# Whence religion? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 13, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-religion/652826 "2013-03-13T16:00:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-religion/652826/81 "2013-03-18T14:58:58Z")
> [@Latro](#): > > And then you go on to do exactly that. > “My, isn’t it ‘interresting’ that this hole in the ground fits me perfectly.” Clarify for me, please: do you argue that nothing interesting can be learned by studying the history of the human species? We have arrived at _this_ particular set of circumstances rather than _that_ set; one could believe that this fact has an explanation without believing that we have been directed by a god to some sociocultural terminus. To put it another way: why ridicule the puddle for wondering why the ground fits him perfectly? Without that kind of desire for knowledge — without investigating the circumstances surrounding his coming to be — he couldn’t figure out why the hole even _seems_ to be designed for him. ---
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-religion/652826/82 "2013-03-18T15:19:11Z")
Of course it is interresting how that puddle became that particular shape and how it compares to other puddles and to study what they have in common. But… what is hinted at, with this other use of ‘interesting’, is the invitation to entertain the notion that there is something more to it, exactly the deterministic reasoning **Kepler** emphasises as a fallacy in his first bit. ---
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-religion/652826/83 "2013-03-18T15:25:48Z")
That is not to say that is impossible to formulate _any_ common tendencies in human behaviour/history. But one should be very careful about the dangers of projecting one’s own culture. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-religion/652826/84 "2013-03-18T15:25:52Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > But getting someone to buy into a monotheistic god took him out of the marketplace, especially if he were all powerful. That was the innovation of Judaism > [@Kinthalis](#): > > I thought zoroastrianism was the first monotheistic religion, and that in fact, it might have had a hand in influencing early Hebrews, no? I thought the religion of [Aten](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aten)was the precursor of monotheism in Judaism. ---
**Author:** ![lekatt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lekatt/32/7269_2.png) [@lekatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lekatt)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-religion/652826/85 "2013-03-18T15:42:44Z")
> [@Steken](#): > > Once again, I am not buying it. > > If it is indeed true that “people are leaving the churches by the millions”, how does it follow that religion itself is therefore on its way out? I’m not following your logic here. OK. It is true some vestiges of religion may continue. However, the new spirituality will become the main way to honor God. There are no rituals, doctrine, or laws to follow just one rule of harm no one. ---
**Author:** ![Latro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-religion/652826/86 "2013-03-18T15:48:07Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I thought the religion of [Aten](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aten)was the precursor of monotheism in Judaism. Very, very unlikely. Echnaton’s ‘heresy’ was just a very brief period and thouroughly eradicated after his reign. But more important is the time rift of some 800(!!!) years before we have the people of israel becoming monotheits. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-religion/652826/87 "2013-03-18T15:50:27Z")
> [@lekatt](#): > > OK. It is true some vestiges of religion may continue. However, the new spirituality will become the main way to honor God. There are no rituals, doctrine, or laws to follow just one rule of harm no one. And that way you can have false security in the false knowledge that everybody is worshipping the same “God”. With no tenets, rules, descriptions or boundaries you’re safe from any and all questions, and can claim anything you want…even if your claims contradict each other. Good for you. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-religion/652826/88 "2013-03-18T15:51:52Z")
> [@Latro](#): > > Very, very unlikely. > > Echnaton’s ‘heresy’ was just a very brief period and thouroughly eradicated after his reign. But more important is the time rift of some 800(!!!) years before we have the people of israel becoming monotheits. That is my understanding. In any case, there was not a marketplace of religion in Egypt, since it was enforced top down. Much like Europe before the Reformation, and after Rome. ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-religion/652826/89 "2013-03-20T12:30:30Z")
> [@lekatt](#): > > OK. It is true some vestiges of religion may continue. However, the new spirituality will become the main way to honor God. There are no rituals, doctrine, or laws to follow just one rule of harm no one. Wait. Wait wait wait. So, this “new spirituality” you imagine will, in fact, include the belief in a god. Furthermore, it would include the idea that this god should be “honored”. How is that not religion? Also… What makes you think that this will happen? What makes you think that religion won’t just, you know, keep on truckin’? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-religion/652826.md?page=4)