From: Wade T. Smith (wade.t.smith@verizon.net)
Date: Wed 05 Mar 2003 - 19:39:39 GMT
On Wednesday, March 5, 2003, at 01:18 PM, William Benzon wrote:
> This whole story, La Barrešs and Pearsonšs, is conjectural, but the
> conjectures are about important matters that have yet to attract
> consensus
> explanations that are well-argued and documented by appropriate
> intellectual
> specialists. For that I reason I think they merit our further
> attention.
> By contrast, this story is quite different from the one David Sloan
> Wilson
> tells about religion. He isnšt interested in symbolism or ritual. Hešs
> interested in moral behavior and group formation. From his point of
> view
> ŗreligious belief gives an authority to the system that it would not
> have as
> a purely secular institution˛ (p. 130). While he recognizes that all
> religious system are replete with symbolism, he sees it as a component
> of
> the psychological mechanisms through which moral behavior in
> inculcated in
> group members. Symbolism is merely instrumental. I do not, however,
> see that
> there is any deep conflict between the position that the human brain
> has a
> need for order that can be satisfied by religious symbolism and
> Wilsonšs
> argument about group behavior. On the contrary, my view might provide
> a way
> of explicitly accounting for the authority symbolism affords the moral
> order.
Fascinating stuff. Thanks, William.
- Wade
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