My Question: Is Religion simply a human reaction, required to balance out emotions and other more tempremental parts of the human mind?

Quite deep, eh?

Is it possible that some one in prehistoric tribes set up religion as a guide for man so that his ordinary more ******* traits could be civillised, or to prevent killing? The hu8man mind is a powerful tool if you can use it, and the imagination doubly so.

Against my better judgment i have put this post on the site, knowing that i am going to be insulted by all the extreamist Christians who love to quote the bible at people on the spiritual page.

Jam please read about peyote and mushrooms, American Indians and South American Indians have used these things for thousands of years to find spiritual guidence. Its well known. I myself have used mushrooms, let me tell you I almost crossed over to that other side where you loose touch with reality and are in the real reality. Oh boy you think being sober is sober, when you take peyote or mushrooms, being sober feels like being stoned. You reach absoulte clarity its almost unbearable.

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Who let jamaica comment on this thread?

I don't know, but I have been considering asking the mods if we could "kick" out certain users of threads, because quite frankly, nearly every ****ing (I say ****ing to give more power to that fact that it's true) thread on the spirituality boards and many many many others have been ruined. 98% of those threads were not meant to turn arguments.

There is a difference between arguing and debating. This is the former.

Who let jamaica comment on this thread? If you're just going to come in here and browbeat everyone to your way of thinking, you're not wanted. Why do you think people like bauhaus don't like you? There's an advantage to seeing both sides of the fence. Use it.

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So of course they thought they were touched by god, and were spoken too. Doing these things can be a real eye opener, and people can reach nirvana under the influence of those things.

the quote above is an example, not of faith, but of an illusion.

But it was an illusion taken by people who didn't know any better to be faith.

I have been trying to give my input except jamaica ruins it with her way false opinions.

Humans more powefull than god? I dont see god creating spare ears and limbs for us... Ever hear of stem cell research? Why do you think christians are so dead set against it. Because eventually it'll prove where life came from and it'll put the church out of business.

Its not an illusion, its here today, you should know this miss, I'm in the medical field and I know all and I wont use medical terms because I dont want you to make me look stupid because you konw them too bauhaus.

Whoa,... Discussion a little heated now. bauhaus and jamaica17 please stop insulting each other and resume the topic.

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Originally posted by jamaica17:

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prove it.

I'd rather that you know and meet God first in your life... Get to know Him really well and then come, talk to me.

see you don't know. Oh yeah, I stoped having imaginary friends in preschool.

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prove it.

I'd rather that you know and meet God first in your life... Get to know Him really well and then come, talk to me.

"Peyote is a spiritual medicine. It can bring us in touch with the God within us, our Heavenly Father and our Earthly Mother. Peyote puts us in balance again with the Earth underneath our feet... Peyote is a plant sacrament. It is a plant teacher. It is a way of life. Our time in these bodies is brief. When we eat the Peyote we experience time and eternity, and it is from that vantage that, the next day, we can live our life in a very positive and non- trivial way, realizing that this day could be the last and everyone around us is our brother and sister and we need each other." -Rabbi Matthew S. Kent

prove it.

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So of course they thought they were touched by god, and were spoken too. Doing these things can be a real eye opener, and people can reach nirvana under the influence of those things.

the quote above is an example, not of faith, but of an illusion.

FAITH is not an illusion. Humans who think they are more powerful than God is an illusion.

I believe the whole spirit, god, religion thing came about when people ate mushrooms or peyote thinking it was food.... So theyd eat a lot of it... an hour or two later... They werent even in reality anymore and had no way of explaing what had just happened in the past 8 hours. So of course they thought they were touched by god, and were spoken too. Doing these things can be a real eye opener, and people can reach nirvana under the influence of those things.

Religion came about as a way for primitive peoples to explain the unexplainable. Why did people die all of a sudden? It was the Gods taking a dislike to people. Why did our lands flood this year but not last year? People were more evil this year. And so on.

After all this, the priests and rulers--naturally the more intelligent people--figured out that religion was a very useful tool for keeping the peasants in line. Besides, the sacrifices to the gods were a good source of payment in the form of food for the priests.

Religion grew out of this, however, and became less of a way of explaining natural occurences and more of an explanation for philosophical details, such as the reason we're here. The people just couldn't believe that they were on earth for no reason other than to eat and die. There had to be something bigger. So religion filled that bill. And that's how it is now, although some people still use it as a way to explain things such as the creation of the universe and all that stuff.

However, looking at the early books of the Bible, religion can be used as a set of laws. All of Leviticus is rules on how the Hebrews were supposed to eat, dress, live, etc.

Just my humble opinion on this interesting matter.

I certainly agree with you that organized religion, for the most part, is simply a set of laws that has been adapted through time and worked in with spirituality. The early civilizations all combined governmental rule with divinity, probably because those in power found it convienent to use God to promote a sense of legitimacy.

The idea of a spiritual or divine being, however, is a seperate issue. Relgious laws, commandments, and what-have-you are not what makes the divine.

Thank you, bluedemocrat, for your very flattering comment. Nice point too.

Anyone else interested though?

I think this is an interesting theory. To me it makes sense. In my mind, religion was created to explain the unexplained. It would make sense that religion was created to serve as guide to life. Perhaps it began as a set of laws and slowly evolved into a set of beliefs that were adapted by different groups of people. Nice post Brehon.