On Thu, 10 Feb 2000 21:31:39 +0000 glenn morton <mortongr@flash.net>
writes:
> At 04:17 PM 2/10/00 -0700, dfsiemensjr@juno.com wrote:
>
> I think this also bears
> >on Glenn's problem with non-human hominids. IMO, whatever "cousins"
> we
> >may have had in the past, all persons now living are descendants of
> the
> >first man, the first entity to bear the image of God. Empirically,
> the
> >evidence of this is that all races are completely interfertile and
> all
> >are religious--though some of the religions are strange and some
> are not
> >recognized as such.
>
> I fully agree that all on earth are descended from Adam. But I must
> make a
> minor correction to the statment that all are religious. I hear this
> a lot
> but it may not be true. I had a boss who was an atheist who was the
> most
> consistent non-religious person I have ever known. He knew of my
> religious
> persuasions and didn't care nor did he find religion interesting
> although
> we had many conversations about it. He honestly thought it was an
> irrelevancy.
>
> Beyond that there are the Ona, a tribe of Tierra del Fuegans.
> "During the many hours I passed in the Lodge, listening to
> the exhorations
> of the older men, and during the years I spent almost exclusively in
> the
> company of the Ona Indiands, I never heard a word that pointed to
> religion
> or worship of any kind; no expectation or hope of reward--no fear of
> punishement--in a future life. There was dread of death by
> witchcraft and a
> lesser dread of the ghosts of the woods, but not the ghosts of the
> departed
> dead. Respect there was for individual mountains such as Heuhupen,
> who,
> annoyed at being rudely pointed at, might wrap herself in clouds and
> bring
> on bad weather. Fear of death, end of life, may have existed;
> possibly
> some unexpressed terror of the unknown; but there was no worship, no
> prayer, no god, no devil." ~ E. Lucas Bridges, The Uttermost Part of
> the
> Earth, (New York: Dutton, 1949), p.429
>
> Thus it may not be factually correct that all men are religious.
> glenn
>
Sorry, Glenn, but what you have written falls under my last quoted
clauses. Religion does not have to have a formal ritual or statement of
faith. Your atheistic boss rather obviously held himself as the highest
possible entity. Where a Christian expresses his dependence on God (we
call it prayer whether personal or corporate), he acted out his personal
or racial adequacy. I have no way of knowing how he might have reacted
under extreme stress, whether with the bombast of "Invictus," the
proverbial "no atheists in foxholes," or a brute-like acceptance.
As for the Ona, they may have lost the concept of a transcendent power
and a destiny beyond this life, but they had a mountain god who had to be
placated by what they didn't do, nature spirits of some sort, shamans who
could control matters by some power beyond that possessed by the common
run. These are all elements of religion, though of a very degenerate
kind.
I see no reason to change my claim that all men are religious, the
possible exceptions being the very young and severely mentally
handicapped, who seem incapable of recognizing any religious notion. But
I know better than to equate understanding with vocabulary, hence my
qualification of "possible."
Dave
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