Subject: Re: music as a process of religion (was RE: Kurt Cobain)
AntiUtopia@aol.com
Date: Wed Jan 05 2000 - 07:57:52 EST
In a message dated 1/5/00 4:56:05 AM Eastern Standard Time, shok@netcom.com
writes:
<< No, it isn't. Not by the general definition of the word "religion,"
anyway.
The lack of religion is not a different religion. Religion is not a
natural aspect of the human animal. We are all born Atheist. Atheism
is not a religion.
yea,
robbie >>
I'm sorry, but the history of human thought pretty well testifies to the
Exact Opposite. Real, full out, true Atheists are pretty rare (even now),
and have been especially rare prior to the Enlightenment.
We need to be careful we're talking about the same thing, however. Religion
exists on several different levels. On one level it is a social institution
-- but you also need to recognize that there are religions marginalized by
society, and what do you make of those?
What I'm talking about, however, is really theology, and I'm defining
theology very widely here as being inclusive of Any statements about
God/gods/whatever you call it. Plato and Aristotle were theologians, by that
definition (just not exclusively so). So was Heraclitus. And so were the
authors of the Vedas. So are American Indian shamans and witch doctors in
Haiti. And so is everyone who has looked up into the night sky and said,
"There must be a God" (a very common reaction).
The pervasiveness of religion throughout human history (and in all cultures
regardless of their stage of development), at any rate, testifies to the fact
that it's a fundamental part of human nature, rather than a deviance created
by societies. Our societal institutions are always reflective of human
needs, and this is a need that seems to exist across the boards.
The only place |'ve seen a fairly consistent rejection of religion is in the
Egoist writers, and they seem to demonstrate best how all other
anti-theological schools of thought are just other theologies themselves.
Max Stirner's critiques in The Ego and His Own are pretty good. He even
defines Marxism as putting the entire human race in the "god" spot and simply
creating a religion from that. Stirner's definition of religion, of course,
being an Egoist, would be anything that demands the subjection of the
individual. If you accept that definition...there's religions everywhere :)
Jim
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