Indigenous people are religious too, and their religions, well the ones of the people I have met or corresponded with, are focused on mankind's stewardship of the worlds.
(I was gonna type world, but somehow that typo - adding an s - seemed more appropriate.)
Thats a very different take on the responsibility of a religion to most of the modern varieties tho.
Interestingly enough tho, I remember from growing up Catholic that some people said God gave us Stewardship over the world, some say Dominion. Most of the time it was interpreted as "a license to exploit". BTW did you see Australian Story tonight?
I grew up in Tassie...
In some way Stewardship and enlightened Dominion are not very different. Indigenous people I talk to recognise the way humans have a tendency to dominate their environment, hence the idea of a religion that moderated that tendency; but the implications of how they are interpreted in our language are pretty interesting. One implies "ownership", the other "responsibility for".
In some ways its not the religions themselves, just the idiots that practise them.
Tho I do completely agree with you:
Which is why religions and Kings/rulers/corrupt governments get on so well. The contemporary proliferation of religions (including QM) is not, imho, unconnected with the sorry state of the world.
Not that indigenous religions are perfect. Nor are indigenous cultures, tho they are a bit less damaging most of the time.
The main thing is they don't see themselves as different from or better than the environment they live in. They know they are dependant on it for stuff they need to survive so they look after it, and manage it accordingly. Thats the theory anyway.
by Joe Hillshoist » Mon Feb 15, 2010 2:05 am 