Culture and Religion

A world view where the guide for society is based on human nature,
 not on ancient scriptures.  Home  or Topic Groups

Culture

These pages are about culture and society, which could envelope multiple cultures and multiple religions.

I was raised Catholic in a world view based on the Bible as the guide for society. The interpretation of ancient scriptures is not a stable foundation for society. A stable foundation is one based on our understanding of human nature, learned via scientific investigation. Human beings have a social nature that is the true foundation for defining society. All The site content is intended to flesh out this world view based on our human nature, with new topics filling in gaps, but hopefully written in a way another reader might find it interesting. There are many references to religions. Few are willing to question their sense of self.
Culture drives religion.
The culture drives the moral values for itself and for the society that envelops its cultures. Each culture must deal with unexplainable catastrophic events. If the culture cannot accept the chaos of nature then the religion can impose order on the chaos by assigning responsibility for these events on an invisible supernatural deity. This deity will be given characteristics as needed by that culture, resulting in its mythology to help define the deity. The Abrahamic religions had the Egyptian pharaoh as a model, an authoritarian leader. Polytheistic religions are comfortable with distributed responsibility. Many Chinese religions arose from cultures that are comfortable with the chaos of nature so there was no need for a supreme deity, which is lacking in these religions The success of a religion requires the local culture to believe in its interpretation.
The Abrahamic religions are driven by interpretations of ancient texts making political manipulation easier. The Eastern religions are different as those cultures accept the inherent chaos of nature (e.g. Tao).
These Eastern cultures define their moral values for their religion, like Confucianism, which has no supreme deity.
Sometimes I feel conversations focus too often on Christianity or Islam without considering other religions or cultures. Obviously the Abrahamic religions dominate Western society so they have most influence. However humanity is more diverse than that and the role of religions should not be considered immutable. Perhaps humanity does not hold its religions accountable but it is important to note the local culture has this power within its political constraints; hence the rise of humanism as something of a religion.


These pages are about culture and society. The date shown in parentheses is the date that page was last changed.

Our global community. A human being is a social creature. The denial of that part of our nature has major consequences. (04/06/2003)

An example community - a large city To illustrate our social structure: consider Detroit from a view high in the sky. (04/06/2003)

Cultural Maturity Does America have the cultural maturity to sustain our prosperity or are we headed for collapse? (09/25/2005)

Righteous Mind in a Group Critical points missed in the book by Jonathan Haidt (10/07/2012)

Social Evolution Can contemporary society evolve to avoid the imminent disaster as power is concentrated among only a few? (04/28/2013)

Social Equilibrium Globalization has disrupted any earlier social equilibrium and it is unclear what form it will take when stabilized again. (06/16/2013)

Social Classes Mankind over its history does not manage well the lower levels of a hierarchy. (11/10/2013)

Studies of Behavior, Class, and Power Most people are aware of the adage "absolute power corrupts absolutely" but there have been a number of academic studies that reveal just what that means in terms of different behaviors. (01/09/2014)

Infant Social Development Recent studies reveal social interaction is a critical aspect of an infant's development when less than a year old. (01/10/2015)

Culture Conceives Religion The culture defines the religion for its community. Historically many cultures spawned a polytheistic religion but more recently a few cultures spawned monotheistic religions, most notably Christianity and Islam. Both religions are individualistic, with the individual's concern over the afterlife taking precedence over concerns of society.(02/01/2015)

Racism, Fear, and Hate The many recent stories of police murdering blacks and the recent investigation into the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department reveal the pervasive racism in our American society. (03/08/2015)

Culture of Fear The recent terrorist acts in America maintain a culture of fear. These false flag operations maintain a strategy of tension, so the American campaign for world empire remains unaffected by the electorate. (12/30/2015)

Introverts Comments about the highly recommended book Quiet by Susan Cain, a book about introverts in modern society. (04/02/2016)

Hard Wired to Compare Our inherent capacity for empathy means we are hard wired to compare ourselves to others, to always relate to others. (04/03/2016)


Social Groups People are inherently groupish (noted in the book Righteous Mind) so social groups are important in society. (05/11/2018)

Motivation A person's motivation comes from within that individual  and it is driven by our human nature, not by God or someone else. (07/05/2018)

Climate Grief is the term for the condition of someone who is suffering with psychological damage caused by the incessant fear mongering about both climate change and the claim humanity is the cause of climate change.  (02/17/2019)

Social Behaviors Various social behaviors are observed in animals in different species. These behaviors arise by generation,  not by species.  (04/26/2019)


Here is the list of topics in this Culture Topic Group.
All Topic Groups are available by selecting More TG.
All topics in the site are in the Site Map, where each Topic Group has its topics indented below it.


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