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freedomdwarf1 -> RE: Indoctrination (11/16/2012 4:19:37 PM)
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Ok.
To try and explain that a concept of a deity CAN exist without language AND be conveyed to another without a single word being written or uttered -
If I wrote this all out in full, it would be a humungous essay so I'm just going to glance over the essentials.
In The Beginning
A single man, finding himself in the middle of huge dirt patch, sparsely populated with a few trees, some scrubland and a wide river nearby. Trudges off to where he knows some other humans are, WHACK! Claims a wife, caveman style, and drags her to his patch of earth.
Now, there are several trees that give fruit. Our troggie has learnt that he can use the main tree for many things.
The fruit feeds him; the bark can be stripped and wide pieces woven into mats, a skin for a coracle-type boat, hammocks. The sap can act as glue and a waterproof covering. Very thin strips can be twisted into a twine for tying, making crude fishing nets and traps. The bigger boughs can be formed into load-bearing structures like a roof support, crude furniture for comfort, a plough for planting other crops. The smaller branches form a roof for shelter, basics for a fire with which to keep warm, cook his food and use the smoke to keep biting insects away. Other branches fashion tools for him - a bow, arrows, spears etc.
He knows he cannot rely entirely on this main tree because the others aren't mature enough to bear fruit or support him yet, so he must look after it, nurture it, keep it alive - it is important to him, he needs it to survive. He reveres this tree - it is his whole life. He plants seeds from his tree to grow for the future as well as other things to grow for food.
Logic: This tree is basically the very essence of his survival. It is worthy of worship.
Stage 2
After some time, kids are born and they grow. With his wife they help with growing crops, fishing and hunting. He teaches them, by embracing the tree and pointing to things he has made with it, that this is a very important thing and that they too must cherish it beyond anything else.
He learns that his crops, tree shoots and small saplings he is trying to grow for their future do not grow if they are covered. They need the Sun to grow. He ponders... He has noticed that his home grows smaller when he runs away from it but returns to normal when he gets back - he understands distance and perspective even if he can't measure it.
He looks at the Sun, then back to his little fire. This round thing in the sky must be a very long way away because it still looks the same size if he runs all day. He also notices it is not connected to his piece of cultured wilderness that he has shaped, his little piece of 'earth'. This thing must be awfully hot too, because it burns him as if he stood too close to his fire, yet he cannot reach it. His crops and his beloved and revered tree need this round heat otherwise they die. And if they die, he and his family die too.
Logic: This 'thing' in the sky (the Sun) must be more important than his tree because he and his tree need it to survive. It is also a separate entity to the 'earth' he and his family are living on. It is worthy of worship like his tree but even more so because even his tree needs it.
Stage 3
By now there are more kids. Sons and daughters have grabbed mates and there are grandkids - the tribe is growing.
He gathers his tribe together. They all know the tree is very important to them. He points to the Sun and with outstretched arms and wiggling his fingers, he scribes a line from the Sun to the main tree. He forms a 'V' shape with his flat hands and points to the base of the tree with his straight fingers, and then raises his hands moving them apart as he points towards the top. He points to the fruit that is ripening on the boughs. He repeats the same thing with a smaller tree that has now grown and is bearing its first fruits. He does the same with his growing crops. He again points to the Sun and uses an embracing gesture with his arms. They all understand now that although the tree is very important, it cannot survive without this 'Sun' and thus the Sun must be revered more than the tree. He also observes through the length of shadows cast by objects, that when the sun is not seen it must be underneath him and he cannot see it - he is in his own earth's shadow and that is why it is dark.
Logic: He now understands that his earth and the Sun must be going round each other to cast such shadows but cannot comprehend how or why it should be. He has now shifted his severe reverence to the sun - something he cannot touch but he can see and can appreciate its importance to his world. He has learned that not all things are earthly and some things he cannot control. He has also perceived that something beyond his control, too far for him to reach, can severely influence the things that he relies upon to survive. It is worthy of worship as it is obviously further up the hierarchy than his tree of life.
Stage 4
He watches the Sun as it rises at one side of the sky. He watches it all day until it sets at the opposite end of the sky.
He ponders again... His round pebble does not rush up a slope unless he rolls it up himself. His pebble, when rolled down a slope gathers speed - the Sun does not do this. It rises and climbs up the sky in a steady and slow manner and descends into the opposite end in an equally slow and controlled manner - yet it has no arms nor legs or anything to aid its steady motion in the sky.
PING!! An abstract thought enters his head... If HE has to help his pebble maintain control when not on level ground, then something, something he cannot see, must be helping the Sun control its movements. He knows that the Sun is very far away from him so this something must also be very very far from him otherwise he would see it. He does not understand the concept of gravity or orbits so he assumes that this extremely powerful something, being, must be pushing the sun around him because he doesn't feel the ground is moving like when he is in his coracle on the water.
This being must be all-powerful to move something like the sun as he and his tribe cannot even get close enough to touch it, let alone move it! It must also be hiding in the sky somewhere behind the Sun because he doesn't see anything reaching out from his earth to control the Sun.
He understands distance and perspective and for something to be so powerful as to move the Sun, he must be very big, have super-strength and also lay much further away from the Sun than he is.
Logic: He has now invented the concept of an invisible 'Deity' that is even more powerful than the Sun. Whoever this invisible person is, must fill the whole sky behind the sun because they cannot see him.
Stage 5
His logic has shown there is something much more powerful (and therefore much more important) than the sun that they hold in such high reverence. He must try to explain what this is to his tribe so they understand what is happening.
He gathers his tribe as before and grabs a pointy stick. He draws 3 pictograms in the smooth dirt.
Pic#1: First, he draws a flat line with the pointy stick. Then he draws a stick figure on the line and points to himself. He draws some slightly smaller stick figures near his own and points to the gathered people. He draws a big tree on the line and goes over and hugs the tree with a beaming smile on his face. He goes through the motions of pointing to the tree and what they have done with it, finishing off with a large embracing gesture. They all nod in agreement.
Pic#2: He draws a circle slightly away from the first pic. He points to the Sun in the sky and draws little squirly lines inside the circle and mimics the wiping of sweat from his brow. He repeats the outstretched arms and wiggly fingers in a line to the tree; he draws wavy lines radiating from the circle. He ends by using his finger in a wide circular motion to indicate them all, then the Sun in the sky, finishing off with a large embracing gesture and a beaming smile. They all nod in agreement.
Pic#3: He points to the Sun in the sky and scribes an arc in the air with his outstretched finger to depict the path of the Sun as they see it. Then he uses a pushing motion and again points to the Sun in the sky to show that he thinks someone is pushing the sun across the sky. They look a bit puzzled.
He draws a figure of a man-shaped being - not a stick figure, but more of an outline shape - way beyond the circle of the Sun. He re-gestures the path of the Sun but this time continues the path to a full circle to show that he believes the Sun goes underneath them. He uses the pointy stick and points to the man-shaped being, gestures a pushing motion by thrusting his forward-facing open palms in front of him, then draws a faint line between the being and the Sun, then even further in an arc over the flat line with the stick figures and the tree. They seem to understand what he is conveying - that there is a very powerful man pushing the sun across the sky. They all nod.
Now, prodding the drawing of the being with the pointy stick and making a huge embracing gesture and an even bigger beaming smile across his face, he then scribes a big circle with his finger to show he means everyone and prods the being with the pointy stick and gestures another embrace. They all nod in agreement.
Logic: He has embraced the abstract idea of an invisible 'god' and conveyed to his tribe that idea and that they should revere this being because he is even higher in the order of hierarchy than the Sun, or his tree, or indeed even himself.
Finale
After some time, our troggie has noticed there is too much reverence and the crops are not so good through slacking, nor is the hunting so bountiful. He ponders again... He meditates in deep thought and thinks of the being he thinks is still up there, slowly pushing the Sun across the sky. Surely if he is pushing the Sun for their benefit, he must have noticed that things aren't quite what they were before.
PING!! Another abstract idea!
He gathers his tribe again. He holds his hands up, fists closed, and releases one finger at a time, slowly.... 1--2--3--4--5--6 and stops. He makes the all-encompassing circular motion for 'everyone', points to the tree, the fields of crops, the bow and spear and spoils of the hunt, and gestures eating then sleeping. He repeats the gestures for each of the fingers in turn. They understand that for 6 passings of the Sun, they will tend the crops, hunt, eat and sleep.
He pauses... Then holds up 7 fingers all at once and thrusts them forwards at them in an urgent and agitated manner. He waggles his forefinger at the crops, the tree, the spoils of the hunt and when he starts to gesture eating, he stops and shakes his head in a negative manner and waggles his forefinger in front of his lips... They will do none of this on the seventh day of the Sun passing overhead. They look puzzled again. He sees the reaction and prods the drawing of the being he made earlier in earnest with a severe and stern look on his face. He slowly stretches out his arms and reverently bows down on his knees to the drawing of the being and clasps his hands together in a praying manner. He uses the circular gesture to include everyone and proceeds to prod the being with the pointy stick and repeats the earlier stern gestures with bowing and praying.
After a long pause, he repeats the whole thing several times until they fully understand what he is conveying.
Logic: He has now made a new 'law' that all shall work and hunt for 6 passings of the Sun and on the 7th day they shall all show extreme reverence for the being that is controlling the Sun, given the tree life, and provided them ALL with a prosperous and bountiful existence!
There now exists a fully-fledged belief system, complete with an invisible deity, that is to be worshipped every 7th day when the other 6 days of earthly activities are to cease.
Voila!!
I have used the English language to describe the complete scenario - but it could have been any language.
You may also note that all the communication of our troggie and tribe, right off the bat, has been no more than improvised gestures.
Although this is only a hypothesis, it does strongly demonstrate that a fully-fledged belief system, complete with deity and worship laws, can evolve from nothing and that belief can be adequately conveyed to others who are devoid of ANY formal language, both written and spoken.
All achieved through gestures and a few primitive drawings done with a pointy stick in the dirt.
Case closed.
And all this from someone that does NOT have a belief in ‘god’ or ‘satan’.
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