Have you ever watched a documentary on primitive tribes? Have you seen the reaction of those very primitive tribes in the Amazon to amazing magical devices like television cameras and clothing? Yeah, from our “modern” perspective it seems rather silly, but when you are basically living like people have for thousands of years, untarnished by modern society, everything we do seems magical. It’s like Arthur C. Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” So, in that context, it makes perfect sense that they respond to earthquakes, volcanoes, thunderstorms, drought and any other natural event that is beyond their meager understanding with ritual sacrifices, dancing and chanting. It makes sense for a group of people who cannot know what the stars really are, or how volcanoes work. They have no scientific method for creating theories of how nature works; no naturalistic model that they can hang a hat on – that is, if they had invented hats. These primitive people live in the moment, with verbal history passed from generation to generation as myths and storytelling.

When you see the reactionary behavior of modern fundamentalists (I will acknowledge here that many “religious” individuals are in fact not all that religious, and do not take biblical accounts as literal) you have to draw a comparison to the reaction of primitive tribes to mysterious events that are beyond their control. When hurricanes hit New Orleans, they have to attribute it to their god in the sky getting angry about sodomy. They have, for some reason, accepted that the clouds don’t move and the flowers don’t grow, but for the grace of God. When they see tiny organisms in the microscope, they have to attribute the flagella to a “sky engineer”. Because they can’t fully explain gaps in their knowledge, they give up entirely on understanding, they shun scientific explanations and they are fundamentally more satisfied with looking at rainbows as “smiles from God” than refraction of light by water droplets. The Young Earth Creationists would rather deny the expanse and age of the universe, deny the fossil record and accept the convoluted explanation that God is playing tricks on those who would even TRY to understand the universe. Rather than just being satisfied with what we know of nature, they prefer a fractured fairy tale passed down from primitive tribes who sat around campfires making up stories about stars and comets and our origins.

It always amazes me that a staunch religious believer will look at the Big Bang and say it isn’t satisfactory because it doesn’t tell us WHY the universe was made and by whom. They can’t understand HOW it happened, so they presume it had to be that same sky-god. They don’t approach the recursive question of who breathed life into that sky-god, because their thinking stops right where it did for those primitive tribes. Yet, in stark comparison, the scientists says, “Well, I don’t have an answer for that, but I’m not losing sleep over it, there are lots of things we don’t know yet, but we’re making progress every day!” You tell me which is the more mature and rational perspective.

I can understand why many Americans are caught up in “born-again” evangelical Christianity. There is a pay-off that anyone who has been involved in multi-level marketing, like Amway can understand. In fact, they both use similar “cult-like” techniques. They try to get you hooked, by having friends tell you why it is so great. With religion, the indoctrination starts at birth. So, you have lots of social activities and fun with your friends, and as long as you don’t rock the boat, it continues. Religion feeds your ego, and tells you you are special, unless you question things and then you are threatened with eternal damnation and socially ostracized. You need the “love” of the charismatic cult leader, the god-figure, and you are told how important it is that you worship him. You are told to go out and recruit more people, and you get rewarded for getting more converts to the cult. They make it painful if you try to leave “the fold”. You spend much of your time and energy, and lose sleep thinking about God and the church. You get together with your friends and chant and perform rituals, that seem silly to heathen outsiders. Modern religion refines MLM and cult techniques to create an army of blindly devoted followers.

I will be criticized by those who are “spiritual” and those who only spend a couple hours on a Sunday performing rituals and chanting, but I am going to stick to my guns. These people get something out of religion, and for many it is a positive thing. When it becomes the center of their lives, and they start recruiting friends or denying evolution, then I worry that they are being brainwashed and don’t have a firm grasp on reality anymore. They would chuckle at the primitive tribes in those documentaries, but they will no doubt refuse to admit any resemblance between their reaction to things they can’t understand and the primitive tribesmen who fall down and pray when the earth trembles. It is harmful to think that nature is being controlled by a puppet master. Living life without questioning things, or denying what you observe is dangerous. You must take control of your life, and not expect that some god is your co-pilot. You are at the wheel. You are responsible. You can choose to make a difference and make the world better, or not. But, please don’t be an asshole in this life, because you think it guarantees you a spot in heaven.

Michael Shermer and others claim that we are hard-wired to “need to believe outrageous things”, but I think we must attempt to surpass that primitive instinct and learn to say, “Today I do not know what causes that, but that is ok, there are lots of things I don’t know and it doesn’t make sense to conclude that unexplained events have to be the doings of the supernatureal. Not knowing is fine with me. We will keep exploring and learning and someday we may understand what makes that bright light or loud sound.”

Similar Posts:

• The Dark Ages & Religion
• Heaven, Hell & Heathens
• Twitter, Pownce, Plurk, oh my!
• Deep Impact, Deep Science
• Quad City & Illegal Fireworks