The most annoying problem with today's brand of atheists is that they are too hung up with the idea of god, and a school-yard level argument of whether god exists or not. Ref. : Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, late Christopher Hitchens, et al.
Mark Juergensmeyer had been dealing with feats and foibles of world religions for a long time, and hence it was fitting for him to gather the group of scholars around Robert Bellah and his perfectly sensible proposition of looking at religion in connection with human evolution. I am glad to know that it ended up as an intellectual group hug. Very reassuring!
Of course religions are man-made. So are the arts, music, poetry and drama. I love religion because, like the arts, it encourages me to adjust my sense of magic into my everyday reality.
Bellah's thesis of play and playfulness makes sense, and so does the idea of the 3 stages of development of religion depending on man's social capabilities -- enactive, symbolic (myths and legends) and conceptual.
~ Farida Majid
Mark Juergensmeyer had been dealing with feats and foibles of world religions for a long time, and hence it was fitting for him to gather the group of scholars around Robert Bellah and his perfectly sensible proposition of looking at religion in connection with human evolution. I am glad to know that it ended up as an intellectual group hug. Very reassuring!
Of course religions are man-made. So are the arts, music, poetry and drama. I love religion because, like the arts, it encourages me to adjust my sense of magic into my everyday reality.
Bellah's thesis of play and playfulness makes sense, and so does the idea of the 3 stages of development of religion depending on man's social capabilities -- enactive, symbolic (myths and legends) and conceptual.
~ Farida Majid
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