Born Free
10th January 2006, 10:32 PM
I picked up a copy of a magazine yesterday entitled What is Enlightement. It has a range of great articles by various quote weighty contributors (Ken Wilbur, Karen Armstrong to name a few I am familiar with), many around the theme of post-religous spirituality.
One interesting point made, was that when most the religions were founded (around 500bc) they marked a marked step forward in mentality. The author argued, for instance, that it is now estimated that the precentage of the population lost then in warfare is believed to have been 20 times (yes, take it in) that of last century.
This argued that public and personal philosophy made major steps forward at that point.
It also argued that we now are in the midst of another shift toward global consciousness.
This once again reminds me of the trap of judging history by todays standards. It is not fair, and is actually quite misleading. The 'Noble Savage' model has got a lot of airplay, and increasingly studies show that it was a better model than reality.
Daryl
One interesting point made, was that when most the religions were founded (around 500bc) they marked a marked step forward in mentality. The author argued, for instance, that it is now estimated that the precentage of the population lost then in warfare is believed to have been 20 times (yes, take it in) that of last century.
This argued that public and personal philosophy made major steps forward at that point.
It also argued that we now are in the midst of another shift toward global consciousness.
This once again reminds me of the trap of judging history by todays standards. It is not fair, and is actually quite misleading. The 'Noble Savage' model has got a lot of airplay, and increasingly studies show that it was a better model than reality.
Daryl