#TheGospelOfSocrates #Memes$Myths #AnthropomorphismInReligion
For the full article See https://www.blogger.com/u/4/blog/post/edit/8696074239246636096/4645119032549823207
Humans have always believed in life after death. The evidence for such beliefs is found in cave drawings dating back to 50,000 years and more. In one such cave drawing, there is a hunting scene in which men are hunting down buffaloes and other wild animals. In the forefront of this drawing is a man spearing a buffalo and the blood oozing down the buffalo’s side. What is most surprising in this drawing is the picture of what looks like a dove or pigeon standing still below the buffalo. It is not natural for a dove to stand still on the ground in a dangerous situation like an action packed hunting scene. Anthropologists infer that the pigeon may represent the soul of the buffalo. In like manner ancient burial sites also give evidence to the stone age belief that death is not the end of life.
In the past our fathers believed in what is called animism - the belief that all things both living and nonliving have souls. All these beliefs are based on the psychic mechanism called anthropomorphism or the projection of human nature onto these animae or souls. Thus we have ancient fables such as those of the rabbit and the tortoise racing against each other, as well as those of inanimate things such as mountains boasting of their own greatness as humans do. Another illustration of anthropomorphism is cartoon characters like Tom and Jerry frolicking around like human beings.
These anthropomorphic forces also led our ancestors to believe that the souls of the dead behaved like living men who were easily irritated or placated like human beings. This led to the many forms of ceremonies we have, to keep the souls of the dead in good humour. Oracles, shaman and priests of all kinds exploited the situation, claiming that they and they alone had the monopoly of keeping these spirits in good humour, provided they were rewarded handsomely in cash or kind for their services.
Richard Dawkins was the first one to coin the word meme to rhyme with the word gene. A meme means an idea or concept in our thought-process. According to RD, just as our genes mutate and evolve in accordance with the biological environment, they also spread from mouth to ear and evolve into millions of genuses, species and families of thoughts, ideas, concepts and what have you. God, souls, humanism, communism, equality, fraternity, justice and democracy are some of the millions or billions of memes which have influenced us and make us do what we do everyday.
Anima is one such meme that lies at the root of all kinds of religions and superstitions including astrology, fortune telling and so forth.
In like manner, dreams of the dead led to the origin of the meme of life after death. In the beginning this meme meant that the souls of the dead wandered amongst the living, interfering in human affairs according to the anthropomorphic mechanism. This meme was universal in that most if not all humans subscribed to this meme. Subsequently this meme mutated to its sub-memes in Greece, Egypt and other civilizations around the Mediterranean sea as well as in India, China and other ancient civilizations. According to the Greek and Egyptian versions of this meme, the living and the dead are separated by a river called Styx. The land of the dead is called Hades. There is a ferry on the styx to carry the dead across to Hades with a ferry-man called Charon who has to be paid for his services. Consequently, the Greeks and the Egyptians who subscribed to this meme, took care to place a coin on the eyelids of the dead as ferry charges. This story in itself is an illustration of anthropomorphism by which the world of the dead reflects or morphs the world of the living.
In the beginning this meme meant that the souls of the dead wandered amongst the living, interfering in human affairs according to the anthropomorphic mechanism. This meme was universal in that most if not all humans subscribed to this meme. Subsequently this meme mutated to its sub-memes in Greece, Egypt and other civilizations around the Mediterranean sea as well as in India, China and other ancient civilizations. According to the Greek and Egyptian versions of this meme, the living and the dead are separated by a river called Styx. The land of the dead is called Hades. There is a ferry on the styx to carry the dead across to Hades with a ferry-man called Charon who has to be paid for his services. Consequently, the Greeks and the Egyptians who subscribed to this meme, took care to place a coin on the eyelids of the dead as ferry charges. This story in itself is an illustration of anthropomorphism by which the world of the dead reflects or morphs the world of the living.
This memetic evolution of life after death did not stop there at the ferryman.
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