Animism of the past and the future.

[Runewolf1973]

Our earliest prehistoric ancestors believed that everything...the rocks, the trees, the animals, even the Sun and the moon were driven by unseen spirits or forces. To them these were not "supernatural" forces because in fact our ancestors were naturalists. They closely observed and interacted with nature, drawing wisdom and understanding from its many cycles and changes. From there they concluded that everything must in some way be animated or inhabited by "nature spirits". Modern physicists often scoff at the whole idea of animism, but really they should pay our ancestors a little more respect. As we know today all the things we see in nature...the rocks, the trees, the animals, the Sun, the moon, the stars, even entire galaxies are in fact driven by unseen forces of nature. Today we call these the Fundamental Forces...gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces. Our earliest animistic beliefs were justified because these underlying forces (spirits) of nature do in fact exist. As much as they may scoff or sneer at the whole idea of animism, the physicists of today are in fact the animists of our future.

 

[Riverwolf]

Modern Western Civilization has a conception, which goes back to Christianity, that the people who came "before us" were stupid, superstitious, and/or highly ignorant, with the implication that those who "know better" are not these things at all. The early Church viewed anyone who practiced their pre-Christian traditions with this condescending view, and I see it repeated by a lot of so-called "rationalists" today (to be clear, I rarely see it among actual scientists; they generally seem to know better than to look upon our ancestors with condescension).

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Our ancestors--and modern animists as well--were not only intimately and hyper-aware of their environments, they also encounter/ed the other-than-human-persons that live in/are the natural phenomena throughout their daily lives, including during rituals, trances, ceremonies, illness, spirit-journeys, dreams and so on. They were/are aware of their own connection, their own relationship as kin and co-inhabitants, to the other living species and the physical aspects of their environment.

But, they certainly weren't scientists, and many of their conceptions about the universe and its operation are quite strange to modern educated people. Personally, I think we can learn something about how to live better by approaching life as animists.

 

[Runewolf1973]

No they certainly weren't scientists, but we can learn from the way in which they looked at nature. If humans today could observe nature with the same awe, admiration and respect our ancestors did, they might be more inclined to preserve it rather than to destroy it.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

No they certainly weren't scientists, but we can learn from the way in which they looked at nature. If humans today could observe nature with the same awe, admiration and respect our ancestors did, they might be more inclined to preserve it rather than to destroy it.

Agreed.

 

[idav]

No they certainly weren't scientists, but we can learn from the way in which they looked at nature. If humans today could observe nature with the same awe, admiration and respect our ancestors did, they might be more inclined to preserve it rather than to destroy it.

I dont think itbis a problem for scientists most people are religious. They hardly even want to share the knowledge, not because it wont benefit but the government or other unsaveries will use it as a means of destruction and power plays.