HISTORY OF IDEAS - Religion

Summary

This script explores the evolution of religion and its significance in human history, from primitive beliefs to modern secularism. It delves into how religion has addressed existential fears, provided comfort, and shaped societal values. Despite the rise of science challenging religious truths, the script argues for the enduring importance of the needs religion has traditionally met, suggesting that secular societies must find new ways to fulfill these deep-seated human requirements.

Takeaways

• 🌐 Religion has historically been central to human concerns, providing explanations for the confusing world and a framework for rituals and offerings.
• 🐍 Early Australian aboriginal religion, like many primitive religions, personified natural phenomena and societal laws through divine serpents, reflecting a universal human tendency to explain the unknown.
• 🙏 Religion often serves to appease fears of the unknown, particularly death, by offering a narrative that includes an afterlife or divine intervention.
• 🧘 Buddhism, exemplified by Siddhārtha Gautama (the Buddha), teaches followers to detach from suffering and the 'monkey mind' through meditation, aiming to calm the anxieties of life.
• 👩‍🎨 The role of maternal figures like Guanyin in Buddhism and the Virgin Mary in Christianity suggests a universal human need for comfort and security, mirroring childhood feelings of safety.
• 🏛️ Charitable institutions, such as the almshouses in Winchester, England, demonstrate religion's traditional role in addressing social inequality and the duty of the rich to care for the poor.
• 📚 Scientific advancements, like Copernicus's heliocentric model, have challenged religious views of human significance, leading to a reevaluation of our place in the universe.
• 📖 The publication of 'The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined' by David Friedrich Strauss introduced a new perspective on religion, focusing on moral teachings rather than factual truth.
• 🎨 The rise of cultural institutions like the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam reflects a shift towards art and culture as replacements for religious consolation and guidance.
• 📚 Richard Dawkins in 'The God Delusion' argues for the removal of religion from public culture, proposing science and secular institutions as replacements for religious functions.
• 🌟 Despite the decline in religious belief, the underlying human needs that religion has traditionally addressed—such as comfort in the face of death, community, and moral guidance—remain relevant and require new secular responses.

Q & A

What is the main argument regarding the role of religion in the developed world according to the script?

The script argues that in large parts of the developed world, religion has become less central and is sometimes seen as irrelevant, as science has declared it untrue. However, it suggests that it is also important to understand the needs that have traditionally driven people to religion so that these needs can be recognized and answered outside a supernatural framework.

How does the script describe the origin of religion?

The script describes the origin of religion as a response to the desire to explain a confusing world. It suggests that religion is a projection of human concerns onto the natural realm, which became the focus of rituals to appease possibly angry gods, with offerings made in return for favors and protection.

What role does the script suggest that religious rituals play in society?

The script suggests that religious rituals serve to appease potentially angry gods, offer hope, and provide a means to handle the terror of death. They also play a role in holding communities together and dealing with the unknown.

How does the script portray the significance of the Yingarna Serpent in aboriginal Australian religion?

The script portrays the Yingarna Serpent as a key part of aboriginal Australian religion, with the serpent and associated divine beings credited with creating the sky, lagoons, mountains, and establishing laws and rituals. They also generate rain and storms when tribal rules are broken.

What does the script say about the teachings of Siddhārtha Gautama, also known as Buddha?

The script mentions that Siddhārtha Gautama, the Buddha, taught his followers to expect constant suffering in life but also to strive for detachment from immediate circumstances and the anxious 'monkey mind' through reflection and meditation.

How does the script relate the role of Guanyin in Buddhism to that of the Virgin Mary in Christianity?

The script relates Guanyin in Buddhism to the Virgin Mary in Christianity by highlighting their similar roles as maternal figures who provide comfort, tenderness, and strength to help people face life's challenges.

What does the script suggest about the psychological impact of the heliocentric model proposed by Copernicus and defended by Galileo?

The script suggests that the heliocentric model proposed by Copernicus and defended by Galileo was a painful end to mankind's childhood, as it challenged the idea of human cosmic significance and introduced a new existential terror about our insignificance in the universe.

How does the script describe the impact of Charles Lyell's 'Principles of Geology' on religious beliefs?

The script describes Charles Lyell's 'Principles of Geology' as having a profound impact on religious beliefs by showing that the Earth is much older than previously believed, which made it difficult for intelligent people to believe in the literal truth of the Bible.

What new perspective on religion does David Friedrich Strauss introduce in his work 'The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined'?

David Friedrich Strauss introduces the perspective that the truth of Jesus' divine nature or miracles is less important than the moral example he provides. Strauss suggests that religion is not a true description of reality but a human invention that provides comfort and moral guidance.

How does the script address the idea of replacing religion with culture in the face of declining religious belief?

The script addresses the idea of replacing religion with culture by suggesting that art and cultural institutions like museums can achieve many of the things that religion once did, such as providing guidance, consolation, wisdom, and a reminder of our better nature.

What is the script's stance on Richard Dawkins's view of religion as presented in 'The God Delusion'?

The script presents Richard Dawkins's view that religion is intellectually wrong and delusional, and should be removed from public culture. It also notes that Dawkins's view coincides with concerns about militant Islam and suggests that science, medicine, and social institutions can replace the roles traditionally filled by religion.

Outlines

00:00

🌏 Origins and Evolution of Religion

This paragraph explores the historical significance of religion and its diminishing role in modern developed societies due to scientific advancements. It discusses the psychological needs that religion has traditionally addressed, such as explaining the natural world, providing rituals for appeasement, and offering hope and comfort in the face of death. The paragraph also touches on the similarities between early Australian aboriginal beliefs and primitive religions worldwide, highlighting the human tendency to project concerns onto the natural realm. It mentions key historical religious figures like Buddha and the role of maternal figures in various religions, emphasizing the need for comfort and security that religion provides. Additionally, it discusses the charitable aspects of religion, as exemplified by the establishment of almshouses in Winchester, England, and the importance of charity and social responsibility.

05:00

🔬 The Clash of Science and Religion

This section delves into the historical conflict between scientific discoveries and religious beliefs. It starts with Nicolaus Copernicus's heliocentric model, which challenged the Church's geocentric view, leading to the Church's condemnation of his work. The paragraph continues with Galileo Galilei's support for Copernicus's theory and his subsequent house arrest, illustrating the Church's resistance to ideas that threatened its teachings. The paragraph then discusses the impact of Charles Lyell's 'Principles of Geology' on the perception of Earth's age, which contradicted the biblical account and led to a crisis of faith for some, like John Ruskin. It also covers David Friedrich Strauss's reinterpretation of Jesus's life, focusing on the moral teachings rather than the miraculous aspects, and the idea that religion serves a psychological and moral purpose rather than being a literal description of reality. The paragraph concludes with the opening of the Rijks Museum, symbolizing the shift towards culture as a replacement for religious scripture in providing guidance and consolation.

10:01

🏛 The Role of Religion in Secular Societies

The final paragraph addresses the ongoing relevance of religion in a secular context. It acknowledges the deep psychological needs that religion has historically fulfilled, such as providing comfort in the face of death, reminding individuals of their communal duties, and offering a space for dealing with personal disappointments and sorrows. The paragraph references Richard Dawkins's 'The God Delusion,' which argues for the removal of religion from public culture, and contrasts this with the enduring human needs that religion has traditionally addressed. It suggests that while religion may be an illusion, it is an important one that has served valuable social functions, and that understanding these functions is crucial for creating secular societies that can meet similar needs without religious frameworks.

Keywords

💡Religion

Religion is a system of beliefs, practices, and moral codes that often involve the worship of a higher power or powers. In the video, it is presented as a historical central focus for human concerns, providing explanations for the natural world, a framework for moral and social conduct, and a source of comfort and community. The script discusses how religion has evolved and its role in addressing existential fears and hopes, such as the terror of death and the desire for a meaningful existence.

💡Science

Science refers to a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. The video contrasts science with religion, suggesting that scientific discoveries have challenged traditional religious beliefs by providing naturalistic explanations for phenomena that were once attributed to divine forces. The script mentions figures like Copernicus and Galileo, whose work contributed to a shift in understanding our place in the cosmos.

💡Existential Terror

Existential terror is the deep-seated fear and anxiety that arises from contemplating the nature of existence, often related to the realization of one's mortality and the insignificance of human life in the grand scheme of the universe. The video discusses how scientific revelations, such as the heliocentric model of the solar system, can lead to a sense of existential terror by undermining the belief in human cosmic significance.

💡Charity

Charity is the act of giving help or support, particularly to those in need. In the context of the video, charity is highlighted as a duty and a theme common across religions, which encourages the rich to support the poor. The script references the establishment of almshouses in Winchester, England, as an example of religiously inspired charity.

💡Mortality

Mortality refers to the state of being subject to death. The video script touches on how religions have traditionally provided consolation and a means of reconciling individuals with their mortality. It suggests that even in secular societies, there remains a need to address the existential concerns related to death and the transient nature of human life.

💡Secular Society

A secular society is one that is neutral with respect to religion, not favoring or endorsing any particular religious doctrine and often characterized by the separation of religion from public institutions. The video suggests that as religious belief declines, there is a need to understand how to create functioning secular societies that can meet the same human needs that were once addressed by religion.

💡Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer known for his heliocentric model of the universe, which placed the Sun, not the Earth, at the center. In the video, Copernicus's work is discussed as a pivotal moment in the history of science that challenged religious cosmology and contributed to a new understanding of our place in the universe.

💡Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer who supported Copernicus's heliocentric model and faced opposition from the Catholic Church for his views. The video mentions Galileo as an example of the conflict between scientific discovery and religious doctrine, and his work as a symbol of the scientific method's challenge to traditional beliefs.

💡David Friedrich Strauss

David Friedrich Strauss was a German theologian and critic who, in the video, is noted for his work 'The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined,' which proposed a non-literal interpretation of the life of Jesus. Strauss's approach to religion is highlighted as a shift towards viewing it as a moral guide rather than a literal account of historical events.

💡Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins is an English ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and author known for his criticism of religion and his advocacy for atheism. The video references Dawkins's book 'The God Delusion,' in which he argues that religion is a delusion and should be removed from public culture, reflecting a perspective that sees science as a sufficient framework for understanding and consolation.

💡Culture

Culture, in the context of the video, refers to the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society. The script suggests that as belief in religion declines, culture, particularly in the form of art and intellectual pursuits, may offer an alternative source of meaning, consolation, and community, taking on roles that were traditionally filled by religious institutions.

Highlights

Religion has historically been central to human concerns but is now often sidelined in developed parts of the world.

Science is seen as the force that has declared religion untrue in modern times.

Understanding the needs that drove people to religion is key to recognizing and addressing them outside a supernatural context.

Aboriginal Australian religion, exemplified by the Yingarna Serpent, is used to explain natural phenomena and social laws.

Religion often arises from a desire to explain and find order in a confusing world.

Religious rituals and offerings are ways to appease potentially angry gods and seek favor.

The fear of death and the hope for divine assistance in managing it are central to many religious beliefs.

Studying primitive religions can evoke compassion for the struggles and ignorance of our ancestors.

Religion is a testament to human psychological ingenuity in creating narratives to cope with life's challenges.

Buddhism, as taught by Siddhārtha Gautama, focuses on managing suffering and achieving mental peace.

Religion aims to provide hope and comfort in the face of life's hardships, including death.

The role of maternal figures like Guanyin in Buddhism and the Virgin Mary in Christianity reflects a universal human need for comfort and security.

Religions often serve as a source of charity and a moral guide for the treatment of the poor.

The Catholic Church's resistance to the heliocentric model reflects a struggle to maintain a sense of human significance in the universe.

Scientific discoveries like those of Copernicus and Galileo have led to a new existential terror about humanity's place in the cosmos.

Charles Lyell's geological findings challenged the biblical timeline and contributed to a crisis of faith for some.

David Friedrich Strauss's work reframes religion not as factual truth but as a moral guide and source of comfort.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam symbolizes a cultural shift towards art and culture as replacements for religious institutions.

Richard Dawkins's 'The God Delusion' argues for the removal of religion from public culture, advocating for science as a source of consolation.

Despite the decline of religious belief, the needs that religion addressed remain, and secular societies must find new ways to meet them.

Transcripts

For most of history, religion has been a central focus of human concerns.

But now in large parts of the developed world, it's become a side show or even an irrelevance.

Because its been declared untrue by the most powerful force of our age:

Science

But debating whether religion is true or not may not in the end be the most important move we can make.

Its also key to understand what needs have traditionally driven people to religion.

So we can go on recognizing and answering these needs,

even outside a supernatural structure.

4000 BC, Arnhem land, Australia

An aboriginal Australian paints an image of a serpent on a rock.

The so-called Yingarna Serpent is a key part of aboriginal religion.

This creature and a few other associated divine serpents are worshiped for having done everything:

[They] created the sky, the lagoons the mountains, they colored the birds, they

decreed laws relating to marriage, food distribution and death ceremonies.

The serpents also generate rain and storms when anyone breaks the rules of the tribes.

The belief structure of the early Australians is almost identical to that

found in primitive religions pretty much everywhere around our planet.

Religion has its origins in a desire to explain a very confusing world.

It is a wild projection onto the natural realm of all kinds of human concerns.

It becomes the focus of rituals to appease the possibly angry gods.

Offerings are made in return one hopes for favors and kindness.

Always there is the terror of death and the hope that the worst of it can be handled by an alliance with the gods.

One comes away from the study of primitive religions full of compassion

for the terrors and confusion that were responsible for generating these beliefs.

And for the frightening ignorance in which our for-bearers were fated to live.

But one also comes away with respect for our own psychological ingenuity,

For our cleverness in telling ourselves stories to calm ourselves down,

hold the community together and deal with the unknown.

400 BC, Kushinagar, India

A kind philosophical Indian prince, Siddhārtha Gautama meets his end,

his other title Buddha means awakened or enlightened one.

He teaches his followers of whom they will soon be millions, to expect constant suffering in life

but also to strive to detach themselves from their immediate circumstances

and the anxious spasms of what Buddhists call the "monkey mind" through reflection and meditation.

In Buddhism we see a characteristic attempt

of religion to calm the minds of followers in relation to anxiety, poverty, illness and death.

The task of religion is to keep us hopeful,

to stop our minds caving in to terror

and to hold our hands through the worst last days of our lives.

1025 AD, Song Dynasty, China

A sculptor produces this representation of a beautiful kindly female Buddhist deity called Guanyin.

Guanyin is the Buddhist counterpart of the Virgin Mary.

And she fulfills a similar role as this lady:

that of hearing us in our distress, meeting us with tenderness and

strengthening us to face the tasks of life.

The centrality of these maternal figures in both Buddhism and Christianity

suggest that mature adult lives

share moments of terrible and lacerating self-doubt which breed longings to

recover some of the security and coziness of childhood.

Being reasonable and adult doesn't always work.

In our worst crisis we regress,

we want to be held and understood and forgiving like we were five years old.

All this religion knows, honors and does not mock us for.

1133, Winchester, England

The poorest people in the parish of Winchester in Southern

England take up residence in hospitals ?? and the almshouse of noble poverty.

This is the oldest charitable institution in the United Kingdom,

founded by the Bishop of Winchester who has read the Gospels thoroughly and

taken inspiration from Jesus command to treat the poorest with special dignity.

They're destined for the poorest, the almshouses are built on the scale of an

Oxford or Cambridge College with the most beautiful noble architecture of the day.

The almshouses are typical example of a theme found in all world religions:

that of charity and of the duty of the rich towards the poor.

That there may be a regressive aspect of this, religions can be praised for moderating egoistic

impulses and urging the powerful to think of the defenseless.

It can be tempting to think of the poor as evil and responsible for their fate

but religions ask the powerful to imagine them always as unfortunate and

worthy of a special place in the divine scheme.

1543, Nuremberg, Germany

Nicolaus Copernicus publishes "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres".

This post a heliocentric view of the universe rather than geocentric version

widely accepted at the time and based on the book of Joshua.

In 1616 the Catholic Church moves to declare this heliocentric theory nonsense

and angrily bands Copernicus's work.

However, Copernicus's revolution will not be quelled.

Galileo Galilei will defend the system in "The Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems" published in 1632.

Again the papacy is furious.

It curses Copernicus once more and put Galileo under house arrest.

It's tempting to laugh at the catholic church

but the church is trying to hold on to something rather lovely that had served humankind well:

the idea of our cosmic significance.

The idea that we matter, that someone out there cares.

Copernicus and Galileo's theories are like the very painful end of the childhood of man kind.

Their discoveries that we are but a tiny forgotten meaningless blue dodge in the randomness of space

is akin to a child discovering that his or her parents are in truth really unimportant in the scheme of things.

A new existential terror will echo down the ages from these scientific discoveries.

We are still dealing with it.

July 1830, London, England

Charles Lyell publishes the first of three volumes of his geological masterpiece:

Principles of Geology.

The book uses new geological methods to show

that the earth is far older than was ever previously believed.

The Bible had said it was 6000 years old.

Lyle says the fossil record proves it must be at least 240 million years old,

based on this observation of marine fossils.

Modern science now puts it at 4.5 billion years.

In response to Lyle's discoveries the British social critic and essayist John Ruskin

abandons belief.

He says his faith has been beaten to the thinness of a gold leaf by such rockbound evidence.

If only the geologists would leave me alone he writes I could do very

well but those dreadful hammers

I hear the clink of them at the end of every cadence of the bible verses.

Science now makes it almost impossible for any intelligent person to believe in

the Bible is literally true.

1835 Tübingen, Germany

27 year old David Friedrich Strauss publishes the first edition of the first volume of an epochal work:

"The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined".

Strauss advances the view that it doesn't matter whether or not Christ really was the son of God or worked

miracles or came back from the dead after being crucified because what's

important about him is the moral example he gives:

his generosity, his immense tenderness to the week,

his commitment to forgiveness:

"You must forgive your brother seven times seventy" he notes.

His humility: he lived as a carpenter had a simple life lived amongst the poor.

Strauss initiates a new way of looking at religion:

It isn't a true description of how the world actually is.

It something humans have invented to comfort themselves in highly valuable

and important ways that deserve are selective reverence.

1885, Amsterdam, Netherlands

A new national museum, the Rijks Museum officially opens.

The architect Pierre Kuiper has spent his career designing and restoring churches and it shows.

The building is quickly dubbed a new cathedral devoted to art with it's

stained glass and ecclesiastical solemnity.

The museum is one of many to open the second part of the 19th century.

It's the result of a widespread panic as to what can replace religion now that belief is in decline.

One leading answer is that Culture can replace Scripture.

The argument is that art can achieve for us many of the things that religion once did:

It can be a guide,

a source of consolation, a teacher of wisdom and compassion, a reminder of our better

nature and something that can imperfectly but still to a real extent reconcile us to our mortality.

2006, Oxford, England

An English biologist Richard Dawkins publishes "The God Delusion".

Dawkins argues that religion is intellectually wrong and delusional and

therefore should be removed entirely from public culture.

There Dawkins has just about stops from saying that people should be prevented by law

from being religious in private but only just.

Dawkins's mocking view of religion coincides with deep disquiet about militant Islam in the West.

The murderous ways of fringe Muslim groups seems to be Dawkins is real target.

Religion just comes to seem like something a bunch of mad people could ever be interested in.

Dawkins insists that reasonable people can find all the consolation they need in science and medicine.

The doctor can replace the priest, the welfare state can replace charity,

and the laboratory can replace rituals and ceremonies.

For the rest we have television and the news.

The needs that religions answered were real and important and despite science and TV and theme parks and

cancer treatment centers we still have many of these needs.

We still have to die, we still need to be comforted, we still need to be reminded

in conditions of aggressive capitalism of our duties to the community and to the poor,

and we still need somewhere to take are disappointed ambitions, frustrations and sorrows.

Religion may well have been a deep illusion but it

was an important illusion that we need to understand with sincere depth and

compassion in order to know how to create functioning secular societies in our own time.