Religion
In reply to the discussion: Too Simple to Be Wrong: Atheism's Bronze-Age Goat Herder Conceit [View all]NoOneMan
(4,795 posts)Its counterpart of technology--which is applied typically to cultivate the natural world--risks endangering these possibilities that science can offer us.
And Im not sure religion, on some level, is completely hopeless at offering it as well.
Yes, that may sound absolutely crazy (and yes, I am a degreed scientist saying this).
Imagine a religion where people believed that all matter was essentially the same, and part of the "divine", and therefore, everything was sacred and should be revered. People--a part of that divine, who are composed of the same matter as everything else)--are therefore compelled to seek harmony with the natural system that they belong to and promote system balance. Imagine a religion that recognized that all actors within that divine would impart real world effects on the system through their actions that reverberate through time (in ways that promote pleasure and/or pain in the system). Such a religion would surely make people try to coexist with nature instead of destroy it and threaten all life on earth.
Interestingly enough, this is a religious framework that many primitive people had without the help of science (as we know it today). Yet, our current levels of science supports much of these ideas other than the classification of matter/energy as "divine". Frankly, the presence of these beliefs in so many geographically isolated populations may even suggest man has a natural tendency to see the world in this manner if not blinded by culture, modern religion, or even science (that objectifies parts of the whole in order to devise ways to more aptly control or exploit nature).
In any case, I find that the modern religion and technology has both manifested in very egregious ways that has not improved the aggregate condition of mankind (but has grown civilization). Likely, that is because both have been tools that civilization has primarily used to accelerate its own growth. Due to where we are today, it makes me very open to ideas that humans can use (post-bottleneck) to reorganize themselves and actually live in a sustainable manner. This may not include the tools we lean on today (science/religion), and may even include ancient beliefs that primitive man may have very naturally developed.
Who knows really. Time will certainly tell what will come if we can figure it out. Otherwise, there is some nice real estate here for whatever comes along in a million or so years.