Yuval Noah Harari has an article at Bloomberg: Humankind: The Post-Truth Species. He indulges in an Abrahamic-religion centrism when he writes:
In The Heathen in His Blindness, Balu points out:
Indian cultural unity and that thing called "Hinduism" arises similarly.
It is the Abrahamic religions that have made myths into truth-claims - supposedly objective statements about reality - and have slaughtered millions and destroyed entire cultures. And Harari turns these Abrahamism into those of all of humanity.
"We are the only mammals that can cooperate with numerous strangers because only we can invent fictional stories, spread them around, and convince millions of others to believe in them. As long as everybody believes in the same fictions, we all obey the same laws, and can thereby cooperate effectively."The wars in the great epics - the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and I think in the Illiad, are all among people who "believe in the same fictions".
In The Heathen in His Blindness, Balu points out:
The Roman empire was made up of about 1200 city units, plus a considerable number of ethnic groupings which we label `tribes’ and/or ‘client kingdoms’.The divine forces worshipped in each of these units might be seen as similar, analogous, or parallel; one obvious example is the Juno, the cohesive force which gives life to any social unit, whether a family or a city-state. The Romans worshipped not only the Juno who had once belonged to their own kings – Juno Regina – but also the Junones of other states whom the Romans had invited to abandon their original communities and settle at Rome...These Junones were parallel, but not identical, in the same way as the many Jupiters and Zeuses worshipped throughout the empire were parallel but not identical. Each cult honoured its own god. (Wiedemann 1990: 69.)
( Menucius Felix, a Christian writer from
around 210 C.E., has Caecilius – the pagan protagonist in The Octavius - )
[The Romans adore all divinities]...in the city of an enemy, when taken while still in the fury of victory, they venerate the conquered deities...in all directions they seek for the gods of the strangers, and make them their own...they build altars even to unknown deities...Thus, in that they acknowledge the sacred institutions of all nations, they have also deserved their dominion. (The Octavius, in Roberts and Donaldson, Eds., n.d.,Vol. IV: 177.)
It is the Abrahamic religions that have made myths into truth-claims - supposedly objective statements about reality - and have slaughtered millions and destroyed entire cultures. And Harari turns these Abrahamism into those of all of humanity.
Logging you in...
guest · 413 weeks ago
It's obvious that the common myths believed in by practitioners of Aramaic religions are far from preventing them from internecine violence, though that violence is often in the name of some disputed mythic detail.
macgupta 81p · 413 weeks ago
Thus, it more likely is that at some stage people needed common myths to cooperate, but already, long, long ago, long before the start of the Roman Empire, except in the regression known as the Abrahamic religions, people transcended the need for common myths in order to cooperate. The Abrahamic religions turned myths (things justified mainly by tradition) into things that were either true or false; claimed the truth for their own story, and far-from-inconsequential falsehood for all else.
One of the tragedies of 19th and 20th century Hindus is that they started recasting their traditions into an Abrahamic mold, and left unchecked, this trend will destroy them.
guest · 413 weeks ago
Also, I don't think you understand what Harari means by common myths. He isn't just talking about religion. In any case, India is a good example of a culture unified by common myths, including Caste, Jati, the Vedas and the great works of literature.
ttt · 413 weeks ago
guest · 413 weeks ago
guest · 413 weeks ago
guest · 413 weeks ago