The Invention of Religion

 

The Greeks invented reasonism, but they also invented mystery cultism. These two categories of philosophy are based upon rational thought and unreasoning faith, respectively, and they’re diametric opposites. There’s no way to reconcile or combine them. But that didn’t stop the classical Greeks from trying.

The science-oriented Greeks wanted to gain the broad-based knowledge, prosperity, competence, spiritual power, and personal liberty which a life based upon reason generates. They wanted to be fully alive, dominate their environment, become great, feel strong pleasure, and experience true happiness.

But they also understandably sought to live forever. The Greeks wanted the infinite quality and quantity of life which the mystery cults brazenly promised them.

The nearby Hebrew nation was aware of all of this. So they crafted a religion which attempted to integrate the thought of the pre-Socratic philosophers with that of the cultist Orphics, Dionysians, Demeterites, and Pythagoreans. Later on, the Jewish fathers increased their ambition, and tried to combine mystical Platonism with highly rational Aristotelianism.

This bizarre amalgamation sort of worked, at least in some senses. The hybrid and gargoyle of mature Judaism was developed. Soon after came the similar philosophy of Christianity.

Both early religions replaced the Greek logos (i.e. reason and explanation) with the Jewish and Christian “logos”. Jewish and Christian “law” – which was various arbitrary assertions and commands – also replaced Greek natural law, in which the reasoning human mind deduced objective truths about the real world and discovered rational virtues to be used to achieve human greatness and personal happiness.

But Judeo-Christian “virtues” – unlike rational Greek ones – involve self-sacrifice and self-destruction. You have to become a kind of slave to “god” in order to achieve their claimed immortality. To successfully become this holy servant, you need to believe in god with all of your “heart” – which is a sneaky, lying way of saying with all of your drives and passions. You also need to commit to god with all of your “soul” – which is a sneaky, lying way of saying with all of your mind and will.

Many do this, alas.

So the reconciliation and combination of Greek reasonism with Greek mystery cultism – as manifested in the mature philosophies of Judaism and Christianity – has taken place and is still with us. But the philosophy of reasonism has suffered in the mix. So has mankind.