In mythology, gods and goddesses maintain or gain power by the worship they receive. Really fervent worship by the greatest number of worshipers is required for a god to stay stronger than the neighboring god. Worship may include approved rituals, giving gifts, and much, much periodic (daily or maybe hourly) praise and glorification to the god (or goddess). Gifts may be of money, jewels, oils, animals, food stuffs, young children [infants for who knows what (eating??, just to steal the innocence??, to show how much the parent is willing to sacrifice -- what kind of insecure sadist is this god??) or prepubescent or teen girls or sometimes boys (for sex for the leaders??, for what/why??). We've heard about the Inca mummified children found in the 1990s, believed to have been a sacrifice about 500 years ago. The bible story of Jephthah's daughter is similar - to thank the god for winning the battle.] -- almost anything considered valuable in the culture of the time could be considered a gift to the gods or goddesses.
Numerous stories were told, each more fanciful than the next, by the campfires, by the towns people and bards or story tellers. As people traveled more, they picked up stories from other areas and added them to their own. Before too long, a specific class of "priests" (by whatever name) were designated as temple "officials" or maybe "elders". The rituals became codified and the gifts better defined. The "priests" told the people what the gods wanted and how the people should behave. The "priests" of course, quickly came to enjoy and rely on their power.
In the ancient days, you can understand people assigning the actions of gods or spirits or other supernatural forces to explain the world around them. It was critical to keep the wind gods happy so the air needed to breathe would stay available, and the volcano gods happy so the volcano didn't get angry and erupt. As humans developed communities and farming, rituals to keep the rain gods happy so the crops would grow. and the sun gods happy so there would be a good harvest were expanded and codified. The gods were capricious though -- if you didn't fawn enough or offer enough praise or goods, they would strike you with famine, or maybe a thunderbolt, plague, or flood. Just as Vesta/Hestia had her virgins, the Catholic Church has its celibate nuns and priests. Just as the North American native peoples had their creation myths, the bible has its creation myth. Just as the ancients had their Elysian Fields and underworld (~800 BCE) the newer religions had Heaven and Hell. All the known civilizations had their own marrying, child welcoming, and burial practices, many made more complex over time by various religions' doctrines.
Paying the "priest" a little extra to put in a good word for you became common practice in many places. The earth was clearly flat and the center of the universe, once they got around to thinking about that (March, 1543 Copernicus upset that idea -- though his work was banned by the church). Giordana Bruno was burned at the stake in Feb, 1600 for saying the earth is round and other solar systems may exist, and Galileo was sentenced to house arrest in 1632 for saying the earth orbits the sun. The church of the time worked closely with the Roman government and so had final say on what was criminal "heresy". Working from earlier works by Kepler (1609) and Brahe (1643), Newton published his ideas on planetary motion and gravity in 1687 (Principia Mathematica). He initially postulated that 'god' must step in to steady the odd orbit of Mercury -- because he couldn't yet explain it naturally. Later, Einstein working from Newton and others developed a more complete theory of gravity and relativity, which is currently (2019) being challenged by astrophysicists.
The stories of hell and eternal torment has been used for centuries to keep followers in line with evolving church doctrines and away from rational thought. Stories of the magnificence of the gods has expanded from a tribe to a continent to a world to a solar system to a universe, as science has discovered more and more. Many refer to this phenomenon as the 'god of the gaps'. The church is determined to keep its favorite fables front and center in the minds of followers (and potential followers). If the church cannot twist their holy writings to match reality, they reject reality. The scientific theory of evolution has been denied and fought by various churches for over a century, in spite of the physical evidence from several branches of science. See Answers In Genesis or The Ark Encounter and similar, for examples of blatant science denial. The claim the earth is less than 10,000, or even 50,000 years old, or that all 7billion or so of us descended from a single middle eastern mud man and rib woman is simply ludicrous. At least my early life church taught that Adam & Eve's offspring went off to find mates from "the other tribes" that god had created -- no incest was involved. Things got fuzzy that way after the "world wide flood" though.
Entire libraries of books have been written on the subject of Jesus' teachings and the rules and teachings gleaned from the old testament of the bible. Opinion articles on the web (like this one) appear daily. How can this one bound book, consisting of several chapters (also called books) be interpreted in so many different ways? This book in two sections, and its related companion the Quran, has spawned at least 3 major religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), each with numerous branches of its own. How do the holy books resolve challenges faced by followers in today's complex world? Remember, these same holy books have been used for centuries to justify racism [here, here], even genocide [Tutsis and Hutus here], the subjugation of women (be silent in church, be subservient to men, not allowed to lead men), child abuse and other distasteful, completely unacceptable practices. So much special privilege has been granted to churches in the U.S., I find it actually funny when they claim persecution or discrimination.
My biggest question has always been Why? Why do people choose to rely on an unjust tyrant god to guide them in life in the 21st century? Why would anyone want to worship such a petty deity in the first place? Richard Dawkins described the OT god as one of the most unpleasant characters in all of fiction (in his book The God Delusion). I have heard that is only the OT god, but nearly as I can tell, the NT god is the same deity according to the bible. Believers constantly trot out the OT stories or rules or laws when it suits their purpose (creation, the 'fall of man', the flood, the 10 commandments). A website by Freedom From Religion Foundation has hot links to several of those descriptors matched to the bible passage example. Many believers have never actually read the whole book, relying instead of what someone, or several someones, has told them. Of course, few tell the whole story contained in the holy books anyway; they cherry-pick and repeat the more palatable parts.
Why does anyone accept ancient writings from thousands of years ago as more accurate than the past 2,000+ years of learning and discovery? Is the fear of hell so embedded in the psyche of believers that they are unable to overcome the indoctrination? There is help available for what's known as Religious Trauma Syndrome if the chains are that binding. There are discussion groups across the web to explore different beliefs, as well as free learning and discussing and skeptical inquiry. Break free of dogma. Education and equality for everyone is the key to most everything in this one life we know we have. Some may say that they're entitled to believe as they wish, which is true to a point. If wholesale belief in fantasy leaves one open to disbelief in reality, how does that do anyone any good?
Numerous stories were told, each more fanciful than the next, by the campfires, by the towns people and bards or story tellers. As people traveled more, they picked up stories from other areas and added them to their own. Before too long, a specific class of "priests" (by whatever name) were designated as temple "officials" or maybe "elders". The rituals became codified and the gifts better defined. The "priests" told the people what the gods wanted and how the people should behave. The "priests" of course, quickly came to enjoy and rely on their power.
In the ancient days, you can understand people assigning the actions of gods or spirits or other supernatural forces to explain the world around them. It was critical to keep the wind gods happy so the air needed to breathe would stay available, and the volcano gods happy so the volcano didn't get angry and erupt. As humans developed communities and farming, rituals to keep the rain gods happy so the crops would grow. and the sun gods happy so there would be a good harvest were expanded and codified. The gods were capricious though -- if you didn't fawn enough or offer enough praise or goods, they would strike you with famine, or maybe a thunderbolt, plague, or flood. Just as Vesta/Hestia had her virgins, the Catholic Church has its celibate nuns and priests. Just as the North American native peoples had their creation myths, the bible has its creation myth. Just as the ancients had their Elysian Fields and underworld (~800 BCE) the newer religions had Heaven and Hell. All the known civilizations had their own marrying, child welcoming, and burial practices, many made more complex over time by various religions' doctrines.
Paying the "priest" a little extra to put in a good word for you became common practice in many places. The earth was clearly flat and the center of the universe, once they got around to thinking about that (March, 1543 Copernicus upset that idea -- though his work was banned by the church). Giordana Bruno was burned at the stake in Feb, 1600 for saying the earth is round and other solar systems may exist, and Galileo was sentenced to house arrest in 1632 for saying the earth orbits the sun. The church of the time worked closely with the Roman government and so had final say on what was criminal "heresy". Working from earlier works by Kepler (1609) and Brahe (1643), Newton published his ideas on planetary motion and gravity in 1687 (Principia Mathematica). He initially postulated that 'god' must step in to steady the odd orbit of Mercury -- because he couldn't yet explain it naturally. Later, Einstein working from Newton and others developed a more complete theory of gravity and relativity, which is currently (2019) being challenged by astrophysicists.
The stories of hell and eternal torment has been used for centuries to keep followers in line with evolving church doctrines and away from rational thought. Stories of the magnificence of the gods has expanded from a tribe to a continent to a world to a solar system to a universe, as science has discovered more and more. Many refer to this phenomenon as the 'god of the gaps'. The church is determined to keep its favorite fables front and center in the minds of followers (and potential followers). If the church cannot twist their holy writings to match reality, they reject reality. The scientific theory of evolution has been denied and fought by various churches for over a century, in spite of the physical evidence from several branches of science. See Answers In Genesis or The Ark Encounter and similar, for examples of blatant science denial. The claim the earth is less than 10,000, or even 50,000 years old, or that all 7billion or so of us descended from a single middle eastern mud man and rib woman is simply ludicrous. At least my early life church taught that Adam & Eve's offspring went off to find mates from "the other tribes" that god had created -- no incest was involved. Things got fuzzy that way after the "world wide flood" though. Entire libraries of books have been written on the subject of Jesus' teachings and the rules and teachings gleaned from the old testament of the bible. Opinion articles on the web (like this one) appear daily. How can this one bound book, consisting of several chapters (also called books) be interpreted in so many different ways? This book in two sections, and its related companion the Quran, has spawned at least 3 major religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), each with numerous branches of its own. How do the holy books resolve challenges faced by followers in today's complex world? Remember, these same holy books have been used for centuries to justify racism [here, here], even genocide [Tutsis and Hutus here], the subjugation of women (be silent in church, be subservient to men, not allowed to lead men), child abuse and other distasteful, completely unacceptable practices. So much special privilege has been granted to churches in the U.S., I find it actually funny when they claim persecution or discrimination.
My biggest question has always been Why? Why do people choose to rely on an unjust tyrant god to guide them in life in the 21st century? Why would anyone want to worship such a petty deity in the first place? Richard Dawkins described the OT god as one of the most unpleasant characters in all of fiction (in his book The God Delusion). I have heard that is only the OT god, but nearly as I can tell, the NT god is the same deity according to the bible. Believers constantly trot out the OT stories or rules or laws when it suits their purpose (creation, the 'fall of man', the flood, the 10 commandments). A website by Freedom From Religion Foundation has hot links to several of those descriptors matched to the bible passage example. Many believers have never actually read the whole book, relying instead of what someone, or several someones, has told them. Of course, few tell the whole story contained in the holy books anyway; they cherry-pick and repeat the more palatable parts. Why does anyone accept ancient writings from thousands of years ago as more accurate than the past 2,000+ years of learning and discovery? Is the fear of hell so embedded in the psyche of believers that they are unable to overcome the indoctrination? There is help available for what's known as Religious Trauma Syndrome if the chains are that binding. There are discussion groups across the web to explore different beliefs, as well as free learning and discussing and skeptical inquiry. Break free of dogma. Education and equality for everyone is the key to most everything in this one life we know we have. Some may say that they're entitled to believe as they wish, which is true to a point. If wholesale belief in fantasy leaves one open to disbelief in reality, how does that do anyone any good?
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