Question...

[nomanshake]

Hey thanks Lunamoth,

No doubt this website is very informative, the best religious sight I have gone through the net yet. But still what was there before these religions? What religion were Adam and Eve given ? To me that is one important question for a man of belief in God, because we should follow a religion that Adam and Eve were given? But what religion were they given ?

[lunamoth]

Originally Posted by getwallyfied

Now, were you to have just ONE person live and grow completely by themselves, without another person or any outside influence, I doubt they would build any religious beliefs. Instead, they would just live, fight to survive, and die through their course of existence.

Hello, getwallyfied. Welcome to CR.

This is an interesting way to look at it. I really wonder what would happen, or if it would depend mostly on the particular individual and what kind of socialization they were exposed to before isolation (I mean, they must at least have been cared for by a mother for part of their life). On the one hand I think it quite possible that you're right--they'd just scratch out an existence and that would be it. Companionship is a pretty basic human need and living in total isolation might push someone to insanity if they did not find some kind of way to deal with the stress of isolation. Might push some into a kind of transcendent experience. Spirituality is personal and everyone has a spirituality, even if it is secular or based upon things of this world (which I think applies to greater or lesser degrees to pretty much most of us ). A transcendent experience, in turn, might cause that person to develop something more like a religious spirituality.

peace,
lunamoth

[brucegdc]

Originally Posted by nomanshake

Hey thanks Lunamoth,

No doubt this website is very informative, the best religious sight I have gone through the net yet. But still what was there before these religions? What religion were Adam and Eve given ? To me that is one important question for a man of belief in God, because we should follow a religion that Adam and Eve were given? But what religion were they given ?

Well, since you're being biblical about it, you're restricting the scope to Christianity/Judaism/Islam (and affiliated sects, e.g. JWs, Mormon).

If you are doing that, referencing Genesis is a good idea. The only rule they were given is "don't eat that". So don't. If you find a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, don't eat from it. (Sorry, several hundred miles from my copy of the Koran, so don't remember what the genesis story is in there - but the Christian & Jewish versions are identical).

Anthropologically speaking, though, there's a great deal of evidence of nature-based religions being preeminant well before the advent of Judaism and the later religions.

On another note, the answer to the first question of a baby in the wilderness with no parents, the most likely religion they'll have is "oh no, I'm dead", since their survival is highly unlikely.

... Bruce

[getwallyfied]

Originally Posted by brucegdc

the most likely religion they'll have is "oh no, I'm dead", since their survival is highly unlikely.

[Awaiting_the_fifth]

If this person grew up without any human contact whatsoever then they would have no concept of language and so would have a totally different method of thinking to the rest of us (who think in words).

I think that this person would be a lot closer to the truth than most of us. Our minds are shaped by our parents and forced into certain delusions, we learn to define everything by names which really are only sounds.

If, as most people here seem to think, this person would acknowledge God (and I most certainly do not accept that) then (s)he would not call it "God" because he would not know the word. Because of this (s)he would be required to truly understand what God is in order to believe in him.

So if it is true that belief in God is instinctive, then the child who has never had any human contact would be spiritually superior to all of us.

[presser_kun]

It's an interesting question: Would a person without any influence from others develop religion on her own?

I tend to think the answer is yes. Here's why.

Humans are by nature curious. We look for reasons. When the thunderstorm comes, we wonder why. Perhaps a human in the wild would think the sky was angry. I doubt she would assume that impersonal natural forces would unite to cause a thunderstorm.

Why?

Because we only see action from living beings. Rocks, trees, dirt, grass -- these things do not move, and they do not move other things. Animals, insects, and humans do. They act. They make things happen.

It's a natural and easy leap from that realization to the supposition that the thunderstorm must be caused by a living being, but one superior to humans. After all, the whole sky lights up and roars.

I'd call this religion. The primitive attributes actions in nature to a living being.

Many of nature's acts (see? We call them "acts of nature") are scary, frightening. So it's also natural that we would want to appease the being responsible.

It's also easy to make connections that seem logical but aren't.

Many of us have had the experience of something electronic failing at the moment something else occurs, and assuming that the occurence is responsible for the failure, e.g., I click Send and my OS crashes. "What did I do to make that happen?", or "Why did that cause a crash?" are natural questions.

But often these occurences are coincidental to each other.

So. Primitive people, afraid of the noisy sky, bow and cry out. And the storm stops.

"We cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard us! The mighty rain did cease at the Lord's command."

This, it seems to me, is the genesis of all religion.

I don't mean, however, that all religion is wrong, or based on a misunderstanding or misinterpretation of natural forces, not at all. It's quite possible that our desire to explain things is God-given, an impetus within us that God uses to draw us to him, step by step.

What do I believe?

Well, I'm not really sure. I used to be a Christian fundamentalist, but now I describe myself as a thoughtful seeker who's looking for a bigger understanding of God than any one religion or denomination can provide.

Hence my presence here.

peace,

presser_kun