Yes, Karma is the same old nonsense…


“Damien, do you believe in karma?”

No, why would I?

If the claim of a god: a superpower being with an ultimate all-knowing mind that is involved in judging and distribution of morality consequences is ridiculous as an atheist. Then how much more ludicrous is the claim of karma: a beingless mind devoid superpower that is an all-knowing nothingism with an ultimate all knowingness involved in judging and distribution of morality consequences.

Without Nonsense, Religion Dies

I am against ALL Pseudoscience, Pseudohistory, and Pseudomorality. And all of these should openly be debunked, when and where possible. Of course, not forgetting how they are all highly represented in religion. All three are often found in religion to the point that if they were removed, their loss would likely end religion as we know it. I don’t have to respect ideas. People get confused ideas are not alive nor do they have beingness, Ideas don’t have rights nor the right to even exist only people have such a right. Ideas don’t have dignity nor can they feel violation only people if you attack them personally. Ideas don’t deserve any special anything they have no feelings and cannot be shamed they are open to the most brutal merciless attack and challenge without any protection and deserve none nor will I give them any if they are found wanting in evidence or reason. I will never respect Ideas if they are devoid of merit I only respect people.

Notice to the Superstitious or Supernaturalists

If you want to claim a thing, to me, I want all the details, all aspects, all attributes and not wishy-washy generalization evading too many details wishing to help push its unreasonableness, all the while hoping to make it seem more possible, when it is nothing of the sort with what you have failed to provide me. Because people that are too fond of generalizations (Hasty Generalizations and/or Faulty generalizations) tend to also commonly not be well informed on what they are talking about.


kar·ma: Sanskrit meaning fate, work

Just-World phenomenon is like Karma

From the definition of karma, the ‘amounts’ of goodwill/actions and badwill/actions which are reportedly stored in some way to somewhere to be carried over to a next life or are carried on to a next life. Consider what would need to exist in order for the good/badwill/actions to actually work, now how is this not some unjustified blind faith without any valid and/or reliable reason and evidence?

“YOUR KARMA IS YOUR OWN DOING (like sin)”

“Every person is responsible for his or her acts and thoughts, so each person’s karma is entirely his or her own. Occidentals see the operation of karma as fatalistic. But that is far from true since it is in the hands of an individual to shape his own future by schooling his present. Hindu philosophy, which believes in life after death, holds the doctrine that if the karma of an individual is good enough, the next birth will be rewarding, and if not, the person may actually devolve and degenerate into a lower life form. In order to achieve good karma, it is important to live life according to dharma or what is right. THREE KINDS OF KARMA: According to the ways of life chosen by a person, his karma can be classified into three kinds. The satvik karma, which is without attachment, selfless and for the benefit of others; the rajasik karma, which is selfish where the focus is on gains for oneself; and the tamasik karma, which is undertaken without heed to consequences, and is supremely selfish and savage. In this context, Dr. D N Singh in his A Study of Hinduism quotes Mahatma Gandhi’s lucid differentiation between the three. According to Gandhi, the tamasik works in a mechanic fashion, the rajasik drives too many horses, is restless and always doing something or other, and the satvik works with peace in mind. Swami Sivananda, of the Divine Life Society, Rishikesh classifies karma into three kinds on the basis of action and reaction: Prarabdha (so much of past actions as has given rise to the present birth), Sanchita (the balance of past actions that will give rise to future births – the storehouse of accumulated actions), Agami or Kriyamana (acts being done in the present life).” Ref

All religions have some form of self-shaming institution such as “sin” or its equivalents such as karma or something else often used to describe actions that create negative “self” or “other”outlook where truly there is none. This idea of sin points out how religions promote pseudo-morality. The easiest aspect to grasp about pseudo-morality is when it is claimed that you can do something immoral to yourself that is pseudo-morality. True morality is how one conducts themselves with others. There is no ethical violation of self. To understand this concept considers how consent violations are unethical and how one does not need to get consent from oneself. Thus, there cannot be a consent violation against self and the aspect of sin is pseudo-morality, which promotes that there can be a violation of the self.

The word “hinduism” is not to be found anywhere in the scriptures, and the term “hindu” was introduced by foreigners who referred to people living across the River Indus or Sindhu, in the north of India, around which the vedic religion is believed to have originated. The religious tradition of hinduism created such concepts and practices as yoga, ayurveda, vastu, jyotish, yajna, puja, tantra, vedanta, karma, etc. Jains define godliness as the inherent quality of any soul characterizing infinite bliss, infinite power, perfect knowledge, and perfect peace. However, these qualities of a soul are subdued due to karmas of the soul. One who achieves this state of soul through right belief, right knowledge, and right conduct can be termed as god.

This perfection of soul is called kaivalya or bodhi. A god thus becomes a soul-liberated of miseries, cycles of rebirth, world, karmas, and finally liberated of the body as well. This is called nirvana or moksha. If godliness is defined as the state of having freed one’s soul from karmas and the attainment of enlightenment/nirvana and a god as one who exists in such a state, then those who have achieved such a state can be termed gods/tirthankara. Thus, rishabha was god/tirthankara but he was not the only tirthankara; there were many other tirthankara. However, the quality of godliness is the same in all of them. Thus, jainism can be defined as deityist, polytheist, monotheist, nontheist, transtheist, or atheist, depending on one’s definition of god. In Jain cosmology, naraka (translated as hell) is the name given to the realm of existence having great suffering.

The hells are situated in the seven grounds at the lower part of the universe. However, a naraka differs from the hells of Abrahamic religions, as souls are not sent to naraka as the result of a divine judgment and punishment. Furthermore, the length of a being’s stay in a naraka is not eternal, though it is usually very long, measured in billions of years. A soul is born into a naraka as a direct result of their previous karma (actions of body, speech, and mind), and resides there for a finite length of time until their karma has achieved its full result. After their karma is used up, they may be reborn in one of the higher worlds as the result of an earlier karma that had not yet ripened. In our world of science fact, fideism (faith over reason) and things like believing in creationism is stupid though this is not saying I think theists are stupid as people just the fideism (faith over reason) beliefs in general are stupid beliefs.

Theists or people who support fideism learn to suspend analytical reasoning when it comes to their faith in desired beliefs such as creationism, intelligent design, or other wacky ideas such as karma or astrology. They have been taught to behave that way from childhood. Fideism (faith over reason) is even seen as a virtue in many groups and cultures. I was a theist too because of childhood religious indoctrination and as other religious indoctrinated, I too once valued fideism (faith over reason) until my wife Shayna showed me the facts and taught me how to ask questions. This expose me to be open to science as well as the history of religions contradicting my childhood religious indoctrination and asked me to explain why I have faith in the supernatural which has no proof and it forced me to use my rational skill and move past the learned stupidity of fideism (faith over reason).

After gaining this new information based on reason and evidence, I started to demand that I use rational intuition; I became an atheist and a rationalist, even though it was still hard to remove completely the desire to use fideism. As a whole, religious people are or stay less intelligent than atheists stay, though this is a generality as specific religionists/fideists and atheists will vary, because they hold value in fideism. According to the analysis of scores of scientific studies extending over decades, demonstrates and backs up with facts that there are intelligent differences. However, it may not be the religionist/fideist’s fault, if you are indoctrinated with fear of hell from a very early age, this is not completely a matter of intelligence to me, but it is a factor. Belief and reasons to desire fideism (faith over reason) can be complicated but it seems fear is the most prominent contributing element to belief.

In addition, this seems somewhat obvious as street preachers constantly threaten hell to add the fear element with the desire of scaring you into the god belief. Not just fear of god, fear as loss of family, friends, or a social group including status in one’s culture. God(s) is supernatural, prayer because it is said you can ask and receive things is supernatural, revelation is supernatural, karma is supernatural, miracles are supernatural, reincarnation is supernatural, magical potions and witchcraft are supernatural, and even places like heaven or hell are supernatural. However, what do all of these individual “supernatural” phenomena have in common? Metaphysically, what allows us to distinguish them from “natural” phenomena? There is a clear and meaningful metaphysical distinction between “natural” and the “supernatural” to justifying our use of these terms.

The “supernatural” is a false fantasy concept for there is only natural. Stop believing in supernatural and be honest in the wonderment of natural reality as it truly is. Sometimes, it is claimed that science can only study the “natural” world and that “supernatural” phenomena cannot be known through the scientific method. However, science is empirical which means it is based on observation, experience, or experimentation rather than just theoretical concepts or pure logic. Many phenomena that we would describe as “supernatural” such as prayer, revelation, karma, miracles, reincarnation, magical potions, witchcraft, or turning water into wine that have empirical claims attached to it, would be empirically observable or testable.

In many religious cultures, including christianity and islam, hell is traditionally depicted as fiery and painful, inflicting guilt and suffering. Zoroastrianism has historically suggested several possible fates for the wicked, including annihilation, purgation in molten metal, and eternal punishment. Hinduism and jainism both have a realm similar to hell, called naraka. Taoism mostly adopted tenets of other religions, endows taoist hell with many deities and spirits who punish sin in a variety of horrible ways. This is also considered karma for taoism. In the baha’i faith, the conventional descriptions of hell and heaven are considered to be symbolic. Despite these common depictions of hell as a place of fire, some other traditions portray hell as cold. Buddhist, particularly Tibetan buddhist’s descriptions of hell feature an equal number of hot and cold hells. The cultures of Mesopotamia including Sumeria, the Akkadian Empire, Babylonia, and Assyria, the Hittites and the Canaanites/Ugarits reveal some of the earliest evidence for the notion of a netherworld or underworld. If “everything is relative,” how much easier is it to declare that dharma and karma could be real? Indeed, if “everything is relative,” then anything goes and can be “justified” by the appeal to “relativity supported by science.”

Moreover, if “nothing is real,” then why not just let people do whatever they want to do or say whatever they want to say without ever challenging them? Of course, if you just happen to live in and recognize the real world where nothing is relative, then you will do what you can to prevent such misinterpretations of science from further corrupting minds too easily susceptible to accepting nonsense wrapped in pseudoscientific garb. A good start is to promote the understanding that many people, including scientists, frequently misinterpret and/or exaggerate scientific findings to make proclamations about things that legitimate science does not support. Beyond that, grounding oneself and others in realist philosophies will also help prevent nonsense claims from gaining more devotees. Legitimate science is a fine servant of truth, but faulty misinterpretations of science only serve the enemy of truth and should be exposed and resisted in defense of the truth. 

Karma (car-ma) is a word meaning the result of a person’s actions as well as the actions themselves. It is a term about the cycle of cause and effect. According to the theory of Karma, what happens to a person, happens because they caused it with their actions. It is an important part of many religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism and islam. Ref

The Reasonless Belief Systems of Dharma and Karma

Now, I will address a seemingly common reasonless belief in karma, though typically a theist thing to believe in. Well sadly, I have heard some who still like to believe in some version of karma even after turning atheist. Karma, even to the Western world, is a part odd, part ridiculous, and part religion. If they are trying to say positive action is of benefit to the world, this is not the same as saying karma magic is real, which is like saying the fact that children get gifts on christmas proves santa claus is real. This is not a logical chain of proof. Karma, like many cause and effect misinterpretations, are based on confirmation bias.

In psychology and cognitive science, confirmation bias is a tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions that leads to statistical errors. Confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias and represents an error of inductive inference toward confirmation of the hypothesis under study. Confirmation bias is a phenomenon, wherein decision makers have been shown to actively seek out and assign more weight to evidence that confirms their hypothesis and ignores or under weigh evidence that could disconfirm their hypothesis. As such, it can be thought of as a form of selection bias in collecting evidence. I am not saying all atheists fall for nonsense like karma but do they all hold to scientific realism or even understand what that is, well that is another question altogether. The education of atheists needs to go even further if we are to think of ourselves as living in and recognize the real world by real rejecting the nonreal. Most godless people have better knowledge of the holy books, often of multiple religions, than most religionists/fideists but we are benefited in grasping the scientific misinterpretations which promote the possibilities that the non-realism and antirealism in the holy books should be fully rejected by scientific realism.

We should do more than say the holy books have errors or just say why these gods are illogical but expose how they reject scientific realism. Those with the weakest faith/knowledge in their beliefs or the weakest scientific thinking/knowledge will be the quickest to get the angriest. When they feel that their opinion is not being heard or validated as at least equal to all others, or if you refuse to change their beliefs to allow for the possibility of their thinking to be wrong, they become outraged likely switching to personal or character attacks. Because we all know by yelling and trying to turn it around gives a statement or thinking that is more validity that actual research and facts will ever do… Not. The ethical problem with these belief systems that try to explain why life is fair is that they make it more unfair by heaping blame onto someone’s misfortune. If something bad happens to you, it must be because you earned it in bad karma. Karma is part of the belief in reincarnation that leads us to the term karma.

People, often use karma as if it is separate from the belief in reincarnation. Karma as a catch-all term is familiar and is forgetting the religious thinking or dharmic religions of hinduism, buddhism, sikhism, and jainism that promote though their idea of karma can be a bit different from one another. In very simplified terms, karma is the belief that a person’s actions in life will determine their fate in the next life. If a person is kind and selfless in this life, they will be rewarded in the next life. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. If a person is a scoundrel today, let us just say they will be paying for it in their next tomorrow! Although our culture does not always use the word karma, relics of it are apparent in phrases such as ‘what goes around comes around,’ or ‘they sure got what was coming to them!’ Now, I will explain dharma and this term is probably the most alien to the Western mind. For this reason, a simple definition is best; in dharma, the belief is the moral force that orders the universe. The power keeps the world in motion and keeps society ticking. It keeps the trees blooming, the grass growing, and the birds singing.

However, dharma is maintained through personal duty. Simply put, it is up to dharma believers to do their part to keep the world operating smoothly. Sounds like bullshit, right. With this, dharma is both universal and circumstantial or personal and not to forget is total nonsense. In the bhagavad-gita, a sacred Indian text mainly in hinduism, a ruler’s crown is challenged by rebellion. Since the ruler knew murder was wrong, he put down his weapons and refused to kill the rebels. However, the god vishnu appeared and told him it was his personal duty or dharma to kill his enemies. Yes, senseless murder would go against the universal idea of dharma, but in this story, it was the honorable ruler’s personal duty or dharma to kill.

Let me get back to karma, the part of the belief that many assert, “People get what is coming to them,” but this thinking is wishful-thinking and is reasonless for both good and bad things can happen constantly and randomly to everyone. Faith is wishful-thinking, just like calling good and bad things that happen constantly as karma which make karma wishful-thinking and delusional. Karma is a false belief that the individual’s behaviors and thinking matter to the unseeing universe. Belief in karma is thinking that somehow the magic wand thinking will bless or honor your good deeds or punish bad deeds, even though logically that same non-being something, which is supposedly watching, is not able to watch nor has beingness to get involved.

In addition, this non-being mindless nothingness cannot reasonably watch everyone on the planet earth and then through life’s own hocus-pocus come to rational conclusions and reasoned judgments with this same non-being nothingness. Somehow, karma is believed to do all this magic without a mind to think and analyze the actions of billions of people happening at once in a life it cannot see and yet, is thought to participate actively in altering things in a life it is not really in as well. Therefore, I call bullshit. Like all superstitions, I try to apply logic, rational, critical thinking, and require evidence. So as you can guess, I do not believe in karma or dharma. I think all the belief systems of dharma and karma are all bullshit. I wish to help others become enlightened. I want a world of people with knowledge living in mental freedom.

The indigenous religions of India “sikhism, hinduism, buddhism, and jainism” all ask their believers to following the concepts of dharma and karma to improve not only this life, but their ensuing ones as well. Thus, all are antirealistic and a reality that supporters should reject. I only believe in reality and do not at all agree with faith’s wishful-thinking like karma and its magical cause and effect reasoning. Bad people do evil and often suffer little and good people do kind things and are killed, swindled, and abused. All kinds of random good or bad occur and accrue, there is no balance to or of things, which means the world is not working on our behalf, and nothing shields us from random events. I do believe it is humans practicing or using a thoughtful or caring humanity that adds to the good in the world but this is only positive intentions and not cosmic anything.

Karma is the self-soothing fable that is embraced by the powerless, fearful, and lazy when faced with injustice. Karma is a belief that is every bit as horrible as the idea of original sin! It says that natural disasters, diseases, poverty, murder, and abuse happen to people because they deserve it. This thinking is a sick and immoral thought process that is devoid of reason. Original sin and karma are horrible concepts to teach children. To tell them that they are inherently evil and/or deserve any bad things that happen to them is unimaginably cruel and damaging. People who believe in karma say, “But my truth is my truth and it has credibility to me and you must respect my way of seeing things.” However, I say, Sorry, you are not entitled to have your opinion being respected.

Everyone has their opinion and I am entitled to my opinion or I have a right to my opinion is a common declaration in rhetoric or debate that can be made at some point in an argument. When asserted for this reason, the statement exemplifies an informal logical fallacy of the type called Red Herring. Whether one has a particular entitlement or right is irrelevant to whether one’s assertion is true or false. To assert the existence of the right is a failure to assert any justification for the opinion. However, such an assertion can also be an assertion of one’s own freedom or a refusal to participate in the system of logic at hand. If your opinion is not supported with reason and evidence, it is not equal to the other who forms their opinion supported with reason and evidence. Your unsupported opinion of karma is not equal to my supported opinion that there is no karma.

Why would we buy into a concept of karma as if it was real? There are at least two big problems with the ways that karma has often been understood. Although, the earliest teachings are quite clear that laypeople too can become enlightened, the main role of lay buddhists, as widely practiced today, is to support the monastic sangha. In this way, the non-monastics gain “merit,” and by accumulating merit they can hope to attain a more favorable rebirth. This approach makes karma a commodity, which would seem a form of “spiritual materialism,” an attitude that is quite different from the path that the buddha taught. Karma has also been used to rationalize sexism, racism, caste, economic oppression, birth handicaps, and almost everything else.

Taken literally, karma justifies the authority of political elites, who therefore deserve their wealth and power, and the subordination of those without them, who are also experiencing the results of their behavior in previous lifetimes. If there is an inevitable cause-and-effect relationship between one’s actions and one’s fate, there is no need to work toward social justice, because it is already built into the moral fabric of the universe. So why bother to struggle against injustice? This means that you suffer because you deserve too.

1, 2, 3, 4,

 


Western Karma?

“Western metaphysical authors and teachers, as well as average, ‘mundane’ people, define karma as ‘the law that if you do good, good things will happen to you, and if you do bad, bad things will happen to you.’ In doing this, they identify karma in terms of reciprocity—i.e. you reap what you sew. Now, while this definition certainly gives a quick and dirty explanation of what karma does, it fails to describe what karma is. For this reason, I find this definition to be particularly useless and misleading. There is two outstanding problems with this Western conceptualization of karma: (1) It qualifies karma, often as a negative and disciplinary force and (2) it makes karma objective rather than subjective. Both of these points skew the perception of what karma actually is, and thus this definition of karma undermines the very thing that it is attempting to define. Whether you ardently adhere to a belief in the power of karma or not, chances are that you are familiar with the idea of karma as a disciplinary force. There is a tendency, both within metaphysical communities and with-out, to blame negative occurrences as well as one’s shortcomings and failures on karma. Often times, this sort of blame is meant as a joke. If you are running with a friend and you trip, falling on your stomach, you may get up and laugh off the embarrassment by suggesting to your friend that you tripped because of your ‘bad karma.’ While this action does not necessarily mean that you accept the concept of karma, it certainly does shape both your friend’s and your perception of what karma is. It sets karma up as a disciplinary agent, one that is out to smite you if ever you should mess up. In a sense, this is true: Karma can bring about unfavorable results if we pursue unwholesome actions. Yet, this is a dangerous mindset to get into. To understand this, let’s think about a different situation. Say you get a promotion. Are you likely to attribute this advancement to good karma? Probably not. You will most likely say that you either earned the promotion or that you were awarded it by luck. So, while we are apt to blame karma, we very rarely—if ever!—glorify karma as the source of pleasantries. Although the poplar Western definition of karma does suggest that karma allows for both good and bad outcomes, the malleability of the definition permits it to be skewed to the point that karma becomes an entirely negative process. In modern Hindu culture, the notion of karma is just as present as it was thousands of years ago. (For those who do not know, the idea of karma began with the Vedic [proto-Hindu] population of India.) Yet in its more original Hindu context, the function of karma appears very different from the one conceptualized in the West. In popular Hindu thought, karma is not a disciplinary agent. Rather, it is a means to avoid and to alter unfavorable circumstances. For example, if a Hindu man is plagued by crop failure, he may say that, yes, bad karma has a part in this crop failure. However, rather than dwelling on the effects of his bad karma, he will seek to produce good karma in hopes of counteracting these undesirable conditions. He will use karma as an escape route. Karma is not about retrograding: It is not about accepting or ‘feeling the burn’ of what you have done. It is about becoming, about utilizing life’s moments so as to create things in a better and more pleasing fashion. The Western concept of karma often does not allow for the latter. The Western definition becomes too skewed, too one-sided for this. So what is the actual nature of karma? Good question. There is no one-size-fits-all understanding of karma. As is typical with such elusive matters, there are many different schools and opinions out there. The second major thing wrong about the Western understanding of karma is that it constructs karma as a cosmic law. It is outside of us, a force like gravity which acts upon us; we are at its mercy.” Ref 

“In its original form, the word karma was the Sanskrit word for action. More specifically, it referred to the ritualized action of Vedic sacrifice. To perform a sacrifice to the gods, then, was karma. It was the buddha, Gautama Buddha, who changed this. In his teachings on the dharma, the Buddha reshaped the idea of karma. In doing so, Buddha transformed karma from an objective into a subjective experience. His notion of karma could be summed up simply—‘simply’ meaning a simple version—as: ‘The doer becomes the deed.’ In the Buddha’s schema, then, karma was the process of becoming. You were what you did. In common Western understanding, karma is a law. It is a hard fact of nature, something that is separate and outside of ourselves. To say that karma is a law is to say that it is stagnant, and since it is stagnant, we should be able to touch it, to explore it, and to quantify it. It is to say that we can measure things by it, that we can declare things good, bad, better, or worse by holding them up to the ‘karmic ruler.’ If karma were a law, it would have to be non-discriminatory, affecting everything in the same manner: The consequences of one person’s action would have to directly correlate to the consequences of anyone else who performed that same action. Yet, karma does not function in this manner. It is far more relative, affecting each person according to his or her own norms. Thus karma, failing to be truly objective, cannot be a law. A final trap into which Western karmic thought often stumbles is the application of the concept of karma to every experience—after all, in the Western schema, karma is a law, and it therefore must hold constant sway. Thus we begin to say that everything is the product of karma; yet, this is absurd. If I were to die, would that be because of my karma? No, certainly not. Perhaps the circumstances of my death were influenced by my karma, but the death itself is natural. It is no more a product of karma than the need to drink or to breathe is. Yet again, this trend demonstrates that, unbeknownst to the Western frame of mind, karma cannot be an objective law, as it does not blindly permeate all experiences of life. The concept of karma has become a very important cornerstone in a great deal of Pagan traditions who often employ a Westernized understanding of karma, one that qualifies and objectifies karma, turning it into a nuanced and universal law.” Ref

The role of divine forces

Karma is considered one of the natural laws of the mind, just as gravity is a law of matter. Just as God created gravity to bring order to the physical world, He created karma as a divine system of justice that is self-governing and infinitely fair. It automatically creates the appropriate future experience in response to the current action. Several different views exist in Hinduism regarding the role of divine beings. In Hinduism, many see the deities or devas as playing some kind of role. Other Hindus, such as the Mimamsakas, reject such notions and see karma as acting independently, considering the natural laws of causation sufficient to explain the effects of karma. Some interpretations of the Bhagavad Gita suggest an intermediate view, that karma is a law of cause and effect yet God can mitigate karma for His devotees. It is said in Bhagavad Gita that only the karma that is done with a sense of doership and with attachment to the karma could cause good or bad reactions. Karma that is done with an attitude of duty and without attachment to the results will not create any effect and will move one closer to God. Another view holds that a Satguru, acting on God’s behalf, can mitigate or work out some of the karma of the disciple. Hindus look at time as a circle, as things cycle around again. Karma is a very just law which, like gravity, treats everyone the same. The law of karma puts man at the center of responsibility for everything he does and everything that is done to him. Understanding the way karma works, Hindus try to live a virtuous life. This is called dharma. There are three types of karma in Hinduism:

  1. sanchita karma, the sum total of past karmas yet to be resolved;
  2. prarabdha karma, that portion of sanchita karma that is to be experienced in this life; and
  3. kriyamana karma, the karma that humans are currently creating, which will bear fruit in future. Ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

People don’t commonly teach religious history, even that of their own claimed religion. No, rather they teach a limited “pro their religion” history of their religion from a religious perspective favorable to the religion of choice. 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Do you truly think “Religious Belief” is only a matter of some personal choice?

Do you not see how coercive one’s world of choice is limited to the obvious hereditary belief, in most religious choices available to the child of religious parents or caregivers? Religion is more commonly like a family, culture, society, etc. available belief that limits the belief choices of the child and that is when “Religious Belief” is not only a matter of some personal choice and when it becomes hereditary faith, not because of the quality of its alleged facts or proposed truths but because everyone else important to the child believes similarly so they do as well simply mimicking authority beliefs handed to them. Because children are raised in religion rather than being presented all possible choices but rather one limited dogmatic brand of “Religious Belief” where children only have a choice of following the belief as instructed, and then personally claim the faith hereditary belief seen in the confirming to the belief they have held themselves all their lives. This is obvious in statements asked and answered by children claiming a faith they barely understand but they do understand that their family believes “this or that” faith, so they feel obligated to believe it too. While I do agree that “Religious Belief” should only be a matter of some personal choice, it rarely is… End Hereditary Religion!

Opposition to Imposed Hereditary Religion

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

refrefrefref 

Animism: Respecting the Living World by Graham Harvey 

“How have human cultures engaged with and thought about animals, plants, rocks, clouds, and other elements in their natural surroundings? Do animals and other natural objects have a spirit or soul? What is their relationship to humans? In this new study, Graham Harvey explores current and past animistic beliefs and practices of Native Americans, Maori, Aboriginal Australians, and eco-pagans. He considers the varieties of animism found in these cultures as well as their shared desire to live respectfully within larger natural communities. Drawing on his extensive casework, Harvey also considers the linguistic, performative, ecological, and activist implications of these different animisms.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

We are like believing machines we vacuum up ideas, like Velcro sticks to almost everything. We accumulate beliefs that we allow to negatively influence our lives, often without realizing it. Our willingness must be to alter skewed beliefs that impend our balance or reason, which allows us to achieve new positive thinking and accurate outcomes.

My thoughts on Religion Evolution with external links for more info:

“Religion is an Evolved Product” and Yes, Religion is Like Fear Given Wings…

Atheists talk about gods and religions for the same reason doctors talk about cancer, they are looking for a cure, or a firefighter talks about fires because they burn people and they care to stop them. We atheists too often feel a need to help the victims of mental slavery, held in the bondage that is the false beliefs of gods and the conspiracy theories of reality found in religions.

“Understanding Religion Evolution: Animism, Totemism, Shamanism, Paganism & Progressed organized religion”

Understanding Religion Evolution:

“An Archaeological/Anthropological Understanding of Religion Evolution”

It seems ancient peoples had to survived amazing threats in a “dangerous universe (by superstition perceived as good and evil),” and human “immorality or imperfection of the soul” which was thought to affect the still living, leading to ancestor worship. This ancestor worship presumably led to the belief in supernatural beings, and then some of these were turned into the belief in gods. This feeble myth called gods were just a human conceived “made from nothing into something over and over, changing, again and again, taking on more as they evolve, all the while they are thought to be special,” but it is just supernatural animistic spirit-belief perceived as sacred.

 

Quick Evolution of Religion?

Pre-Animism (at least 300,000 years ago) pre-religion is a beginning that evolves into later Animism. So, Religion as we think of it, to me, all starts in a general way with Animism (Africa: 100,000 years ago) (theoretical belief in supernatural powers/spirits), then this is physically expressed in or with Totemism (Europe: 50,000 years ago) (theoretical belief in mythical relationship with powers/spirits through a totem item), which then enlists a full-time specific person to do this worship and believed interacting Shamanism (Siberia/Russia: 30,000 years ago) (theoretical belief in access and influence with spirits through ritual), and then there is the further employment of myths and gods added to all the above giving you Paganism (Turkey: 12,000 years ago) (often a lot more nature-based than most current top world religions, thus hinting to their close link to more ancient religious thinking it stems from). My hypothesis is expressed with an explanation of the building of a theatrical house (modern religions development). Progressed organized religion (Egypt: 5,000 years ago)  with CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS (after 4,000 years ago).

Historically, in large city-state societies (such as Egypt or Iraq) starting around 5,000 years ago culminated to make religion something kind of new, a sociocultural-governmental-religious monarchy, where all or at least many of the people of such large city-state societies seem familiar with and committed to the existence of “religion” as the integrated life identity package of control dynamics with a fixed closed magical doctrine, but this juggernaut integrated religion identity package of Dogmatic-Propaganda certainly did not exist or if developed to an extent it was highly limited in most smaller prehistoric societies as they seem to lack most of the strong control dynamics with a fixed closed magical doctrine (magical beliefs could be at times be added or removed). Many people just want to see developed religious dynamics everywhere even if it is not. Instead, all that is found is largely fragments until the domestication of religion.

Religions, as we think of them today, are a new fad, even if they go back to around 6,000 years in the timeline of human existence, this amounts to almost nothing when seen in the long slow evolution of religion at least around 70,000 years ago with one of the oldest ritual worship. Stone Snake of South Africa: “first human worship” 70,000 years ago. This message of how religion and gods among them are clearly a man-made thing that was developed slowly as it was invented and then implemented peace by peace discrediting them all. Which seems to be a simple point some are just not grasping how devastating to any claims of truth when we can see the lie clearly in the archeological sites.

I wish people fought as hard for the actual values as they fight for the group/clan names political or otherwise they think support values. Every amount spent on war is theft to children in need of food or the homeless kept from shelter.

Here are several of my blog posts on history:

I am not an academic. I am a revolutionary that teaches in public, in places like social media, and in the streets. I am not a leader by some title given but from my commanding leadership style of simply to start teaching everywhere to everyone, all manner of positive education. 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Low Gods “Earth” or Tutelary deity and High Gods “Sky” or Supreme deity

“An Earth goddess is a deification of the Earth. Earth goddesses are often associated with the “chthonic” deities of the underworldKi and Ninhursag are Mesopotamian earth goddesses. In Greek mythology, the Earth is personified as Gaia, corresponding to Roman Terra, Indic Prithvi/Bhūmi, etc. traced to an “Earth Mother” complementary to the “Sky Father” in Proto-Indo-European religionEgyptian mythology exceptionally has a sky goddess and an Earth god.” ref

“A mother goddess is a goddess who represents or is a personification of naturemotherhoodfertilitycreationdestruction or who embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world, such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother. In some religious traditions or movements, Heavenly Mother (also referred to as Mother in Heaven or Sky Mother) is the wife or feminine counterpart of the Sky father or God the Father.” ref

Any masculine sky god is often also king of the gods, taking the position of patriarch within a pantheon. Such king gods are collectively categorized as “sky father” deities, with a polarity between sky and earth often being expressed by pairing a “sky father” god with an “earth mother” goddess (pairings of a sky mother with an earth father are less frequent). A main sky goddess is often the queen of the gods and may be an air/sky goddess in her own right, though she usually has other functions as well with “sky” not being her main. In antiquity, several sky goddesses in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Near East were called Queen of Heaven. Neopagans often apply it with impunity to sky goddesses from other regions who were never associated with the term historically. The sky often has important religious significance. Many religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, have deities associated with the sky.” ref

“In comparative mythology, sky father is a term for a recurring concept in polytheistic religions of a sky god who is addressed as a “father”, often the father of a pantheon and is often either a reigning or former King of the Gods. The concept of “sky father” may also be taken to include Sun gods with similar characteristics, such as Ra. The concept is complementary to an “earth mother“. “Sky Father” is a direct translation of the Vedic Dyaus Pita, etymologically descended from the same Proto-Indo-European deity name as the Greek Zeûs Pater and Roman Jupiter and Germanic Týr, Tir or Tiwaz, all of which are reflexes of the same Proto-Indo-European deity’s name, *Dyēus Ph₂tḗr. While there are numerous parallels adduced from outside of Indo-European mythology, there are exceptions (e.g. In Egyptian mythology, Nut is the sky mother and Geb is the earth father).” ref

Tutelary deity

“A tutelary (also tutelar) is a deity or spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of “tutelary” expresses the concept of safety and thus of guardianship. In late Greek and Roman religion, one type of tutelary deity, the genius, functions as the personal deity or daimon of an individual from birth to death. Another form of personal tutelary spirit is the familiar spirit of European folklore.” ref

“A tutelary (also tutelar) iKorean shamanismjangseung and sotdae were placed at the edge of villages to frighten off demons. They were also worshiped as deities. Seonangshin is the patron deity of the village in Korean tradition and was believed to embody the SeonangdangIn Philippine animism, Diwata or Lambana are deities or spirits that inhabit sacred places like mountains and mounds and serve as guardians. Such as: Maria Makiling is the deity who guards Mt. Makiling and Maria Cacao and Maria Sinukuan. In Shinto, the spirits, or kami, which give life to human bodies come from nature and return to it after death. Ancestors are therefore themselves tutelaries to be worshiped. And similarly, Native American beliefs such as Tonás, tutelary animal spirit among the Zapotec and Totems, familial or clan spirits among the Ojibwe, can be animals.” ref

“A tutelary (also tutelar) in Austronesian beliefs such as: Atua (gods and spirits of the Polynesian peoples such as the Māori or the Hawaiians), Hanitu (Bunun of Taiwan‘s term for spirit), Hyang (KawiSundaneseJavanese, and Balinese Supreme Being, in ancient Java and Bali mythology and this spiritual entity, can be either divine or ancestral), Kaitiaki (New Zealand Māori term used for the concept of guardianship, for the sky, the sea, and the land), Kawas (mythology) (divided into 6 groups: gods, ancestors, souls of the living, spirits of living things, spirits of lifeless objects, and ghosts), Tiki (Māori mythologyTiki is the first man created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne and represents deified ancestors found in most Polynesian cultures). ” ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Mesopotamian Tutelary Deities can be seen as ones related to City-States 

“Historical city-states included Sumerian cities such as Uruk and UrAncient Egyptian city-states, such as Thebes and Memphis; the Phoenician cities (such as Tyre and Sidon); the five Philistine city-states; the Berber city-states of the Garamantes; the city-states of ancient Greece (the poleis such as AthensSpartaThebes, and Corinth); the Roman Republic (which grew from a city-state into a vast empire); the Italian city-states from the Middle Ages to the early modern period, such as FlorenceSienaFerraraMilan (which as they grew in power began to dominate neighboring cities) and Genoa and Venice, which became powerful thalassocracies; the Mayan and other cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica (including cities such as Chichen ItzaTikalCopán and Monte Albán); the central Asian cities along the Silk Road; the city-states of the Swahili coastRagusa; states of the medieval Russian lands such as Novgorod and Pskov; and many others.” ref

“The Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BCE; also known as Protoliterate period) of Mesopotamia, named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia and the Sumerian civilization. City-States like Uruk and others had a patron tutelary City Deity along with a Priest-King.” ref

Chinese folk religion, both past, and present, includes myriad tutelary deities. Exceptional individuals, highly cultivated sages, and prominent ancestors can be deified and honored after death. Lord Guan is the patron of military personnel and police, while Mazu is the patron of fishermen and sailors. Such as Tu Di Gong (Earth Deity) is the tutelary deity of a locality, and each individual locality has its own Earth Deity and Cheng Huang Gong (City God) is the guardian deity of an individual city, worshipped by local officials and locals since imperial times.” ref

“A tutelary (also tutelar) in Hinduism, personal tutelary deities are known as ishta-devata, while family tutelary deities are known as Kuladevata. Gramadevata are guardian deities of villages. Devas can also be seen as tutelary. Shiva is the patron of yogis and renunciants. City goddesses include: Mumbadevi (Mumbai), Sachchika (Osian); Kuladevis include: Ambika (Porwad), and Mahalakshmi. In NorthEast India Meitei mythology and religion (Sanamahism) of Manipur, there are various types of tutelary deities, among which Lam Lais are the most predominant ones. Tibetan Buddhism has Yidam as a tutelary deity. Dakini is the patron of those who seek knowledge.” ref

“A tutelary (also tutelar) The Greeks also thought deities guarded specific places: for instance, Athena was the patron goddess of the city of Athens. Socrates spoke of hearing the voice of his personal spirit or daimonion:

You have often heard me speak of an oracle or sign which comes to me … . This sign I have had ever since I was a child. The sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do, but never commands me to do anything, and this is what stands in the way of my being a politician.” ref

“Tutelary deities who guard and preserve a place or a person are fundamental to ancient Roman religion. The tutelary deity of a man was his Genius, that of a woman her Juno. In the Imperial era, the Genius of the Emperor was a focus of Imperial cult. An emperor might also adopt a major deity as his personal patron or tutelary, as Augustus did Apollo. Precedents for claiming the personal protection of a deity were established in the Republican era, when for instance the Roman dictator Sulla advertised the goddess Victory as his tutelary by holding public games (ludi) in her honor.” ref

“Each town or city had one or more tutelary deities, whose protection was considered particularly vital in time of war and siege. Rome itself was protected by a goddess whose name was to be kept ritually secret on pain of death (for a supposed case, see Quintus Valerius Soranus). The Capitoline Triad of Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva were also tutelaries of Rome. The Italic towns had their own tutelary deities. Juno often had this function, as at the Latin town of Lanuvium and the Etruscan city of Veii, and was often housed in an especially grand temple on the arx (citadel) or other prominent or central location. The tutelary deity of Praeneste was Fortuna, whose oracle was renowned.” ref

“The Roman ritual of evocatio was premised on the belief that a town could be made vulnerable to military defeat if the power of its tutelary deity were diverted outside the city, perhaps by the offer of superior cult at Rome. The depiction of some goddesses such as the Magna Mater (Great Mother, or Cybele) as “tower-crowned” represents their capacity to preserve the city. A town in the provinces might adopt a deity from within the Roman religious sphere to serve as its guardian, or syncretize its own tutelary with such; for instance, a community within the civitas of the Remi in Gaul adopted Apollo as its tutelary, and at the capital of the Remi (present-day Rheims), the tutelary was Mars Camulus.” ref 

Household deity (a kind of or related to a Tutelary deity)

“A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in paganism as well as in folklore across many parts of the world. Household deities fit into two types; firstly, a specific deity – typically a goddess – often referred to as a hearth goddess or domestic goddess who is associated with the home and hearth, such as the ancient Greek Hestia.” ref

“The second type of household deities are those that are not one singular deity, but a type, or species of animistic deity, who usually have lesser powers than major deities. This type was common in the religions of antiquity, such as the Lares of ancient Roman religion, the Gashin of Korean shamanism, and Cofgodas of Anglo-Saxon paganism. These survived Christianisation as fairy-like creatures existing in folklore, such as the Anglo-Scottish Brownie and Slavic Domovoy.” ref

“Household deities were usually worshipped not in temples but in the home, where they would be represented by small idols (such as the teraphim of the Bible, often translated as “household gods” in Genesis 31:19 for example), amulets, paintings, or reliefs. They could also be found on domestic objects, such as cosmetic articles in the case of Tawaret. The more prosperous houses might have a small shrine to the household god(s); the lararium served this purpose in the case of the Romans. The gods would be treated as members of the family and invited to join in meals, or be given offerings of food and drink.” ref

“In many religions, both ancient and modern, a god would preside over the home. Certain species, or types, of household deities, existed. An example of this was the Roman Lares. Many European cultures retained house spirits into the modern period. Some examples of these include:

“Although the cosmic status of household deities was not as lofty as that of the Twelve Olympians or the Aesir, they were also jealous of their dignity and also had to be appeased with shrines and offerings, however humble. Because of their immediacy they had arguably more influence on the day-to-day affairs of men than the remote gods did. Vestiges of their worship persisted long after Christianity and other major religions extirpated nearly every trace of the major pagan pantheons. Elements of the practice can be seen even today, with Christian accretions, where statues to various saints (such as St. Francis) protect gardens and grottos. Even the gargoyles found on older churches, could be viewed as guardians partitioning a sacred space.” ref

“For centuries, Christianity fought a mop-up war against these lingering minor pagan deities, but they proved tenacious. For example, Martin Luther‘s Tischreden have numerous – quite serious – references to dealing with kobolds. Eventually, rationalism and the Industrial Revolution threatened to erase most of these minor deities, until the advent of romantic nationalism rehabilitated them and embellished them into objects of literary curiosity in the 19th century. Since the 20th century this literature has been mined for characters for role-playing games, video games, and other fantasy personae, not infrequently invested with invented traits and hierarchies somewhat different from their mythological and folkloric roots.” ref

“In contradistinction to both Herbert Spencer and Edward Burnett Tylor, who defended theories of animistic origins of ancestor worship, Émile Durkheim saw its origin in totemism. In reality, this distinction is somewhat academic, since totemism may be regarded as a particularized manifestation of animism, and something of a synthesis of the two positions was attempted by Sigmund Freud. In Freud’s Totem and Taboo, both totem and taboo are outward expressions or manifestations of the same psychological tendency, a concept which is complementary to, or which rather reconciles, the apparent conflict. Freud preferred to emphasize the psychoanalytic implications of the reification of metaphysical forces, but with particular emphasis on its familial nature. This emphasis underscores, rather than weakens, the ancestral component.” ref

William Edward Hearn, a noted classicist, and jurist, traced the origin of domestic deities from the earliest stages as an expression of animism, a belief system thought to have existed also in the neolithic, and the forerunner of Indo-European religion. In his analysis of the Indo-European household, in Chapter II “The House Spirit”, Section 1, he states:

The belief which guided the conduct of our forefathers was … the spirit rule of dead ancestors.” ref

“In Section 2 he proceeds to elaborate:

It is thus certain that the worship of deceased ancestors is a vera causa, and not a mere hypothesis. …

In the other European nations, the Slavs, the Teutons, and the Kelts, the House Spirit appears with no less distinctness. … [T]he existence of that worship does not admit of doubt. … The House Spirits had a multitude of other names which it is needless here to enumerate, but all of which are more or less expressive of their friendly relations with man. … In [England] … [h]e is the Brownie. … In Scotland this same Brownie is well known. He is usually described as attached to particular families, with whom he has been known to reside for centuries, threshing the corn, cleaning the house, and performing similar household tasks. His favorite gratification was milk and honey.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“These ideas are my speculations from the evidence.”

I am still researching the “god‘s origins” all over the world. So you know, it is very complicated but I am smart and willing to look, DEEP, if necessary, which going very deep does seem to be needed here, when trying to actually understand the evolution of gods and goddesses. I am sure of a few things and less sure of others, but even in stuff I am not fully grasping I still am slowly figuring it out, to explain it to others. But as I research more I am understanding things a little better, though I am still working on understanding it all or something close and thus always figuring out more. 

Sky Father/Sky God?

“Egyptian: (Nut) Sky Mother and (Geb) Earth Father” (Egypt is different but similar)

Turkic/Mongolic: (Tengri/Tenger Etseg) Sky Father and (Eje/Gazar Eej) Earth Mother *Transeurasian*

Hawaiian: (Wākea) Sky Father and (Papahānaumoku) Earth Mother *Austronesian*

New Zealand/ Māori: (Ranginui) Sky Father and (Papatūānuku) Earth Mother *Austronesian*

Proto-Indo-European: (Dyus/Dyus phtr) Sky Father and (Dʰéǵʰōm/Plethwih) Earth Mother

Indo-Aryan: (Dyaus Pita) Sky Father and (Prithvi Mata) Earth Mother *Indo-European*

Italic: (Jupiter) Sky Father and (Juno) Sky Mother *Indo-European*

Etruscan: (Tinia) Sky Father and (Uni) Sky Mother *Tyrsenian/Italy Pre–Indo-European*

Hellenic/Greek: (Zeus) Sky Father and (Hera) Sky Mother who started as an “Earth Goddess” *Indo-European*

Nordic: (Dagr) Sky Father and (Nótt) Sky Mother *Indo-European*

Slavic: (Perun) Sky Father and (Mokosh) Earth Mother *Indo-European*

Illyrian: (Deipaturos) Sky Father and (Messapic Damatura’s “earth-mother” maybe) Earth Mother *Indo-European*

Albanian: (Zojz) Sky Father and (?) *Indo-European*

Baltic: (Perkūnas) Sky Father and (Saulė) Sky Mother *Indo-European*

Germanic: (Týr) Sky Father and (?) *Indo-European*

Colombian-Muisca: (Bochica) Sky Father and (Huythaca) Sky Mother *Chibchan*

Aztec: (Quetzalcoatl) Sky Father and (Xochiquetzal) Sky Mother *Uto-Aztecan*

Incan: (Viracocha) Sky Father and (Mama Runtucaya) Sky Mother *Quechuan*

China: (Tian/Shangdi) Sky Father and (Dì) Earth Mother *Sino-Tibetan*

Sumerian, Assyrian and Babylonian: (An/Anu) Sky Father and (Ki) Earth Mother

Finnish: (Ukko) Sky Father and (Akka) Earth Mother *Finno-Ugric*

Sami: (Horagalles) Sky Father and (Ravdna) Earth Mother *Finno-Ugric*

Puebloan-Zuni: (Ápoyan Ta’chu) Sky Father and (Áwitelin Tsíta) Earth Mother

Puebloan-Hopi: (Tawa) Sky Father and (Kokyangwuti/Spider Woman/Grandmother) Earth Mother *Uto-Aztecan*

Puebloan-Navajo: (Tsohanoai) Sky Father and (Estsanatlehi) Earth Mother *Na-Dene*

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Sky Father/Sky Mother “High Gods” or similar gods/goddesses of the sky more loosely connected, seeming arcane mythology across the earth seen in Siberia, China, Europe, Native Americans/First Nations People and Mesopotamia, etc.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Hinduism around 3,700 to 3,500 years old. ref

 Judaism around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (The first writing in the bible was “Paleo-Hebrew” dated to around 3,000 years ago Khirbet Qeiyafa is the site of an ancient fortress city overlooking the Elah Valley. And many believe the religious Jewish texts were completed around 2,500) ref, ref

Judaism is around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (“Paleo-Hebrew” 3,000 years ago and Torah 2,500 years ago)

“Judaism is an Abrahamic, its roots as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Some scholars argue that modern Judaism evolved from Yahwism, the religion of ancient Israel and Judah, by the late 6th century BCE, and is thus considered to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions.” ref

“Yahwism is the name given by modern scholars to the religion of ancient Israel, essentially polytheistic, with a plethora of gods and goddesses. Heading the pantheon was Yahweh, the national god of the Israelite kingdoms of Israel and Judah, with his consort, the goddess Asherah; below them were second-tier gods and goddesses such as Baal, Shamash, Yarikh, Mot, and Astarte, all of whom had their own priests and prophets and numbered royalty among their devotees, and a third and fourth tier of minor divine beings, including the mal’ak, the messengers of the higher gods, who in later times became the angels of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Yahweh, however, was not the ‘original’ god of Israel “Isra-El”; it is El, the head of the Canaanite pantheon, whose name forms the basis of the name “Israel”, and none of the Old Testament patriarchs, the tribes of Israel, the Judges, or the earliest monarchs, have a Yahwistic theophoric name (i.e., one incorporating the name of Yahweh).” ref

“El is a Northwest Semitic word meaning “god” or “deity“, or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities. A rarer form, ‘ila, represents the predicate form in Old Akkadian and in Amorite. The word is derived from the Proto-Semitic *ʔil-, meaning “god”. Specific deities known as ‘El or ‘Il include the supreme god of the ancient Canaanite religion and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in Mesopotamia’s Early Dynastic Period. ʼĒl is listed at the head of many pantheons. In some Canaanite and Ugaritic sources, ʼĒl played a role as father of the gods, of creation, or both. For example, in the Ugaritic texts, ʾil mlk is understood to mean “ʼĒl the King” but ʾil hd as “the god Hadad“. The Semitic root ʾlh (Arabic ʾilāh, Aramaic ʾAlāh, ʾElāh, Hebrew ʾelōah) may be ʾl with a parasitic h, and ʾl may be an abbreviated form of ʾlh. In Ugaritic the plural form meaning “gods” is ʾilhm, equivalent to Hebrew ʾelōhîm “powers”. In the Hebrew texts this word is interpreted as being semantically singular for “god” by biblical commentators. However the documentary hypothesis for the Old Testament (corresponds to the Jewish Torah) developed originally in the 1870s, identifies these that different authors – the Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, and the Priestly source – were responsible for editing stories from a polytheistic religion into those of a monotheistic religion. Inconsistencies that arise between monotheism and polytheism in the texts are reflective of this hypothesis.” ref

 

Jainism around 2,599 – 2,527 years old. ref

Confucianism around 2,600 – 2,551 years old. ref

Buddhism around 2,563/2,480 – 2,483/2,400 years old. ref

Christianity around 2,o00 years old. ref

Shinto around 1,305 years old. ref

Islam around 1407–1385 years old. ref

Sikhism around 548–478 years old. ref

Bahá’í around 200–125 years old. ref

Knowledge to Ponder: 

Stars/Astrology:

  • Possibly, around 30,000 years ago (in simpler form) to 6,000 years ago, Stars/Astrology are connected to Ancestors, Spirit Animals, and Deities.
  • The star also seems to be a possible proto-star for Star of Ishtar, Star of Inanna, or Star of Venus.
  • Around 7,000 to 6,000 years ago, Star Constellations/Astrology have connections to the “Kurgan phenomenon” of below-ground “mound” stone/wood burial structures and “Dolmen phenomenon” of above-ground stone burial structures.
  • Around 6,500–5,800 years ago, The Northern Levant migrations into Jordon and Israel in the Southern Levant brought new cultural and religious transfer from Turkey and Iran.
  • “The Ghassulian Star,” a mysterious 6,000-year-old mural from Jordan may have connections to the European paganstic kurgan/dolmens phenomenon.

“Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Different cultures have employed forms of astrology since at least the 2nd millennium BCE, these practices having originated in calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications. Most, if not all, cultures have attached importance to what they observed in the sky, and some—such as the HindusChinese, and the Maya—developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. Western astrology, one of the oldest astrological systems still in use, can trace its roots to 19th–17th century BCE Mesopotamia, from where it spread to Ancient GreeceRome, the Islamicate world and eventually Central and Western Europe. Contemporary Western astrology is often associated with systems of horoscopes that purport to explain aspects of a person’s personality and predict significant events in their lives based on the positions of celestial objects; the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems.” ref 

Around 5,500 years ago, Science evolves, The first evidence of science was 5,500 years ago and was demonstrated by a body of empirical, theoretical, and practical knowledge about the natural world. ref

Around 5,000 years ago, Origin of Logics is a Naturalistic Observation (principles of valid reasoning, inference, & demonstration) ref

Around 4,150 to 4,000 years ago: The earliest surviving versions of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, which was originally titled “He who Saw the Deep” (Sha naqba īmuru) or “Surpassing All Other Kings” (Shūtur eli sharrī) were written. ref

Hinduism:

  • 3,700 years ago or so, the oldest of the Hindu Vedas (scriptures), the Rig Veda was composed.
  • 3,500 years ago or so, the Vedic Age began in India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization.

Judaism:

  • around 3,000 years ago, the first writing in the bible was “Paleo-Hebrew”
  • around 2,500 years ago, many believe the religious Jewish texts were completed

Myths: The bible inspired religion is not just one religion or one myth but a grouping of several religions and myths

  • Around 3,450 or 3,250 years ago, according to legend, is the traditionally accepted period in which the Israelite lawgiver, Moses, provided the Ten Commandments.
  • Around 2,500 to 2,400 years ago, a collection of ancient religious writings by the Israelites based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh, or Old Testament is the first part of Christianity’s bible.
  • Around 2,400 years ago, the most accepted hypothesis is that the canon was formed in stages, first the Pentateuch (Torah).
  • Around 2,140 to 2,116 years ago, the Prophets was written during the Hasmonean dynasty, and finally the remaining books.
  • Christians traditionally divide the Old Testament into four sections:
  • The first five books or Pentateuch (Torah).
  • The proposed history books telling the history of the Israelites from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon.
  • The poetic and proposed “Wisdom books” dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world.
  • The books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God:
  • Henotheism:
  • Exodus 20:23 “You shall not make other gods besides Me (not saying there are no other gods just not to worship them); gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves.”
  • Polytheism:
  • Judges 10:6 “Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; thus they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him.”
  • 1 Corinthians 8:5 “For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords.”
  • Monotheism:
  • Isaiah 43:10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.

Around 2,570 to 2,270 Years Ago, there is a confirmation of atheistic doubting as well as atheistic thinking, mainly by Greek philosophers. However, doubting gods is likely as old as the invention of gods and should destroy the thinking that belief in god(s) is the “default belief”. The Greek word is apistos (a “not” and pistos “faithful,”), thus not faithful or faithless because one is unpersuaded and unconvinced by a god(s) claim. Short Definition: unbelieving, unbeliever, or unbelief.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Expressions of Atheistic Thinking:

  • Around 2,600 years ago, Ajita Kesakambali, ancient Indian philosopher, who is the first known proponent of Indian materialism. ref
  • Around 2,535 to 2,475 years ago, Heraclitus, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor or modern Turkey. ref
  • Around 2,500 to 2,400 years ago, according to The Story of Civilization book series certain African pygmy tribes have no identifiable gods, spirits, or religious beliefs or rituals, and even what burials accrue are without ceremony. ref
  • Around 2,490 to 2,430 years ago, Empedocles, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek city in Sicily. ref
  • Around 2,460 to 2,370 years ago, Democritus, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher considered to be the “father of modern science” possibly had some disbelief amounting to atheism. ref
  • Around 2,399 years ago or so, Socrates, a famous Greek philosopher was tried for sinfulness by teaching doubt of state gods. ref
  • Around 2,341 to 2,270 years ago, Epicurus, a Greek philosopher known for composing atheistic critics and famously stated, “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him god?” ref

This last expression by Epicurus, seems to be an expression of Axiological Atheism. To understand and utilize value or actually possess “Value Conscious/Consciousness” to both give a strong moral “axiological” argument (the problem of evil) as well as use it to fortify humanism and positive ethical persuasion of human helping and care responsibilities. Because value-blindness gives rise to sociopathic/psychopathic evil.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

While hallucinogens are associated with shamanism, it is alcohol that is associated with paganism.

The Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries Shows in the prehistory series:

Show one: Prehistory: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” the division of labor, power, rights, and recourses.

Show two: Pre-animism 300,000 years old and animism 100,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”

Show tree: Totemism 50,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”

Show four: Shamanism 30,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”

Show five: Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”

Show six: Emergence of hierarchy, sexism, slavery, and the new male god dominance: Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves!

Show seven: Paganism 5,000 years old: progressed organized religion and the state: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Kings and the Rise of the State)

Show eight: Paganism 4,000 years old: Moralistic gods after the rise of Statism and often support Statism/Kings: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (First Moralistic gods, then the Origin time of Monotheism)

Prehistory: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” the division of labor, power, rights, and recourses: VIDEO

Pre-animism 300,000 years old and animism 100,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO

Totemism 50,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO

Shamanism 30,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO

Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Pre-Capitalism): VIDEO

Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves: VIEDO

Paganism 5,000 years old: progressed organized religion and the state: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Kings and the Rise of the State): VIEDO

Paganism 4,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (First Moralistic gods, then the Origin time of Monotheism): VIEDO

I do not hate simply because I challenge and expose myths or lies any more than others being thought of as loving simply because of the protection and hiding from challenge their favored myths or lies.

The truth is best championed in the sunlight of challenge.

An archaeologist once said to me “Damien religion and culture are very different”

My response, So are you saying that was always that way, such as would you say Native Americans’ cultures are separate from their religions? And do you think it always was the way you believe?

I had said that religion was a cultural product. That is still how I see it and there are other archaeologists that think close to me as well. Gods too are the myths of cultures that did not understand science or the world around them, seeing magic/supernatural everywhere.

I personally think there is a goddess and not enough evidence to support a male god at Çatalhöyük but if there was both a male and female god and goddess then I know the kind of gods they were like Proto-Indo-European mythology.

This series idea was addressed in, Anarchist Teaching as Free Public Education or Free Education in the Public: VIDEO

Our 12 video series: Organized Oppression: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of power (9,000-4,000 years ago), is adapted from: The Complete and Concise History of the Sumerians and Early Bronze Age Mesopotamia (7000-2000 BC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szFjxmY7jQA by “History with Cy

Show #1: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Samarra, Halaf, Ubaid)

Show #2: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Eridu: First City of Power)

Show #3: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Uruk and the First Cities)

Show #4: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (First Kings)

Show #5: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Early Dynastic Period)

Show #6: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (King Lugalzagesi and the First Empire)

Show #7: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Sargon and Akkadian Rule)

Show #8: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Naram-Sin, Post-Akkadian Rule, and the Gutians)

Show #9: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Gudea of Lagash and Utu-hegal)

Show #10: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Third Dynasty of Ur / Neo-Sumerian Empire)

Show #11: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Amorites, Elamites, and the End of an Era)

Show #12: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Aftermath and Legacy of Sumer)

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

The “Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries”

Cory Johnston ☭ Ⓐ Atheist Leftist @Skepticallefty & I (Damien Marie AtHope) @AthopeMarie (my YouTube & related blog) are working jointly in atheist, antitheist, antireligionist, antifascist, anarchist, socialist, and humanist endeavors in our videos together, generally, every other Saturday.

Why Does Power Bring Responsibility?

Think, how often is it the powerless that start wars, oppress others, or commit genocide? So, I guess the question is to us all, to ask, how can power not carry responsibility in a humanity concept? I know I see the deep ethical responsibility that if there is power their must be a humanistic responsibility of ethical and empathic stewardship of that power. Will I be brave enough to be kind? Will I possess enough courage to be compassionate? Will my valor reach its height of empathy? I as everyone, earns our justified respect by our actions, that are good, ethical, just, protecting, and kind. Do I have enough self-respect to put my love for humanity’s flushing, over being brought down by some of its bad actors? May we all be the ones doing good actions in the world, to help human flourishing.

I create the world I want to live in, striving for flourishing. Which is not a place but a positive potential involvement and promotion; a life of humanist goal precision. To master oneself, also means mastering positive prosocial behaviors needed for human flourishing. I may have lost a god myth as an atheist, but I am happy to tell you, my friend, it is exactly because of that, leaving the mental terrorizer, god belief, that I truly regained my connected ethical as well as kind humanity.

Cory and I will talk about prehistory and theism, addressing the relevance to atheism, anarchism, and socialism.

At the same time as the rise of the male god, 7,000 years ago, there was also the very time there was the rise of violence, war, and clans to kingdoms, then empires, then states. It is all connected back to 7,000 years ago, and it moved across the world.

Cory Johnston: https://damienmarieathope.com/2021/04/cory-johnston-mind-of-a-skeptical-leftist/?v=32aec8db952d  

The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist (YouTube)

Cory Johnston: Mind of a Skeptical Leftist @Skepticallefty

The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist By Cory Johnston: “Promoting critical thinking, social justice, and left-wing politics by covering current events and talking to a variety of people. Cory Johnston has been thoughtfully talking to people and attempting to promote critical thinking, social justice, and left-wing politics.” http://anchor.fm/skepticalleft

Cory needs our support. We rise by helping each other.

Cory Johnston ☭ Ⓐ @Skepticallefty Evidence-based atheist leftist (he/him) Producer, host, and co-host of 4 podcasts @skeptarchy @skpoliticspod and @AthopeMarie

Damien Marie AtHope (“At Hope”) Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist. Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Poet, Philosopher, Advocate, Activist, Psychology, and Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Historian.

Damien is interested in: Freedom, Liberty, Justice, Equality, Ethics, Humanism, Science, Atheism, Antiteism, Antireligionism, Ignosticism, Left-Libertarianism, Anarchism, Socialism, Mutualism, Axiology, Metaphysics, LGBTQI, Philosophy, Advocacy, Activism, Mental Health, Psychology, Archaeology, Social Work, Sexual Rights, Marriage Rights, Woman’s Rights, Gender Rights, Child Rights, Secular Rights, Race Equality, Ageism/Disability Equality, Etc. And a far-leftist, “Anarcho-Humanist.”

I am not a good fit in the atheist movement that is mostly pro-capitalist, I am anti-capitalist. Mostly pro-skeptic, I am a rationalist not valuing skepticism. Mostly pro-agnostic, I am anti-agnostic. Mostly limited to anti-Abrahamic religions, I am an anti-religionist. 

To me, the “male god” seems to have either emerged or become prominent around 7,000 years ago, whereas the now favored monotheism “male god” is more like 4,000 years ago or so. To me, the “female goddess” seems to have either emerged or become prominent around 11,000-10,000 years ago or so, losing the majority of its once prominence around 2,000 years ago due largely to the now favored monotheism “male god” that grow in prominence after 4,000 years ago or so. 

My Thought on the Evolution of Gods?

Animal protector deities from old totems/spirit animal beliefs come first to me, 13,000/12,000 years ago, then women as deities 11,000/10,000 years ago, then male gods around 7,000/8,000 years ago. Moralistic gods around 5,000/4,000 years ago, and monotheistic gods around 4,000/3,000 years ago. 

Gods?
 
“Animism” is needed to begin supernatural thinking.
“Totemism” is needed for supernatural thinking connecting human actions & related to clan/tribe.
“Shamanism” is needed for supernatural thinking to be controllable/changeable by special persons.
 
Together = Gods/paganism

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope (Said as “At” “Hope”)/(Autodidact Polymath but not good at math):

Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist, Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Jeweler, Poet, “autodidact” Philosopher, schooled in Psychology, and “autodidact” Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Pre-Historian (Knowledgeable in the range of: 1 million to 5,000/4,000 years ago). I am an anarchist socialist politically. Reasons for or Types of Atheism

My Website, My Blog, & Short-writing or QuotesMy YouTube, Twitter: @AthopeMarie, and My Email: damien.marie.athope@gmail.com

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