No matter how joyous this world can be, for some… those same people will search for meaning in anything and everything, from the divine, to the arcane? Why? When there is little evidence of a God, or a Devil, why do these individuals seek meaning from these intangibles?
I would imagine because there's little evidence against them. Saying "we didn't find god in the stars" is kinda the same thing as saying "we didn't find gold in lead"...you're asking/looking based upon your own finite understanding of the world.
To the broader question we seem to be hardwired into searching for something, anything, that is greater than ourselves to give meaning to a seemingly meaningless existence.
Unless you say the reason for life is to do what you want (which while valid is pretty shallow and harmful to society) then there needs to be something "beyond" humanity and this little green ball called Earth...unless there is no reason and I'd rather not live in such a world.
For whatever reason the vast majority of humanity for all of known history has felt small, weak, and in need of something greater to give us guidance. Perhaps it is because we feel connected to each other as a fatherless child, a humanity with no "king", thus we lack direction and purpose as a whole. Or it could be because there is a god or something else you describe as intangible and we have been built to search it out.
Even if there is no intangible something in reality our perception that there is and our need to find it has lead to much of human advancement. Science, exploration, medicine, all search for the same thing...how we came to be, how we fit in to this world and why.
people what them to exist because then evil isn't a choice the devil made you or them do it and good isn't a choice god did it. It give them someone else to blame for the horrible things humans due every day.
I wouldn't say that. The concept of a "devil" making evil etc is very new. In the past you did bad things because you were a bad person, not because some evil spirit forced you. And even in the Christian tradition you do evil because you choose to, not because anything made you.
I think the reason we search or believe in something goes far beyond wanting to get over guilt or denying responsibility for "sin".
If i'm not mistaken there were forms of things in existance before God was even a concept. There were GODS and GODDESSES and as far as evidence goes, there's plenty of strange things caught on tape, photos, and the like that can't be explained. In my viewpoint, the spiritual interacts with many people all over the globe. Enough to make US believe anyway.
I asked the question after seeing cave painting in a book, that represented animal spirits [[we suppose]] and, even then, before the idea of Gods and Godesses and a God, there were these creations of man, designed to... ?
How does one coexist with two interpretations of life?
Creation vs Evolution
Unless of course one evolved into the other. WHY do I bring up these two ends of the same string in this topic?
If one goes with the evolution theory...NO scratch that...if evolution did occur at one end of the string then it was initiated by some spark of energy regardless of what that spark was. You can call that primordial initiator what ever makes you happy. If this is the case, then those creatures who evolved to walk upright had no concept of a deity or of positive or negative...I won't say good or evil...the universe is in a balance of those things positive/negative (forces of energy and matter)
The universe survives and moves on according to the laws of Chaos, which is neither positive or negative or neutral.
Let us say that these evolving beings (in this scenario) grew and multiplied upon the earth. They had to eat, they had to survive, they have been doing so for X amount of years so what ever it was they were eating sustained them. Remember we are speaking about "an evolution" So they evolved from whatever basic life form into an upright creature. Some where along the line their eating habits had to change, their food, their nourishment had to change to co-inside with their growth and their evolving, given consideration to their body growth and neurochemical needs changing as they evolved.
So lets skip forward X amount of years and now this evolved being realizes that he needs a more definitive protein source. I'm skipping ahead up to this point because it isn't necessary to go through the process of evolving for dietary needs and physical growth.
So now we are up to the point where this creature who will one day become modern man is hunting with simple tools like rocks and big sticks. But how did this creature get to that point of using rocks and big sticks? Well some will argue that this creatures brain was developing and that they were either observing instances around them where a big rock or tree falling would kill a creature that they were looking at as food. Well ok, but what were they eating before their first big kill? Bugs? small creatures that couldn't out run this evolving being?
Well ok..But where did the idea of sharpening those sticks and rocks come from. Some would say that this beings mind was expanding even more and actually devising ways of making cleaner and more efficient kills. Some would say that they noticed pointed limbs of trees that had been broken off were more effective than a blunt stick...so they bean to mimic the cause of the effect by figuring out how to make the end of that tree limb pointed.
The eventual cause and effect of discovering sharpened tools and the fashioning of such can be twofold...as with the tree limb they could have noticed that a certain shape of stone looked like the end of that tree limb...having a crude point...and now they might attack with a rock in hand that had a crude point...realizing that it wasn't working, they needed another way to make it effective...possibly by having both work in conjunction with each other by tipping off the stick with the stone...
Hopefully you're seeing where I'm going with this...The development of this creatures mind to the point of where we can say they found "God"
Did this creatures mind develop to the point of actually needing something to worship? And if so WHY?
For everything in life there has to be a catalyst. Something that gets the whole process moving along in whatever direction.
That being so...what was the catalyst for this being needing a "Deity" to worship?
Big animals didn't scare them...maybe they did give the right of way to something bigger...but undoubtedly, eventually, they found a way to kill it for food. Why something to worship?
Unless they met a reflection of themselves. Unless there was something that they recognized, that was greater than they were at hunting (Killing larger animals) maybe even accomplishing feats that "early man" had no capability of performing. But worshiping equates submission. Was it out of fear? Hell! they were killing animals that were many times more powerful than they were...what was it then?
Some would say that this early man was developing emotions which cause them to submit either to each other, as far as who the strongest was, and to something greater than they were capable of being at that time.
I argue this...if within the animal kingdom you have the Alpha male and Female and those that submit to the more powerful of the creature, then the developing "man" creature should fall also into the same category. Animals have feelings, we all know that, so do animals worship?....Another question for another day...let's move along...
So if this early "man" submitted to another like itself, an Alpha male or Female, it had to be an Alpha that was a "Super Alpha" giving into consideration that Alpha males and females of the evolving being were present...If an Alpha male/female showed "fear" and a primitive reverence, such as animals do, then to whatever of whomever they showed it to had to be Alpha+++.
If this then is the beginning of adoration and worshiping then there should be a chronicle of it some where...in some cave...upon some rock...there should be some form of presentation/representation given of such an Alpha+++ being that was feared and given the space as in any area of the animal kingdom.
But the only representations that we have, aside from cave art depicting battles between "tribes" are those of beings we can not explain without going beyond the earthly realm. AND was it the principle matter of these Alpha+++ beings TO BE WORSHIPED - OR was it for a different purpose...and the references of such history being recorded and transmitted by...WHAT? Word of mouth??? That then would be a question as to how such, language in point, evolved.
What if all of the history we need to figure out the past that so many argue about was as simple as the most obvious of all questions.
Why Am I?
Look no further that the very planet you live on...where it all began. Only one thing. You must be able to read that language which is neither spoken or written...just simply there, in front of your face where it has always been.
If you want to hide something from a human...put it right where they can see it. They will only argue about how it isn't what they are looking for...though it is right in front of them.
Intangibles...The Alpha+++ ?
YES...I answered the question....it's right there in front of you. Ask yourself why you don't see it.
Hypothetical situation:
You wake up in a strange place, you're not sure how you got there. The first thing you'll instinctively do is the same thing everyone else does... You'll say - "hello."
You'll reach out to see if you are alone and to see if there is anyone who can give you the answer as to how you ended up here. Sometimes we ask how and why to questions for which no one will ever answer back... in those times we are forced to look for our own answer.
When we answer our own questions... our own personal need to know, we often come up with the answer we want or needed to find.
DD, I've never heated that explanation before and I don't think it's the answer at all. Humans submit to other people and other animals out of fear, for survival or respect. The first 2 usually builds resentment. Worship and adoration tend to be the opposite of that.
There are 2 kinds of gods, the ones you appease to the keep them from crushing you and the ones you worship because they protect/guide/provide/etc.
There are also 2 kinds of fear, the fear you have of say Hitler (someone who'd kill you bc he had a bad day) and the fear out of respect you have for something that can harm you but wont under normal circumstances (aka some gods, a father, spiders).
Humans fear wolves because they can tear us to bits. When confronted with one you can do a few things, submit, hold your ground or surely die. None of those actions develop into worship.
First, the concept of describing higher beings, to my knowledge, only happed after we were around, a human 20,000 years ago was exactly the same as we are today in potential capability.
Second, what a human might worship is the recognition that while we are physically weak we are the Alpha when it comes to the mind, we can and have overcome every animal that sought to eats us and every dictator that wished to control us. The same can be said for the large animal, physically it's the Alpha. We both have the same inner power, albeit in different respects, and seeing that may lead one to believe there's something connecting us..a spirit. So we worship the spirit of the wolf in order that the same spirit may inhabit us.
Evolution as a theory has more holes in it than swiss cheese and right or wrong it doesn't preclude the potential that an actual higher being initiated or guided the process. Pure evolution doesn't describe consciousness or why we have certain feelings or a good many of the things that make us step back and wonder at the world.
Also, the universe does not live in perfect balance. The universe is the product of one fundamental force over another. If there was perfect unity then NOTHING would exist except a ball of energy or a vast expanse of equally spread energy. Both removes the possibility for any sort of creation.
The universe, born out of victory (matter over anti-matter) now survives in a state of increasing entropy, less and less order (which isn't the same as chaos). Humans and life beat this fundamental law only because we're not a closed system, we can bring in more energy and order into ourselves...for a time anyway.
Haha, wow. Sorry, I've never heard* that explination before.
Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger
constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood,
garnish'd and deck'd in modest compliment,
not working with the eye without the ear,
and but in purged judgement trusting neither?
Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem.
William Shakespeare
Davy...For everything in life there has to be a catalyst.
true.
It doesn't say that we'll dwell on that why.
As to the rest, I fear you're wrong... 'bout fear.
Man wondwered, as the paintings showed. But.
Fear???
He was learning from experience...
Fire burnt... so that was to be feared.
But, a deity?
No. More to it than that.
... and, surely the experience's, that lead to greater understanding?