LogFAQs > #884076457

darkphoenix181 posted...

in Mexico, the mayans, they were religions

They were predominately in El Salvador and Honduras, actually.

darkphoenix181 posted...

These are distinct peoples that separated long ago. Even if their fathers were religious, they could have easily said, "chopping off a dudes head and playing soccer with it doesn't actually give us more grain this year"

You are actually mixing up a lot of different things here. Firstly, that's a legend about the Aztec. They've tested it, and it's pretty much impossible to play the game they played (which is almost more similar to basketball) with a head. It was also not done for grain harvests.

darkphoenix181 posted...

it is not like these societies didn't have revolutions and overthrow the power such that the one dude who said "I am a God!" was never questioned

Divine Right Monarchy is actually a pretty tricky subject. In fact, the Chinese actually had their own versions (Mandate of Heaven) that stated that if the country started going poorly, the leader had lost divine favor and therefore needed to be replaced with the next rightful leader. Fact is, it's pretty easy to rectify anything if you try.

darkphoenix181 posted...

even with what you say about Historic revision, if a religious society conquered an atheist one, we would see in their records
"these heathen atheists were defeated thanks to our God!"
so you can't just say they existed but the religious people blotted them out

I agree with that. There weren't atheist societies.

darkphoenix181 posted...

now, I am not saying this means you should believe in God or be religious
what I am saying is you cannot compare making up your own stupid myth about a cosmic firefly with believing in a God since very smart ancient societies seemingly with no interactions with each other for some reason believed in this higher power

Atheism doesn't claim anything, though. There is no myth.

The idea that 'smart societies' believed in religion is spurious at best. Intelligence is not measured in a single direction. For example, 14th century Europe had developed absolutely amazing engineering techniques for castle building, but had primitive medical technology when the Black Plague hit. The idea is also a clear adaptation of the logical fallacy of appeal to popularity.

Now why did dissparate societies all believe in religion? Well, there are a few things to consider. One, some of those disparate societies had a common ancestry. For example, some theories make a link between the ancient Celt and the Indus Valley, since both the religious traditions from those areas share a lot of common hallmarks. Second, you are using your language's definition of religion to apply to something long after it was created. Yes, most cultures believed in the supernatural. Yet, their ideas are so irreconcilably different that it bears mention. For example, the Norse said the world was created when Odin slayed a the giant Ymir and shaped the world out of his body. The Finnish said it was a sky woman who got pregnant with the sea and the world was created when a bird laid golden and iron eggs on her outstretched knee, which fell into the ocean when she convulsed. Thirdly, humans naturally want to explain everything, and when you have a limited reference pool, that is going to end with some similarities (but way, way more disparity).

You know shockingly little of other religions for someone advocating them, honestly.