 Fantasy: July 01, 2015 Issue [#7072] |
  Fantasy
This week: Religion Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.
-Swami Vivekananda
When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.
-Abraham Lincoln
Religion is part of the human make-up. It's also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith healing, our first attempt at philosophy.
-Christopher Hitchens
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A few years ago, I saw an article about an archeological site in Ethiopia that was dated at something like 10,000 years ago. I can't find any mention of it now using a quick Google search, so you're just going to have to take my word for it (or not).
At this cave, which, again, was dated to a time before we started writing stuff down in Mesopotamia, there was evidence of worship of some sort of ophidian deity: a snake god. Nothing out of the ordinary for ancient civilizations, but what was interesting was the way the cave was set up.
There was the main chamber, complete with illustrations of the serpent god. But they also found a secondary chamber, the entrance to which was hidden from view of the main chamber. This secondary cave was just big enough for a human to crawl into, and it was located right behind the main image of the snake god. And there were some small openings between the two.
You probably see where I'm going with this, but I'll spell it out anyway. Presumably, a priest would crawl into the chamber while the tribe was in there, and when he spoke, it would appear as if the snake god was talking directly to the congregation.
Now, people 10,000 years ago weren't generally stupid. They might have lacked some of our modern conveniences like toilets and flashlights, but remember, these people were just as curious, credulous, and intelligent (or not) as we are. It's entirely possible that some of them were like, "Hey, where's the priest, and why does the god speak in his voice, though oddly amplified while slightly muffled at the same time?" Some of them probably figured it out and played along, and were inducted into the priesthood. And others were smart enough to notice and dumb enough to speak out about it.
And it's entirely possible that such people were burned as heretics. Such is the fate of skeptics throughout history.
Point is, we know from archeological evidence that the urge toward religious worship is as old as humanity, and may, in fact, be what separates homo sapiens from other species; after all, you don't see pan paniscus (our closest extant species relative) going to church and worshiping some snake god. I mean, dogs might worship us, but that's about as close as it gets. And also that priests fooling the populace with made-up stories is at least as old as stories.
So anyway, one of the fun things about writing fantasy is that we have the opportunity to make up our own religions. Heck, we can even make our gods real, tangible things if we want to. Fun! Well, it worked for L. Ron Hubbard, anyway. |
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Last time, in "Speculation" , I delved into the difference between science fiction and speculation.
Elfin Dragon-finally published  : Science fiction vs. Science fact...an interesting development. Especially when you consider the fact several renowned scientists (in two different groups) have gotten together to discus world building. Not in the sense as we as writers think of world building, but the age old questions of "Did the 'Big Bang' actually happen?", "Is it Evolution, or Creation?". One is "The Institute for Creation Research" is finding out some very interesting things which would change the status of Darwin's original creation theories. So the bottom line would be, when it comes to our own world building, research any and all plausible ideas. You never know what may be possible.
And that ties neatly into this week's topic.
That's it for me for now - see you near the end of the month! Until then,
DREAM ON!!!
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