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Religion was not "created", but is intrinsic to man. Man is by nature a religious creature. This is demonstrated in the fact that all human societies from the most primitive to the most advanced have always had religion.
You are conflating the outcomes (religions) of our religious nature with the source of the outcomes. The outcomes are definitely "created" reflecting the diversity of our responses to our religious instinct.
Religion was not "created", but is intrinsic to man. Man is by nature a religious creature. This is demonstrated in the fact that all human societies from the most primitive to the most advanced have always had religion.
Man is by nature a sloppy thinker, and prone to all sorts of confirmation bias, agency inference, and various other logical fallacies unless one studies logical fallacies and practices identifying and rooting them out of one's thinking.
So what is intrinsic to man is imperfect cognition and imperfect perceptual equipment, used in an unaware or undisciplined fashion. Religion is just the most sophisticated expression of that.
I hasten to point out that not all religion is 110% "all in" with this kind of thinking. It varies. But in the main, it serves to spare people bare-metal reality through learned helplessness. By this I mean that so many things I once considered unthinkable are not only not that bad, but have distinct upsides. WRT to just one such thing, the afterlife, I revel in the finite nature of my consciousness, the preciousness of the only life I can reasonably expect to have, and the comfort that whatever tribulations I pass through will not last forever. It's all in how you choose to frame it. I do not need or want immortality. But most people have been conditioned to think that there's no hope without it.
You are conflating the outcomes (religions) of our religious nature with the source of the outcomes. The outcomes are definitely "created" reflecting the diversity of our responses to our religious instinct.
You're right, my verbiage could have been more precise.
I should have said that the religious instinct is intrinsic to man.
I'm not sure it's just 'from time to time' for MANY. I think there's a huge gap between a person saying, "I'm a christian" and a person being a christian (or any other religion, for that matter). And I'm not talking about slightly different interpretations of a holy book.
I'm talking about the christian (or Buddhist) who considers himself devout, who is a married man or woman who is having an affair, or has had several.
I'm talking about the christian (or Muslim) who considers himself devout, who goes to the race track or Las Vegas (to gamble) on a frequent basis.
or any other numbers of behaviors that are not devout in any sense of the word.
I don't think it has anything to do with struggling with belief. For most I think it has more to do with giving lip service to a belief that they have fallen into based primarily on location (christianity if you're American or British, Hindu if you're Indian, Buddhism if you're from Southeast Asia, Islam if you're from Saudi Arabia, etc.
I think the clear trend is toward Americans being nominal christians.
When I was still living in Colorado Springs, I would drive down this one hill toward I-25 and there was this huge billboard put up by a church (don't remember which one), and the billboard pointed out that 64% of christian men are 'into' pornography. I'm not sure what that says, but it's not good.
I can't disagree here.
It may or may not have to do with struggling with belief. Some people genuinely do struggle in the sense that their cognitive dissonance bothers them and they actively work to overcome it. Some don't give it a second thought, so in that sense it's not a struggle at all.
"Religion was not 'created,' but intrinsic to man?"
Are we also not able to recognize all about religion that was clearly created by man?
Additionally, that religion has been a part of our history since our most primitive times doesn't prove religion is " 'intrinsic' to man." Does it? (You said you invite challenge of your comments)...
We're inclined to do things as a result of not understanding what is going on around us. We have a long history that well demonstrates this fact. Like when some of us used to dance to bring rain, or offer human sacrifices to please the gods, but does this mean religion is intrinsic to man or that our way of dealing with the unknown is our intrinsic inclination?
Interesting question to ponder as I sign off now, but at a minimum let's recognize the conclusion you make here is not a given or subject to no other explanation. Be interesting if you have some better fact-based justification for this proclamation as well. If so, can you provide it? Perhaps for if/when I return here tomorrow?
If you please...
As I clarified to Mystic in this post, I ought to have specified that the religious instinct is intrinsic to man. Sorry for the confusion.
It's true that the outgrowth of this instinct, i.e. the countless religious systems and rituals, were invented by man - with a little help, either diabolic or Divine.
I don't think it would be accurate to say that True Religion is a creation of man. True Religion comes to us through Divine Revelation.
Man is by nature a sloppy thinker, and prone to all sorts of confirmation bias, agency inference, and various other logical fallacies unless one studies logical fallacies and practices identifying and rooting them out of one's thinking.
So what is intrinsic to man is imperfect cognition and imperfect perceptual equipment, used in an unaware or undisciplined fashion. Religion is just the most sophisticated expression of that.
I disagree that these things you listed are intrinsic to man. These various defects or shortcomings are a result of man's fall. It was not always so from the beginning.
Man has a religious instinct. However, because of the fall, that instinct is defective and can be misplaced or even grossly contorted, resulting in all kinds of evil. For example, human sacrifice, ritual rape, etc.
It may or may not have to do with struggling with belief. Some people genuinely do struggle in the sense that their cognitive dissonance bothers them and they actively work to overcome it. Some don't give it a second thought, so in that sense it's not a struggle at all.
Man is by nature a sloppy thinker, and prone to all sorts of confirmation bias, agency inference, and various other logical fallacies unless one studies logical fallacies and practices identifying and rooting them out of one's thinking.
So what is intrinsic to man is imperfect cognition and imperfect perceptual equipment, used in an unaware or undisciplined fashion. Religion is just the most sophisticated expression of that.
I hasten to point out that not all religion is 110% "all in" with this kind of thinking. It varies. But in the main, it serves to spare people bare-metal reality through learned helplessness. By this I mean that so many things I once considered unthinkable are not only not that bad, but have distinct upsides. WRT to just one such thing, the afterlife, I revel in the finite nature of my consciousness, the preciousness of the only life I can reasonably expect to have, and the comfort that whatever tribulations I pass through will not last forever. It's all in how you choose to frame it. I do not need or want immortality. But most people have been conditioned to think that there's no hope without it.
Nice to think there are others who are aware and concerned about the challenges of confirmation bias...
I started a thread about this to bring attention to this problem sometime back and actually had people asking "what is confirmation bias?"
As I clarified to Mystic in this post, I ought to have specified that the religious instinct is intrinsic to man. Sorry for the confusion.
It's true that the outgrowth of this instinct, i.e. the countless religious systems and rituals, were invented by man - with a little help, either diabolic or Divine.
I don't think it would be accurate to say that True Religion is a creation of man. True Religion comes to us through Divine Revelation.
I'm just as perplexed by the notion religious instinct is intrinsic to man. Not really sure what that even means. You had me look up the definition of the word instinct as I was scratching my head about this notion too...
in·stinct
noun
/ˈinstiNG(k)t/
an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior in animals in response to certain stimuli.
I really doubt any of us humans have ever been born with a "religious instinct." After the first humans dealt with the stimuli about the world around them that had them coming up with all sorts of explanations that couldn't really be called religious, eventually those notions (imaginations, stories, myths, speculations) evolved into what we now know as religions and/or other non-religious notions. After those first humans, all those various notions were passed down to the next generations and that learning also had nothing to do with any "religious instincts."
All man's creation in any case. Without exception. Man's creation coupled with man's inclination to pass what they think they know to the next generation for all manner of reasons that also too often have little to do with the truth of these matters, but rather, what suits us to believe.
I really doubt any of us humans have ever been born with a "religious instinct." ...
I took that differently than I think you did. I saw it as meaning that man wants explanations of life around him and why things happen, and there was an 'instinct' to want to attribute a lot of things to a 'greater power'.
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