"Religion was discovered" - great point here. It's interesting to me that the debatably most influential religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism) all originated from a part of the world where water scarcity was a real issue. I think prophets discovered an ability to use religion to urge cooperation without kinship, and to solve collective action failure.
yes, I really think it's not fundamentally different from the discovery of any particular technology or science. I don't think this is necessarily a secular view either. I think people who have faith in their religion can agree with the statement that "it was revealed" "it was discovered", the prophets were literally messengers in this way, articulating what they found to be true
"The simplest contribution you can make to culture is to reframe truth to fit inside of existing narratives. A much bigger contribution is creating new narratives to explain existing truths. Which narratives take root in human minds & outcompete other narratives is a scientific question."
In the world of spirituality, the new narrative that comes from enlightenment is that if it is all just narratives, you gain power over the narratives you invest time in and give attention to.
Neuroplasticity is also whispering the same message. And visa is too. "Focus on what you want to see more of", and allow new memes to come to you.
Cool piece! I think you can add Luke Burgis to your list https://substack.com/@lukeburgis
thank you, I wasn't aware of his book!!
"Religion was discovered" - great point here. It's interesting to me that the debatably most influential religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism) all originated from a part of the world where water scarcity was a real issue. I think prophets discovered an ability to use religion to urge cooperation without kinship, and to solve collective action failure.
yes, I really think it's not fundamentally different from the discovery of any particular technology or science. I don't think this is necessarily a secular view either. I think people who have faith in their religion can agree with the statement that "it was revealed" "it was discovered", the prophets were literally messengers in this way, articulating what they found to be true
Important work. Godspeed (to all of us!)
"The simplest contribution you can make to culture is to reframe truth to fit inside of existing narratives. A much bigger contribution is creating new narratives to explain existing truths. Which narratives take root in human minds & outcompete other narratives is a scientific question."
In the world of spirituality, the new narrative that comes from enlightenment is that if it is all just narratives, you gain power over the narratives you invest time in and give attention to.
Neuroplasticity is also whispering the same message. And visa is too. "Focus on what you want to see more of", and allow new memes to come to you.
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Great article :)