five phases of humanity
There exists a tug of war between theists and atheists trying to deliver proof for which of their two stances is natural for humans. In the past, I have unashamedly taken the side of the theists, as I view atheism to be a mark of progression and knowledge that supersedes a natural tendency towards the supernatural. However, I think I was wrong.
On further consideration, I think both positions are completely natural, but not the only stances that should be considered, and that our understanding of life is dependent on the phase of human existence we experience, and the environmental factors that impact our beliefs within that phase.
phase 1 – individual survival
Early humans had little time to consider anything beyond the basics of survival. Hunting and gathering food, finding shelter, creating basic communities for defense, breeding and protecting young. Communication would be basic, outlook exceedingly limited, and understanding of existence confined to the individual.
phase 2 – ritual & superstition
As language developed and more complex ideas could be transmitted, as communities became larger and more organised, we can find evidence of organised rituals such as burial ceremonies. Behaviour we would now call superstitious would be rife, as cause and effect was misunderstood in a sea of ignorance, like pigeons copying ritual dances they misattribute to the appearance of food. The superstitious beliefs least likely to be disproven by observation would be the strongest, and therefore transmitted from generation to generation, providing the foundations for phase 3.
phase 3 – religion
Around 8,000 years ago, humans started to use symbols to express words and concepts, and within a couple of thousand years writing was developed. Oral traditions could now be captured in indelible forms, and passed with ease, clarity and consistency to successive generations. Superstitious rituals had context woven around them as humans searched for answers to the unknown and leaders looked for mechanisms to control ever larger social groupings. Religions (including those of the theistic variety) were born.
phase 4 – scientific knowledge
Here we are, in phase 4 of human existence. We have discovered that every truth explained by religion – from the demons of epilepsy to the vengeful god of weather, from the flat deity-created Earth to the sinful behaviour of genetics and environmental factors – was a fabrication of curiosity and ignorance. At this point in phase 4, the gods of the religious phase 3 continue to take cover in pockets of true ignorance, the tradition of indoctrination and the tragedy of adverse effects on the neural system.
phase 5
Obviously I have no idea what phase 5 holds for the human race. However, it would be foolish to believe we are in anything resembling a final phase of understanding. The future will undoubtedly bring a whole host of new discoveries for our species. Perhaps our whole universe is but a speck of dust on some dirty toenail.
conclusion
So, when it comes to the question of whether theism or atheism is natural, I think it’s safe to say we are being misled by the labels and the question itself. They are not the polar opposites they appear to be: they are not the only two conditions in the game. Each is natural within its phase of human existence, but it’s just as natural to simply survive, to be superstitious or to be phase five – all depends on where we land.
Hmm, that was interesting, thanks for writing it. I’ve been toying with this idea that atheists and theists are actually the same side of the same coin. They’ve really only been around as alleged opposites of each other for a couple of hundred years. Atheists began really popping up in response to religious fundamentalism and they tend to mirror each other.
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Thanks for the interesting comment! I think you’re right – atheism as a label is only a response to the transition from theism. This is the knowledge phase, and at some point in the future we won’t describe this understanding simply as a rejection of theism, as theism will seem irrelevant. It would be like Christians or Muslims calling themselves a-superstitious …
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That’s an oversimplification. Atheists didn’t just ‘pop up’ due to fundamentalism. The enlightenment was more than that.
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Actually it is not an over simplification. Our modern definition of “atheism” is a fairly new thing. Prior to recent history, those who we would have labeled “atheists” were actually deists, challenging not the concept of God, but rather the political influence of the church.
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Great video! Not sure if that means I have to amend any of the phases. As an aside, could that guy’s voice be any more monotonous?
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Agreed, he reminded me of Ben Stein.
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Reblogged this on Christianity Simplified and commented:
Here’s a thoughtful blog post that connects theism and atheism as natural stages of human understanding.
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Thanks for the reblog! I like your readers. 🙂
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No worries, I like the viewpoints you are touching on!
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Just as humanity develops, so do individuals. A baby has no empathy. Scott Peck influenced my thinking: http://factnet.org/stages-spiritual-growth-m-scott-peck-abridged-richard-schwartz
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That’s really long! Promise I’ll read it later, looks interesting. Newborn babies are like sharks – dead eyes and hungry.
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Interesting thoughts.
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I’d love to hear your interesting opinion. 🙂
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I agree with you partly that we are in effect products of our environment. Secondly to say a man is either this or that sometimes doesn’t deal with the whole spectrum of possibilities.
However, I think regardless of our environments, we are born without a belief in gods let alone anything for that matter. I would therefore say that man is naturally atheist.
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Children are born without any perception of historic tribal religious cultures. It is we who allocate children religious labels with which to segregate themselves.
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In this we are agreement.
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A variation on Maslow’s Triangle?
It seems apparent( to me anyhow) that non-belief is a direct response to belief.
Or it could be the other way around?
Yet, as always, the onus is on the claimant to provided evidence.
Do I need to provide evidence of my hobby of no stamp collecting?
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“A variation on Maslow’s Triangle?” No.
“It seems apparent( to me anyhow) that non-belief is a direct response to belief.” Agreed, atheism is long-term a redundant label. It only makes sense in the phase where we transition away from religion.
“Yet, as always, the onus is on the claimant to provided evidence. Do I need to provide evidence of my hobby of no stamp collecting?” If 99% of the world had been stamp collectors for millenia and we only relatively recently discovered a reason to think it wasn’t mandatory, it would only be polite to explain why it’s nonsense to the remaining stamp collectors who are encumbered by indoctrination and brain-related injuries.
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Why NOT a variation of Maslow? I didn’t suggest it was a copy, or you were ripping anything off, but it certainly contains elements.
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As a-theism is not learned it must be considered the natural state of a human being at rest. Theism is learned behaviour. It is superimposed over the default: a-theism. Now, granted, when we go back we start getting to a natural state of anxiety (which you pointed out), and that charged our brains to find agency in things. Anxiety is, therefore, natural, and everything else is residue.
Phase 5: i think people are going to drift back to advanced eastern concepts of reincarnation and mysticism with a lot of cosmology thrown in. Personal gods are dead. Reincarnation, though, fills in the “hope” folder which many people need.
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Oh John, you’ll never learn. 🙂 I’ll come back to demolish this poor excuse for ‘atheism is natural’ when I have more time. And please don’t be so limited about phase 5, I’m talking thousands of years in the future.
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Ah, well in that case we’re probably going to be extinct.
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More likely sooner than later. Thank goodness there are kitteh pictures to focus on in the present.
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True. We wouldn’t want to go down without a smile on our faces.
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You have to have theism to get to atheism, and as theism developed in every(?) society before the advent of advanced scientific knowledge, it makes no sense to claim that theism isn’t natural. It’s a state of (mis)understanding that all societies reached, and that all societies are in the process of rejecting. Of course a-theism is learned, because if you didn’t know gods were once worshipped, you couldn’t express your understanding of existence lacking that belief. Is materialist a better word for it? It’s not natural to only believe in the material world in the absence of the explanations science has shown us for all the scary bits.
Atheism/materialism/scientific knowledge is progress – it’s not a base state. I’ll agree with you that anxiety (with curiosity?) is the base state, everything else is natural progress for human beings.
People won’t return to reincarnation unless it can be scientifically proven that some part of our consciousness remains in our atoms and can be transferred to another physical body. Speculating that this might be possible is just as natural as speculating that an invisible deity or 10 created our planet. The ‘hope’ folder only remains an issue because we are so close to the religious phase.
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Granted, you can’t have to opposite of something until that thing exists, but nor can you have the thing in the first place until there was a blank canvas upon which it is “written.” The blank canvas is A-theism: no-theism. It’s not a defined thing at this stage, though, because its meaningless until theism comes along.
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Everyone who IS anyone knows it was Slartibartfast.
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The Hopi believe mankind is in the fifth world – having been born and destroyed four times.
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The Nac Mac Feegle believe this world is heaven and when they ‘die’ here ( or in the Discworld) they go back home. 😉
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Where is home? In hindsight just about silly as asking where is heaven 🙂
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Well, they clearly got it wrong. According to my calculations on understanding of our existence, we’re only on phase 4. I don’t usually make mistakes with numbers. 🙂
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Yikes – it wasn’t the Hopi, it was me and that fourth glass of wine that typed fifth instead of fourth.
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By the way, I meant to tell you that I listened to that Genesis album yesterday at work, to accompany some dull spreadsheeting. Phil Collin’s voice almost ruined it, but it was generally really interesting with some excellent bits, even on first hearing. It had a really interesting effect on my brain as well, because I bashed out my latest post on linguistic creationists in my lunch hour. I’m pretty sure the speed of typing and type of thinking was influenced by the music activating generally sleepy parts of my brain.
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Cool – it’s pretty dated yet stands the test of time as a “concept” piece. I love some of the lyrics 🙂
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Given my most recent post, this lyric is certainly jumping out at me:
Erogenous zones I love you
Without you, what would a poor boy do?
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Haha – all I know for certain is that a wise woman is a woman who understands the location of a man’s brain. 🙂
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George Carlin once said, “The only thing you need to know about men and women, is that women are crazy and men are stupid, and the main reason that women are crazy, is that men are stupid.”
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Is that your favourite quote? It’s the second time you’ve posted it this week. Stupid man. 🙂
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What an excellent memory you have, for a crazy woman! (Admittedly, I had forgotten – I’ll try to avoid a third)
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🙂
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I know I’d be lost – I’m inordinately fond of the square inch just above the kneecap – I’ll keep all other secrets to myself.
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