Nice post. You might like Emile Durkheim's "The Elementary Forms of Religious Life" -- it's long but big sections are skimmable, or you can just go find some summaries online. But in short he goes further and deeper than what you are saying. Religion certainly predates the state (which couln't really exist before writing). He ties religious origins to tribes and their totems and, to make a long story short, ends up with something like "religion is society worshipping itself." I'm very partial to that hypothesis myself, and thinking of big historical trends like you are doing in this post through that lens is very useful (it seems to me).
Many thanks for this. I have not read much Durkheim directly, but have followed the work of Durkheimian Mary Douglas. I will definitely read up your serving suggestion. Another piece of prior art is Feurbach, who says (to paraphrase in post-Freudian terms) making god in our own image is a type of narcissistic self-idolatry, which puts the emphasis on the individual believers stance rather than the social routines & rites compare to Durkheim you mention (of course).
I'd add to Feurbach that to make god a maker or creator both takes credit for creation and in the same moment avoids any blame. A Janus dance that opens up the possibility of skilled shamans to stealthily navigate the hidden in plain sight worlds we live in, obfuscating while remaining center stage.
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And yes I am hoping to word with that lens which assumes the obfuscation (not necessarily deliberate in any sense) is gone. (I.E. not explain all of that in every post). Thanks for noticing.
You comment exactly why I blog. To learn, to extend, not to make words, but to meet them.
I maintain a self-hosted version of substack, mostly for the indexing:
Nice post. You might like Emile Durkheim's "The Elementary Forms of Religious Life" -- it's long but big sections are skimmable, or you can just go find some summaries online. But in short he goes further and deeper than what you are saying. Religion certainly predates the state (which couln't really exist before writing). He ties religious origins to tribes and their totems and, to make a long story short, ends up with something like "religion is society worshipping itself." I'm very partial to that hypothesis myself, and thinking of big historical trends like you are doing in this post through that lens is very useful (it seems to me).
Many thanks for this. I have not read much Durkheim directly, but have followed the work of Durkheimian Mary Douglas. I will definitely read up your serving suggestion. Another piece of prior art is Feurbach, who says (to paraphrase in post-Freudian terms) making god in our own image is a type of narcissistic self-idolatry, which puts the emphasis on the individual believers stance rather than the social routines & rites compare to Durkheim you mention (of course).
I'd add to Feurbach that to make god a maker or creator both takes credit for creation and in the same moment avoids any blame. A Janus dance that opens up the possibility of skilled shamans to stealthily navigate the hidden in plain sight worlds we live in, obfuscating while remaining center stage.
______________________
And yes I am hoping to word with that lens which assumes the obfuscation (not necessarily deliberate in any sense) is gone. (I.E. not explain all of that in every post). Thanks for noticing.
You comment exactly why I blog. To learn, to extend, not to make words, but to meet them.
I maintain a self-hosted version of substack, mostly for the indexing:
https://whyweshould.loofs-samorzewski.com/reading-mary-douglas-linkpost/
https://whyweshould.loofs-samorzewski.com/topics-and-projects/