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Yes, humanity evolved to be smart and aware enough to grow a "spirituality" or "religion bone." It's built-in. Lots choose to ignore it or reject it. We are smart enough not to act merely on instinct alone anymore, but neither are our intellectual conclusions always correct.
Early on, humans worshipped the gods they perceived to be in control of what was NOT in OUR control. Important stuff, like crops and rain and fertility. Mostly, we worshipped the gods to appease them and make them happy, so they would "bless" us and not do stuff to screw around with us and make our lives difficult.
Science "grew up," and then there wasn't so very much connected to religion. Things became understandable which were not so, hundreds or thousands of years prior. But humanity is possessed of a sensibility that there is indeed Something or Someone greater than ourselves. Is it a PERSONAL God? We tend to speak that way because it comes naturally to us. But by definition, "God" defies our categories. we will never completely be able to understand Him/Her or "nail him down," put Him in a box. There is the ironic awareness of a Transcendent God, but who is also often immanent, too.
I saw an article the other day of a fossilized praying mantis that was found. Scientists found the fossil to be around 110 million years old. It made me curious... what was society like during that time? The first dinosaur, according to science, existed over 200 million years ago. Science says the evidence of the first human beings existed 2 million years ago. Again I ask, what was society like? Did religion exist?
Who came up with the idea of "God"? Who decided "hey, we need to worship God"? Christianity definitely did not exist until Jesus came. For a million years, there was no Christianity on a planet inhabited by humans, which also makes me wonder if the first humans ever asked themselves "what happens after we die?" or if they themselves had near-death experiences.
OP I saw the same article and some different thoughts. First, if its 110 million years old, why is exactly the same as a modern day praying mantis? Where is the evolution?
Actually, a really interesting take is that if you were to pull air from that amber in an air pocket or any other piece of really old amber, science has confirmed that they have 32% oxygen, as compared to the oxygen level of 21% today. What we do know is that the atmosphere on Earth used to be much different than it is today.
The Bible provides the story on how that happened, as there used to be an ice shield around the Earth. Post-flood world atmospheric levels changed, it now began to rain on earth, humans went from living 1,000 years to 120 years, the new atmospheric levels couldn't make dinosaurs and other animals live.
Post flood, humans created the Tower of Babel in Babylon (Iraq) and then the fallout of that story happened, and humans were forced to cross the globe. Just about every ancient civilization from China to South America has the similar flood and Babylon story in its history.
Now if you go back to the Bible, there is a complete ancestry genealogy from Adam all the way to the Jesus in Matthew and Luke (Luke starts from Abraham). So there is the entire story of mankind and religion from Adam to Jesus.
Now here is the kicker for other Christians who might not know, but during during Tribulation and by the time Jesus returns the Earth is going to go through another massive transformation just like it did in the days of Noah (comets, earthquakes, other events), but when Jesus returns people lives will be drastically increased up to thousand years, animals wont be afraid of man, animals will be vegetarians etc. Pretty wild stuff.
]Man was created for the purpose of worshipping God.[/b] The origin of man was not accidental or without intention.
There was never a time that man was not religious, nor will there ever be a time.
There was no "idea of God" to come up with. God created the first man directly and "walked" with him in the garden according to Genesis 3.
The first man damaged mankind's relationship with God through his act of disobedience; but the knowledge of God and the knowledge of what was lost remained with him.
That you can accept that God needs to be worshiped exposes the immaturity of your spiritual beliefs, IMO. No wonder you accept the Catholic dogma so completely! God is Spirit. Spirit exists in consciousness. Those who produce consciousness,"reproduce "Spirit" (are the "children" of God). Children are not worshippers. Worship is for OUR benefit to establish the right stateof mind (Spirit) to be compatible with God's Holy Spirit. If the Spirit produced is compatible it joins God. If not - who knows???
That you can accept that God needs to be worshiped exposes the immaturity of your spiritual beliefs, IMO. No wonder you accept the Catholic dogma so completely! God is Spirit. Spirit exists in consciousness. Those who produce consciousness,"reproduce "Spirit" (are the "children" of God). Children are not worshippers. Worship is for OUR benefit to establish the right stateof mind (Spirit) to be compatible with God's Holy Spirit. If the Spirit produced is compatible it joins God. If not - who knows???
God doesn't need to be worshipped. God was perfectly content for an eternity before He ever created man, and He certainly didn't create man out of any kind of lack or deficiency on His part.
God is so Good that He wanted to share His abounding Goodness with other rational creatures who are capable of love. As fallen creatures, worship via sacrifice is the best and highest form of love that we can possibly express.
I really hope you're right. An eternity of nothing but "worship" sounds hellish to me. God is relational, as I understand it. I hope he shares his marvelous Universe with us. Awe and admiration will naturally come from that. I hope he wants to share ALL of his marvelous creation of the Universe with us, and maybe other sentient beings from other planets. No spaceships required.
God is in Nature, to me. My awe of Nature is my worship. Sure, church helps, but awe of Nature is primary to me.
To be honest, I have often wondered WHY God requires worship. Awe and admiration, sure, but worship? It sounds insecure. I accept it, but I don't understand it.
What makes me curious and none of us may have the answer to this is:
Humans existed for a little over a million years. Let me repeat that again: a million years.
Then out of nowhere, God decides humans needed a savior and picked Mary to be the one to give birth to Jesus. It seems so.....random. Why did God suddenly decide to give us Jesus after a million years?
What makes me curious and none of us may have the answer to this is:
Humans existed for a little over a million years. Let me repeat that again: a million years.
Then out of nowhere, God decides humans needed a savior and picked Mary to be the one to give birth to Jesus. It seems so.....random. Why did God suddenly decide to give us Jesus after a million years?
Again, let me repeat myself: a MILLION years.
The lesson here is: don't think of religion as living in a vacuum, divorced from the rest of life: history, anthropology, and all the rest.
In the century or two before Jesus of Nazareth showed up, Judaism grew a "messianic" branch from off its main tree trunk. John The Baptist was a good example. There were others who were convinced that a messiah was due soon, and they were more explicitly political--- like Simon, "the Zealot Party member," ALONG WITH Judas Iscariot. So there were uprisings against Roman occupation. Not dissimilar from Palestinian uprisings against Israeli occupation and blockade, today!
The Romans killed all uprisings, brutally..... Jesus comes. There are some indications that he was a disciple of John, until John was arrested. THEN, Jesus began his own ministry. (see Mk. 1:9 and 1:14.)
The earliest Christians continued to be fellow Jews, but with a twist: they believed the messiah had come and it was Jesus. In the 80s, about 50-years after earthly Jesus was gone, the Jewish authorities finally put a stop to it. Jews who believed in Jesus could no longer call themselves Jews. it took a few decades to shake-out. And the church became a gentile thing.
Like so many religions, things were written of Jesus. Tied to events, but written with imagination. The gospels are theology more than biography. The Infancy Narratives are a perfect example. "Luke" and "Matthew" dreamed that stuff up. By the 80s, when each of them was writing, NEW questions about Jesus arose. It was an attempt to satisfy the curiosity of believers around them. In John, the Prologue takes things back even to pre-history; pre-creation, even!
The origin of true religion came through Adam family to Joseph who was Jesus dad many of which lived 900 years old and after Noah they lived 300 to 250 years to Abraham who lived 175 years who are the witness of the Living God ....... Some had other witness of God like Moses and Elijah who started and prophecy school and miracles came showing God before Jesus came
What makes me curious and none of us may have the answer to this is:
Humans existed for a little over a million years. Let me repeat that again: a million years.
Then out of nowhere, God decides humans needed a savior and picked Mary to be the one to give birth to Jesus. It seems so.....random. Why did God suddenly decide to give us Jesus after a million years?
Again, let me repeat myself: a MILLION years.
If you believe in the evolution of man from lower forms of life, then there is no point in following any kind of traditional, orthodox Christianity. Both cannot be true.
If you want to follow some kind of unorthodox, non-traditional form of Christianity, more power to you; I just don't see the point
What makes me curious and none of us may have the answer to this is:
Humans existed for a little over a million years. Let me repeat that again: a million years.
Then out of nowhere, God decides humans needed a savior and picked Mary to be the one to give birth to Jesus. It seems so.....random. Why did God suddenly decide to give us Jesus after a million years?
Again, let me repeat myself: a MILLION years.
Out of nowhere? Not hardly. According to scripture, God planned salvation through Christ from the beginning.
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