Sunset and Sunrise

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Nickman
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Sunset and Sunrise

Post #1

Post by Nickman »

Is watching the sunset and sunrise reminiscent of ancient sun worship? Could it be something in our evolutionary past that is still a part of us. History shows animism and sun worship are the first clues of religious and spiritual influence in humanity. Do we still hold to these mezmerizing ideas in one way or another?

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Nilloc James
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Post by Nilloc James »

I think the ability to feel wonder and awe are some of the highest human attributes.

Though I think the "earth rise" picture taken from the moon are more inspiring than run of the mill sunrises.

That said, the sun defined early society. When you could grow food. Sun was literally life.

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Ooberman
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Re: Sunset and Sunrise

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Nickman wrote: Is watching the sunset and sunrise reminiscent of ancient sun worship? Could it be something in our evolutionary past that is still a part of us. History shows animism and sun worship are the first clues of religious and spiritual influence in humanity. Do we still hold to these mezmerizing ideas in one way or another?
I'm convinced people still subconsciously attribute Jesus to the Sun, even when they say "Son". The allusions to Light, warmth, Life, energy, etc are all retained from earlier, pagan beliefs.
Thinking about God's opinions and thinking about your own opinions uses an identical thought process. - Tomas Rees

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Jax Agnesson
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Post by Jax Agnesson »

In any primate social structure, an individual's chances of mating, and therefore passing on its inherited brain structure, are connected to status, and status is gained by forming alliances. This involves selecting actions that will either please or subdue other members of the troupe. This is probably how apes and monkeys have developed a predictor program, using some sort of 'reference model', constructed by the brain, on which to test out possible actions before implementing them. This reference model eventually becomes what we humans think of as the self.
But then we extend this model to all significalnt natural phenomena. We guess how things will act, or what they intend, basing our guesses on how our internal model relates actions and intentions.
Anyone who has ever spent a night out in the cold will feel the morning sun as a blessing or a kindness, and will feel grateful. Likewise we ascribe intentional hostility to dangerous phenomena, wehther these phenomena are capable of conscious intentionality or not..
God, in this view, is the ultimate extension of the self, which in turn is merely a theoretical model of the 'other'.

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Talishi
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Re: Sunset and Sunrise

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Post by Talishi »

Nickman wrote: Is watching the sunset and sunrise reminiscent of ancient sun worship? Could it be something in our evolutionary past that is still a part of us. History shows animism and sun worship are the first clues of religious and spiritual influence in humanity. Do we still hold to these mezmerizing ideas in one way or another?
Naw, we just like the unique colors that appear when the sun is at a low position angle in the sky.
Thank you for playing Debating Christianity & Religion!

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