May 26, 2000

Substition

I woke up this morning and had some interesting thoughts. They are based upon the assumptions people make. I was thinking about how almost every society (if not all of them) has been based upon theistic principles. They all knew that a higher power exists.

"It is because they did not understand their environment so they made up gods to explain things." That is the standard explanation I remember hearing often as I was in grade school. In fact, I recall hearing a professor at Cornell stating it also. Interesting how in this "tolerant" society one would belittle any society's (ancient or modern) belief structure by suggesting it was primitive and based upon superstition.

Is it not true that scientists make up formulas to explain how they see reality? Although today we do comprehend our environment with greater granularity, we are still far from understanding it.

So, today's society starts with the assumption that a god does not exist, and then makes sure to label theists as stupid (put down by the intellegencia), ignorant (not understanding enlightened learning), naive (unwilling to look at the truth), ... . Back then, anyone who rejected their society's god would have been considered very unwise (incurring the wrath of that god), socially deviant (expelled from the group), ignorant, ...

Interesting "progress" we have made in the past couple thousand years.

But I wonder, do we really know something they didn't? Why then have we accelerated our rush away from God? Why are we so fearful of the concept that we resolutely affirm that a god does not exist? Why do the intellegencia continuously try to pound into our heads that it is all mere superstition? It would seem rather hard to pound out something that almost seems to be part of our genetic makeup. Why do so many societies and people inherently believe that there is a metaphysical reality?

Obviously, discovering the density of a neutrino will have no eternal effect on our lives. Discovering who God is... that could definitely have an eternal effect.

Are you substitious? Let me know.