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Mike Wesch

Review of McClenon's Wondrous Healing (on the origin of religion) - 0 views

moses.creighton.edu/...2002-r10.html

ksuanth618 mcclenon of origin religion shamanism

shared by Mike Wesch on 28 Aug 08 - Cached
  • it revisits the contention that biological evolution can account for both the origin and continuity of cultural elements in general, specifically, in this study, the origins of religion.
  • McClendon claims that shamanism is the first religious form, theorizing that ritual healing "has had evolutionary impact, shaping the biological propensity for religious belief and ritual"
  • those who were most susceptible to hypnotism would likely be cured by placebo and hypnotic suggestion offered by shamans.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Shamans themselves are individuals who are biologically predisposed to hypnosis and anomalous experience. Thus religion, which the author links in its primary form as intimately connected to healing, is ultimately genetically based, at least in its origins.
  • Religion has an evolutionary impact according to this theory, because it provides a survival mechanism that favors those who are suggestible and therefore curable, more likely to live to maturity and pass on their genes.
  • proof of his theory in the literature on human evolution, the study of primates, speculation about proto-humans, examination of ethnography, reflection on personal experiences such as fire walking, creating his own behavioral evolutionary scenarios, and analysis of data on paranormal experiences he himself has gathered in the field
  • Historical particularists would clearly take exception to this assumption, pointing to the traceable diffusion of such beliefs as 19th century spiritualism.
  • He also critiques anthropology as too particularistic and unable to look at the larger evolutionary picture and the consistency of this form of religion across cultures.
  • The author replies that indeed shamanism was and remains universal and warns against the particularism that isolates this phenomenon.
Mike Wesch

The origins of religion and belief in the afterlife - 0 views

www.religioustolerance.org/janssen01.htm

ksuanth618 origin origins religion

shared by Mike Wesch on 28 Aug 08 - Cached
  • Mike Wesch on 28 Aug 08
     
    It is an interesting theory. I question some of the assumptions that are made - as you can see in my stickynotes.
Mike Wesch

About religion: why it started and how it evolved - 0 views

www.religioustolerance.org/rel_theory1.htm

ksuanth618 origin religion

shared by Mike Wesch on 28 Aug 08 - Cached
  • Mike Wesch on 28 Aug 08
     
    usually religioustolerance.org is fairly accurate and thorough but this entry is not. The author's ideas about "scientific" theories of the origin of religion do not come from any scholars that I know of, and no citations are given. It seems to be the author's own guesses, which are not bad for amateur wild guesses, but some scholars have had much more interesting guesses, and reviewing those would be much more valuable than these ramblings.
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