I see what you’re getting at, and I personally think that’s probably how a lot of the myths/religions start, but I don’t think you can outright say that tribes only thought of them as children’s stories.
In the book I was referencing, the author noted the “cost” of a religion, in that the tribes were usually required to spend a significant amount of their time worshiping, and/or discarded resources in the name of sacrifice. One of the tribes studied spent 1 out of every 3 days worshiping. A very large commitment for people who have a very real risk of starvation if their hunts go badly. He then goes on to argue that there must be an evolutionary benefit to religion or an atheist tribe would have out-competed all of these tribes (but that’s another tangent). I bring this up because it implies that they do actually believe their “stories”, otherwise why risk starvation?
That’s a good point, I worded it poorly. I didn’t mean to imply that the adults didn’t ‘believe’ it and just told that to their children. I think that it was more the case that they believed in the spiritual truths behind the stories and not necessarily that they were literal, although I can’t say for certain that was the case in all instances. Maybe some of them did believe it literally or didn’t really make a distinction between spiritually true and literally true. It’s not like they had the scientific knowledge to know what the alternative was.
I think it’s natural to try and explain the world around you, and if you don’t have the tools to know what is really going on- then yeah you will probably make some crazy guesses. And then if you tell it to your children as if it were fact, then they might not question it seeing as how you are a trusted elder.
I think my point though was that it really isn’t what I would call ‘stupid’ to do something like create a silly myth and pass it on. For me where it becomes stupid is when you insist it’s the literal truth and that other people believe it, or when you refuse to update your worldview in the case where better evidence comes along because you are a zealot about your mythology.
I see what you’re getting at, and I personally think that’s probably how a lot of the myths/religions start, but I don’t think you can outright say that tribes only thought of them as children’s stories.
In the book I was referencing, the author noted the “cost” of a religion, in that the tribes were usually required to spend a significant amount of their time worshiping, and/or discarded resources in the name of sacrifice. One of the tribes studied spent 1 out of every 3 days worshiping. A very large commitment for people who have a very real risk of starvation if their hunts go badly. He then goes on to argue that there must be an evolutionary benefit to religion or an atheist tribe would have out-competed all of these tribes (but that’s another tangent). I bring this up because it implies that they do actually believe their “stories”, otherwise why risk starvation?
That’s a good point, I worded it poorly. I didn’t mean to imply that the adults didn’t ‘believe’ it and just told that to their children. I think that it was more the case that they believed in the spiritual truths behind the stories and not necessarily that they were literal, although I can’t say for certain that was the case in all instances. Maybe some of them did believe it literally or didn’t really make a distinction between spiritually true and literally true. It’s not like they had the scientific knowledge to know what the alternative was.
I think it’s natural to try and explain the world around you, and if you don’t have the tools to know what is really going on- then yeah you will probably make some crazy guesses. And then if you tell it to your children as if it were fact, then they might not question it seeing as how you are a trusted elder.
I think my point though was that it really isn’t what I would call ‘stupid’ to do something like create a silly myth and pass it on. For me where it becomes stupid is when you insist it’s the literal truth and that other people believe it, or when you refuse to update your worldview in the case where better evidence comes along because you are a zealot about your mythology.
Yeah you’re right, I didn’t mean to imply that they’re stupid. It’s stupid to us, but that’s only because we’re standing on the shoulders of giants.