Chapter 22 4. The son of witchcraft
Religion is the "second son" of witchcraft.
Witchcraft is one of the earliest cultural patterns of mankind.Only the making and use of tools preceded it in the timetable.Almost all peoples practiced witchcraft in primitive times.There are many records of witchcraft in ancient times in the "Siku Quanshu" and "Veda Collection" of the Indians.Our nation is even more so.
Witchcraft, why must there be?
For the survival of the body, but also for the settlement of the soul.
The survival of the physical body is undoubtedly the first, and there will be many practical problems to be solved.If the technical means are not enough or not effective, they have to go to the doctor in a hurry.For example, if it doesn't rain, they pour water into the sky; if people don't have babies, they engage in reproductive worship.This is "witchcraft".
Obviously, if the purpose is only to solve practical problems, witchcraft methods will not work.Therefore, science must be born.But even science is subject to trial and error.Witchcraft is the "collective trial and error" of human beings.Without a thousand trials and errors of voodoo, we would never have learned to forecast the weather, or to plant rain.It can be said that it is witchcraft that leads mankind into the door of science.
Therefore, witchcraft is not a "pseudoscience", but a "pre-science".
Yes, science before science.
Science is the "eldest son" of witchcraft.
In fact, science and witchcraft are in the same line.They all believe that the world has laws and the laws can be grasped.Once human beings grasp the laws, they can control the situation and change the reality.However, the laws grasped by science are realistic, but witchcraft is likely to go astray.This is why science has finally replaced witchcraft.
However, humans cannot cross rivers and tear down bridges.You must know that compared with the part that science has mastered, the unknown field is a wider world.Therefore, we must not lose our curiosity, our sharpness, or even our imaginations.Curiosity killed the cat, but lack of curiosity can kill a man.
Witchcraft just represents the sensitive nerve of human beings.
Maybe Witchcraft's way of exploring the world is wrong, maybe that's it.But even if the scientific method is correct, it may not be the only one.At least, before the birth of science, witchcraft profoundly comforted the fear of the unknown for thousands of years, healed the wounds of human beings suffering sudden and unreasonable disasters, and made human looking up to the future gentle and yearning.
Witchcraft is the "psychologist" of primitive humans.
Therefore, witchcraft also has two "sons", which are religion and philosophy.
Because science isn't everything.
There are many questions in the world that cannot be answered by science, such as the "first driving force", such as what is happiness, what is freedom, what is dignity, and what is the value and meaning of life.These are all questions that human beings have to think about, and they can only rely on religion and philosophy.
Religion and philosophy continue witchcraft's touch of the unknown, but in different ways.Philosophy is thinking about abstract issues that are surreal and super-experienced, and religion is the belief in the mysterious existence of the supernatural and supernatural.So religion relies on belief, philosophy relies on speculation, science relies on experimentation, tools rely on use, witchcraft relies on manipulation, and at the same time it relies on fantasy and intuition.Witchcraft is intuition, fantasy, and manipulation.
Therefore, witchcraft also has a "daughter", which is art.The blood relationship between art and witchcraft is no secret in the field of aesthetics.That is to say, the sequence of human culture is from tools to witchcraft, and then to science, religion, philosophy, and art.
All placentas will retire.
In addition to becoming an art, witchcraft that has withdrawn from the stage of history has three ways out: it can become a science, as in Greece; it can become a religion, as in India; it can become a philosophy, as in Greece, India, and China.
However, Greece is from science to philosophy, India is from religion to philosophy, and China has another way to go.
The question is: why is this happening?
Notes: The book proposes that human wisdom, consciousness and spiritual life have gone through three historical stages, which are "witchcraft-religion-science".At first people thought that if you pour water on the sky, it will rain.This is witchcraft.Later, when they found that it didn't work, they kowtowed to the gods and begged for rain.This is religion.When even this didn't work, human beings really stepped into the door of science, learned weather forecasting, and also learned artificial rainfall.Therefore, witchcraft is "pre-religion" and "pseudoscience".This book disagrees with that view.
Notes: The book proposes that human wisdom, consciousness and spiritual life have gone through three historical stages, which are "witchcraft-religion-science".At first people thought that if you pour water on the sky, it will rain.This is witchcraft.Later, when they found that it didn't work, they kowtowed to the gods and begged for rain.This is religion.When even this didn't work, human beings really stepped into the door of science, learned weather forecasting, and also learned artificial rainfall.Therefore, witchcraft is "pre-religion" and "pseudoscience".This book disagrees with that view.