Z
Variable Constant
A thought just occured to me, and I don't know what to make of it.
Examine the evolution of religion through the ages versus the evolution of science.
As near as we can tell, religion started as a form of animism, then progressed into a primitive goddess-worship, which was very similar world-wide. Then some fantastic diversification happened, a lot of religions formed embracing just about everything.
Then a patriarchal faith emerged and began stamping out other faiths, but itself diversified heavily.
Since fragments of all of these religions survived, the result is what started as a fairly common concept (animism) has turned into a vast sprawl of faiths. It may be rationalized that 'Judaism/Christianity/Islam' has gained dominance, but it should be recognized that this encompasses literally thousands of (often conflicting) faith systems.
In fact, I dare say, there are probably literally tens of thousands of religions world-wide, each proclaiming truth to some degree.
On the other hand, science was all but non-existent at first, but has progressed as man has had to learn more about his world. Sadly, I don't know the proper progression of science, but it is easy to see a few points:
1) Once something is disproven, it generally remains disproven, such as the flat earth or the Earth-centered universe. Yes, some Flat Earthers remain, but by and large, all scientists accept a non-flat Earth.
2) Scientists generally attempt to reach 'common ground' and work hard to learn the truth - often having to disprove their own pet theorems.
3) In spite of diverse fields of science, science as a whole follows one model, one system, one mode of operation (Now, this may be false; I assume the vast majority of scientists use the 'Scientific Method' and work under similar understandings of hypothesis, theorem, and 'law'... but that might not be so). Since this obviously wasn't true in the Past, then it's clear that science is slowly but surely unifying.
So religion, in spite of general wide-spread favor, is diversifying and sprawling so that no one religion is really too popular; but science, while growing more slowly, is becoming more solid and consistant, and may even be unifying.
Obviously there are exceptions both ways, and I don't claim to know for sure if the science side of this argument is true...
But just look at the state 'Christianity' is in.
religioustolerance.org on Christianity
"Christian faith groups:
One source estimates that there are 34,000 separate Christian groups in the world.
We have attempted to sort them into:
Three meta-groups, (Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism)
Three wings, (conservative, mainline and liberal)
Fifteen Religious families, (Adventist, Baptist, Lutheran, Reform....)
Dozens of denominations, (from the Amish to The Way), and
Many systems of belief (Arminianism, British Israelism, Calvinism...)"
Just from this, we see that Christianity is a vast generic term, hardly a 'religion' at all, that encompasses thousands of individual belief systems.
If there was truth to religion, why aren't religions unifying? Why this mass diversification?
I propose that this diversification is due to one fact: there is no underlying truth behind any specific religion.
Anyway... not sure what to make of this thought...
Examine the evolution of religion through the ages versus the evolution of science.
As near as we can tell, religion started as a form of animism, then progressed into a primitive goddess-worship, which was very similar world-wide. Then some fantastic diversification happened, a lot of religions formed embracing just about everything.
Then a patriarchal faith emerged and began stamping out other faiths, but itself diversified heavily.
Since fragments of all of these religions survived, the result is what started as a fairly common concept (animism) has turned into a vast sprawl of faiths. It may be rationalized that 'Judaism/Christianity/Islam' has gained dominance, but it should be recognized that this encompasses literally thousands of (often conflicting) faith systems.
In fact, I dare say, there are probably literally tens of thousands of religions world-wide, each proclaiming truth to some degree.
On the other hand, science was all but non-existent at first, but has progressed as man has had to learn more about his world. Sadly, I don't know the proper progression of science, but it is easy to see a few points:
1) Once something is disproven, it generally remains disproven, such as the flat earth or the Earth-centered universe. Yes, some Flat Earthers remain, but by and large, all scientists accept a non-flat Earth.
2) Scientists generally attempt to reach 'common ground' and work hard to learn the truth - often having to disprove their own pet theorems.
3) In spite of diverse fields of science, science as a whole follows one model, one system, one mode of operation (Now, this may be false; I assume the vast majority of scientists use the 'Scientific Method' and work under similar understandings of hypothesis, theorem, and 'law'... but that might not be so). Since this obviously wasn't true in the Past, then it's clear that science is slowly but surely unifying.
So religion, in spite of general wide-spread favor, is diversifying and sprawling so that no one religion is really too popular; but science, while growing more slowly, is becoming more solid and consistant, and may even be unifying.
Obviously there are exceptions both ways, and I don't claim to know for sure if the science side of this argument is true...
But just look at the state 'Christianity' is in.
religioustolerance.org on Christianity
"Christian faith groups:
One source estimates that there are 34,000 separate Christian groups in the world.
We have attempted to sort them into:
Three meta-groups, (Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism)
Three wings, (conservative, mainline and liberal)
Fifteen Religious families, (Adventist, Baptist, Lutheran, Reform....)
Dozens of denominations, (from the Amish to The Way), and
Many systems of belief (Arminianism, British Israelism, Calvinism...)"
Just from this, we see that Christianity is a vast generic term, hardly a 'religion' at all, that encompasses thousands of individual belief systems.
If there was truth to religion, why aren't religions unifying? Why this mass diversification?
I propose that this diversification is due to one fact: there is no underlying truth behind any specific religion.
Anyway... not sure what to make of this thought...
