People used to believe humans were animated by a force. We came
to call this life force ‘Soul’. Then medical science found out that the body dies
not because the ‘animating force has left’ but because something stopped
working.
Is it not very odd that 'we' still believe this animating
force is what powers us?
In every other field of scientific discovery, when empirical
evidence has been amassed showing that the application of a non-scientifically
derived cure is immeasurably less effective than one derived by biological
knowledge and proper scientific research, it becomes accepted that the 'old
ways' are not necessarily 'wrong' but at least inferior. The world moves on and
the ‘old ways’ eventually become folk tales, having been superseded by 'better'
knowledge. With the soul concept, however, this has not happened.
I feel there is only one reason for this but a multitude of
causal links.
The incorrect assumption that the body has an animated force
is so easily transmittable.In so few words a whole unspoken story is suggested
which the brain receiving the information must answer / fill in. (I’m sure
you’ll agree, some brains in particular are more prone to wanting all the I’s
dotted and the T’s crossed). I'll illustrate.
It is 40,000 years ago, a small tribe of humans have
experienced a dreadful winter crossing Europe
northwards and after becoming separated in a forest in a snowstorm, lose one of
the tribe.
A much loved uncle lies dead, half covered in snow. The
youngest boy in the tribe is the first person to see his uncle and rushes to
wake him, pulling at his shoulder.
The nearest person to him has incorrectly assumed, or is
merely repeating another older tribal member’s incorrect assumption, that death
is caused by the life-force leaving the body. She puts her arm around the boy
and stops him tugging, saying, "His life force has left him, he will not
wake again."
The child hears the trusted adult, who knows many things,
and believes these are the facts.
With no further discussion, ritual takes over; the body is
burned or what-have-you, the child is left with a multitude of questions.
Questions which it is likely he does not have the comprehension to vocalise and
even if he did the responses would be from those who had also incorrectly assumed
the same as the first responder.
Question like, "What's a Life force?", "Where
has it gone?" and, based on his no evidence, his primitive
misunderstanding of reality and a genetic trust of his elders the assumptions
flow in his own probability engine(brain). "Uncle’s still Uncle but in
some other place I cannot see?", "Perhaps Uncle is WITH grandma in
this new place", "Does everyone go there?", "Where is it
and what's it like?", "I hope it's nice."
Of course over generations, some of the people who
considered these questions will have voiced them around camp fires and such,
and others would have posited ideas as to answers. A consensus will have formed
of ‘things to say when someone dies’. The line to describe what has happened to
Uncle then becomes ingrained with consensus that ‘all’ have made. “His life-force
has left for a better place, he will be with granny and they’ll be happy there,
without pain, until we join them.”
The child hears the trusted adult, who knows many things,
and believes these are the facts.
A number of centuries fall away and the collective
assumptions have become the tribes’ ‘book of ways’; the rights & rituals
one must make at the death of a loved one in order for their ‘life-force’ to
find it’s way to the rest of the tribe in the place that comes after life.
Centuries, even millenniums pass and many tribes find that
their ways are similar, they all believe in an animating force that powers the
body! A main book of ‘all the ways of the tribes’ forms and centuries later a
single ‘way’ emerges;
THE NEW IMPROVED, BEST, DE FACTO WAY TO ENSURE…
Not only your relatives find their way to the pearly gates
but also,
AT NO EXTRA PENNY IN THE COLLECTION PLATE…
a way to guarantee that you will be reunited with your loved
ones
AND, TODAY ONLY,
IF YOU SIGN UP TO OUR 'FOLLOW ALL THE RULES' PLEDGE…
you won’t go to bad place which is reserved for those
despicable goat rustlers.
(Piss Be Upon them!!)
This single misconception from the deep, dark days of our
dream-time, the days before we had anything other than survival knowledge,
before civilization and complex language, this soul concept has shaped every
facet of our world. Every religious system, every prayer, every death by
stoning, persecution of women, of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, all
religious circumcision male and female, all the blood and torture and
supremacist bigotry; all of it, from this one, stupid misjudgement of the facts
of human biology by our primitive stupid ancestors.
If in the first instance when the first ‘Uncle’ had died,
instead of the incorrectly assuming tribal member turning up, a forensic
pathologist had materialized from the future, done a full autopsy and delivered
a proper reason for the Uncle's death...
"He froze to death, Sonny; exposure y'know. Ta-ta &
toodle-pip." (apparently he was from Victorian London), then would our
ancestors have made that incorrect assumption which is the source of all our
woes in the first place?
If we’d had the correct information at the start, would we
really think we had a magically invisible body part?
Would we be subjugated by this primitive notion of god; that which, by this exploration, is merely a symptom of that ancient misjudgement born in our ignorance?
Who knows, I’d like to think not but we were pretty thick
back then, however, I think it’s clear why religion endures. And why the soul
concept has managed to evade the normal tide of scientific revelation; it’s our
earliest ‘Truth’, a heartfelt wish, aged in the beloved oak barrels of
ancestral hope, and we really don’t want to let it go but to progress I think
we must choose to jettison the concept.
Work towards finding a way to evolve one if you feel that’s
a goal but all of the power of all of the faiths on this earth are based on
this one misconception from our evolutionary diaper stage when we were afraid
of the dark.
Is it not time we grew out of it?
Is it not time we released the human spirit from the soul
trap?
For further reading, "Caveman instincts may explain our belief in gods and ghosts" is an interesting article.
PEACE
Crispy
Crispy
Please leave a comment - Anything will do
The best communications are often,
THREE WORDS OR LESS
OR ONE OR MORE FINGERS!
The best communications are often,
THREE WORDS OR LESS
OR ONE OR MORE FINGERS!
