Religion can also act in exactly the opposite way. Remember Galileo? Look at some of the Christians and evolutionary theory now. The rising of science was due to many forces other than just religion. Christianity was around for more than 1500 years without science arising. Perhaps religion is just one of many possible stepping stones to science - as a very broad means to develop the mind with higher forms of thought. Material wealth and a culture open to progress, originality and individuality seem like some other necessary requisites for science. Somehow I don't think the Islam of the Taliban for example, would be very likely to give birth to science.DavidQuinn000 wrote: I also think that religion, with its comforting fantasies, gave the human race enough psychological security to begin exploring knowledge seriously, firstly through philosophy and theology, and then through science. The development of modern science, for example, which emerged out of the Middle Ages, was made possible by the belief that nature's laws were in fact God's laws and that it was permissable to pursue science on the basis that it was taking the human race closer to God. -
Perhaps religion is a kind of proto-philosophy. A set of simplistic answers, with each new generation questioning and improving upon the religion, making it more and more sophisticated until true philosophy can arise.
My point wasn't how long the cultures lasted, but that very impressive intellectual progress was made despite the society being less sexually suppressive. There seems to have been more intellectual greatness in the short-lived hedonistic cultures of ancient Greece and Rome than during the 1000 years of Christianity before the Renaissance.DavidQuinn000 wrote:J: But not all religions were anti-sex. The ancient Greeks and Romans may have been less sexually repressed by religion and yet they managed some impressive intellectual things.
DQ: The ancient Greeks were only in power for a few short decades before they were defeated and their civilization collapsed, while the Roman Empire went to decline as the culture became more decadant and hedonistic. There has never been a rampantly sexual culture which has lasted for very long.
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What I'm wondering is what aspects of religion are the likely catalysts for higher philosophy. Is it the curiosity about deeper questions that it spreads throughout the populance? Or is it the control and suppression of animalistic desires? I think Greece and Rome may show that it is not the suppression of desires that religion has going for it in this regard.
How do you know that all cultures that are rampantly sexual don't last long? Have you actually studied the history of the sexual freedom and associated longevity of past cultures?