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| Supreme Beings Part One Life On The Wild Side - The Prehistory of Mankind |
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| Jump to:
Part
One Part Two
Part Three
Part Four |
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| In
the beginning, man
lived
in harmony with nature. He lived
off the land, and
understood that the land had rules he had to follow in order to
survive. By following those rules, mankind
was able to prosper,
and to spread
throughout the world. There were great floods
and
famines, and a few
families moved off on their own, but mostly
the
world was good. A long time ago, a bit after realizing "I think, and therefore exist", but thousands of years before understanding the implications, a poor farmer or hunter or gatherer or something pondered why things could go so wrong even though he/she/they were doing everything as right as they knew how to do. And a giant leap in rationalization took place. Obviously, if the problem isn't something we are doing personally, then it must be something that is being put upon us from outside of our awareness. If the sun didn't shine, maybe it was because the sun was upset with us. If the hunting wasn't good, perhaps the antelope and the mammoth and the other wildlife were trying to make a point. Here, at this isolated moment in our long lost past, is the birth of science, and the birth of religion, and the birth of all conscious thought regarding our surroundings. From this moment that will never be pin-pointed, we built mighty cities, grand monuments, mathematics, philosophy, physical science, theology, and imagination. Biology came into existence, as well as the concept of cosmic rulers. But that first ignition of modern thought was much more basic in nature than these grand concepts.. For a long time, but not long enough to get us into the mess we are in now, the animals and the trees and the rocks were enough to lay the blame of uncertainty on. And then some wise-guy realized that humanity had taken control of the animals, and the storms blew in from the east or west or north or south, and then blew away again. The scapegoat of humanity's troubles was in peril, and the human gods drove out the animal myths of early memory. Okay, so maybe the spirits are gods. Maybe they look and act just like people, but use people playing pieces on a game field. Maybe they even walk among us, interact with us. Yes, that's a great idea. Gods that could be mistaken for people are playing games with our heads. We should build temples to them, to make them happy. Much later, but still not as late as it is going to get, someone climbed up the mountain, or sailed over the sea, or ventured into the cavern. The gods weren't there. But maybe those weren't the real gods anyway. Maybe there was only one real god, and he looked like people, except that no one could ever look upon him, and he lived above the sky, where no mortal man could ever go. Yeah, that god lived in the heavens. That's the ticket. |
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| Last
Modified March 11, 2008 |
©
Copyright 2008 Roger Golden All Rights Reserved |
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