Religion is declining in the US

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Possibly well meaning bull shitters, but none that knew what they were talking about.  Which is pretty much the definition of bull shitting.

The shamans probably got it going. They were the wizards and people expected more of them, especially when they became secretive about their "magic" and claimed special knowledge. From special information about when the aurochs would return to why the lightning flashed in the sky is an easy step.

[SGOS]

Roast pig on spit turned over a dung fire.  I don't know what to say.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Roast pig on spit turned over a dung fire.  I don't know what to say.

How about "the kids don't go hungry tonight."

[Cavebear]

There would just be another one shortly after.

Also, I'm not entirely sure it was a completely foolish idea at the time.  (Extra emphasis on at the time, lest someone misinterpret me and conclude that I think religion is currently a rational idea)

At the time, people knew next to nothing about nature.  Strange, unexpected things must've really freaked them out.  Stuff like lightning, wildfires, earthquakes, epidemics, floods, and eclipses must've seemed daunting and unpredictable.  So they tried to understand these things as if they were people - volcanoes erupt because the volcano god is angry, etc.  They tried to cut deals with these fledgling gods by offering sacrifices - like sacrificing a bull to appease Neptune.  You can see a shadow of this mentality alive today with gamblers and "lucky" dice, where dice are said to hate or love the roller.

It goes without saying that this doesn't actually work, but it was the first fumbling attempt to understand what was going on, and people might've used it to divine some patterns in nature (the storm god in North Carolina is angriest in autumn).  So it might've brought some measure of understanding and/or solace to early people who didn't have access to much actual information.

I fully understand.  Just saying that stupid superstition is still stupid superstition and we ought to be escaping that by now except for stupid superstitious people.

[SGOS]

The shamans probably got it going. They were the wizards and people expected more of them, especially when they became secretive about their "magic" and claimed special knowledge. From special information about when the aurochs would return to why the lightning flashed in the sky is an easy step.

Everywhere you go, some opportunist is trying con you for his own purposes.  Today, these guys are on TV. Or in the White House.

[Hydra009]

Just saying that stupid superstition is still stupid superstition and we ought to be escaping that by now except for stupid superstitious people.

I agree.

[Cavebear]

How about "the kids don't go hungry tonight."

I could get into to hunting techniques, but let's just say that older people (shamans) knew the seasons and migration routes and figured out they had a great easy life by "predicting" things.

[Mike Cl]

And we figured out how stuff works...  I'm not trying to push you.  Just saying that religion is the catch-all of the unknown.  And we keep eliminating "the unknown".  And have from the first sharpened flake.

Hey, Cavebear, push away. :))  Yes, religion is the catch-all of the unknown.  And universally, what does the unknown engender in just about all of us?  Fear.  At least great discomfort.  Without the fear we would simply be curious and investigate the unknown; but when survival is at stake, the unknown is not really all that welcome.  Fear and religion go together like peas and carrots do for Forrest Gump.

[Mike Cl]

Everywhere you go, some opportunist is trying con you for his own purposes.  Today, these guys are on TV. Or in the White House.

And in the churches.

[Cavebear]

Hey, Cavebear, push away. :))  Yes, religion is the catch-all of the unknown.  And universally, what does the unknown engender in just about all of us?  Fear.  At least great discomfort.  Without the fear we would simply be curious and investigate the unknown; but when survival is at stake, the unknown is not really all that welcome.  Fear and religion go together like peas and carrots do for Forrest Gump.

Never saw that movie, but I make a great smoked pork stew, so it makes sense.  Fear and religion go hand in hand.  But courage and thought and religion do not. 

[Cavebear]

And in the churches.

Excellent point.  And well briefly said.  I get wordy.

[Mike Cl]

  Fear and religion go hand in hand.  But courage and thought and religion do not.

I like that!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I could get into to hunting techniques, but let's just say that older people (shamans) knew the seasons and migration routes and figured out they had a great easy life by "predicting" things.

The trick is to lock up the information that isn't generally known. Everybody would know snow's coming when the leaves turn colors. They would have to claim to know how the stars affected the hunting or something like that. But being a haruspex would be a skilled that had to be trained.

[Cavebear]

The trick is to lock up the information that isn't generally known. Everybody would know snow's coming when the leaves turn colors. They would have to claim to know how the stars affected the hunting or something like that. But being a haruspex would be a skilled that had to be trained.

Inspecting entrails?  I gutted a lactating bow-shot doe once and that was all *I* ever wanted to know.  I stopped hunting.

[Cavebear]

The trick is to lock up the information that isn't generally known. Everybody would know snow's coming when the leaves turn colors. They would have to claim to know how the stars affected the hunting or something like that. But being a haruspex would be a skilled that had to be trained.

Oh got it.  Vagueness combined with experience means "breakfast in bed" for the old guys.  LOL!.