I have been wanting to do a long discussion about the excellent and idiosyncratic Oklahoma- and Poland based anthropological blogger Stephen Browne, who posts at Rants and Raves. I do not have time to do him justice right now, but I encourage you to read him. For a sampler of his innovative thinking, try this post on writer- invented religions, starting with Kipling's haunting "Hymn to Mithras" (we know Mithraism existed but almost nothing about it) and passing on to the late science fiction writer Poul Anderson's imagining of the religion of a race of intelligent carnivorous birds.
"So what kind of religion would a race of flying hunters create? Their god is a hunter - and we, all living beings, are his prey. We exist to give honor to god. God loves us, the way a hunter would love the prey in his sights. Our obligation is to fight as hard as we can to live as long as we can, so that god has honor from us.
"Sound chilling? Yet Anderson wrote a very moving eulogy for this religion, "High you flew on many winds, until at last God stooped on you in your pride. Long you fought Him and well, and from you He has honor. Go now. Be wind, be ash, be water. Be always remembered." "
(Incidentally, Poul Anderson was one of the three or four most intelligent and informed humans I have ever known-- and the "competition" is the likes of Philip Morrison and Jonathan Kingdon).
And while we are on religion, here is a cheerful rebuke of poor Richard Dawkins by a member of (I would guess) the Church of England who is perfectly comfortable with evolution. More and more I think that Dawkins simply has little sense of what religion is or at least can be for some sophisticated minds.
Oddly, another review contra his "God Delusion" in the New York Review of Books (not online AFAIK) contained a line about his Selfish Gene being the best piece of popular science writing of the Twentieth Century. I am revisiting it, and I might just give it that award-- of the second half at least.
1 comment:
When I was reading sci-fi, Poul Anderson was always one of my favorites.
And I think that Dawkins and plenty of others who are "scientific" really do not, as you say, know what religion CAN be like for intelligent people. They shoot at the lowest common denominator.
Marvin Shaw, professor of religion at Montana State University in Bozeman, and a friend of his, cooked up a religion of the "Upright Burial." There was only one requirement for salvation -- that a person be buried standing up rather than lying down. Since that person was dependent upon friends for his salvation, he could live freely and bravely -- always maintaining good relations with his friends.
Prairie Mary
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