What is a religion? What is its role in human evolution? Yuval Noah Harari gives an interesting and convincing explanation in his book ‘Sapiens’:
It is a system of human norms and values that is founded on a belief of a superhuman order.
The foragers of the second millennium BC would have believed in several spirits to placate, such as a fig-tree spirit lest the sickness of his child would not be cured; the evolution of foragers to agricultural society needed many gods to mediate between humans and the mute plants and animals; the religious liturgy consisted mainly of sacrificing lambs offering food to divine powers in exchange of abundant harvests and fecund flocks! This led to the evolution of polytheistic religions based on the belief that the world is controlled by a group of powerful Gods such as fertility Goddess, the rain God, the war God etc., Thus the emergence of polytheistic religions! While monotheistic belief considered the existence of a single supreme, polytheistic religions believed in several Gods with specific powers but under the command of a supreme God.
Two thousand years of monotheistic brainwashing in certain religions, caused the ‘rationale thinkers’ to see polytheism as ignorant and childish idolatry! Is that true: history speaks otherwise!
The polytheistic religions are generally tolerant to other religious beliefs unlike the monotheistic: the examples of Greek, Hindu or Yoruba of west Africa rarely engaged in mass religious massacres such as that in Christianity (between Protestants and catholics or the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572). The least you speak about of the upheavals in the Middle East and its impact crossing the ocean boundaries in the recent history, the better!
Why so? Polytheism believed in a supreme power controlling the smaller ones and hence there is no difficulty for the devotees to accept the existence and efficacy of other Gods; after all the religions are founded in superhuman order! and hence they are open minded and rarely persecuted ‘heretics’ and ‘infidels’!
Could there be a world order without distrust arising out of religious contradictions? after all, all these religions are out of mythical beliefs? Are there not more pressing problems that need attention?
what is the reason for the countries in the East, China, India, Egypt or Rome who were culturally, economically and religiously supreme till the late 17th centuries, faded away? How is that the near non existent Americans and those insignificant Europeans rose to rule the world after the 18th century?
Why the golden era of Ottoman Empire did not fuel the technological progress? Is it that a peaceful life would only propel fine arts and not pursuits in knowledge? Why scientific education and institutions did not flourish in the east while small western countries such as England, Austria, Germany, Italy attracted scholars from around the world: Many of them flourished on corporate funding rather than public funding. Government funded only when it had to rely on these expertise during wartime.
Those in the east saw no reason to change their quiescent life style which made them merely complacent; they over relied on their age old traditions and refused to rationally innovate which could have made them scientifically inquisitive!
Western culture believed nothing is infallible while east continued to dwell on its unshaken faith on traditions and the infallibility of the scriptures; could this be the magic behind the catapulted growth of west in the late 18th century? This might have provided a fertile ground for the accelerated growth of science and technology additionally fuelled by the intervening world wars.
Is the clock now turning a full circle? Are the giants of 17th century, China and india, returning to rule the new world? It could possibly so with both of them in the stunning resurrected growth trajectory…
Religion is no more relevant in this new world: it is economics, trade and commerce… Though these countries are pursuing their growth path in different political directions, the goal is the same…minor distractions would not deter the two giants in reaching the goal!!!!
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