is a sociological institution.
We cannot separate one from the other.
Social change is brought about via cultural diffusion, invasion, immigration, trade, invention, geographical or scientific discoveries and so on.

07-18-2004, 04:59 PM

TheBigKahoona TheBigKahoona is offline

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Is the decrease in the amount of gods some kind of religious evolution?

I would disagree with this statement entirely. New religions are sprouting up as fast as the old ones are dying out. I hate to say it, but just look at Mormonism. Some guy back in the 1800s decided to put an interesting little spin on Christianity and look at it now. Mormonism is the largest growing faith in America. The Wiccan's population is growing fairly fast also. I don't think there is any decrease of religious beliefs in the world today at all.

07-18-2004, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBigKahoona

Hey, it's TheBigKahoona! Welcome aboard!

You may very well be correct in what you're saying.

Albeit what GermanHeretic is referring to is the notion of polytheism being replaced by monotheism, so in that respect I think the number of gods have probably dwindled. There are also a great many people, perhaps much more so than in the past, that don't believe in God.

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So when the body dies, and consciousness departs, where do "we" go? ... Off to define another "reality" perhaps?