Neo Deist
Th.D. & D.Div. h.c.
Early humans did not have telescopes, as the telescope was not invented until the 16th century CE. Scholars are not quite sure who exactly made the first one, but a Dutch eyeglass maker named Hans Lippershey was the first to apply for a patent, and is often credited with the invention. Prior to this invention, religions typically viewed Earth as the center of creation.
Geocentricity (earth centric creation) was the reigning religious concept for centuries. God created everything for our benefit on Earth, to include the sun, moon and stars. Little did those early, primitive, uneducated people know that earth was not the center of creation. It took Galileo pointing a telescope at the night sky to have an "uh oh" moment. He challenged the claim of geocentricity and the Roman Catholic Church put him on trial for heresy, because the concept of the Earth not being the center of creation destroyed many religious tenets.
The truth is that the Earth is not the center of creation, which anyone with half a brain knows. It is not the center of our solar system, as that spot goes to our sun. We are not even at the center of our galaxy. And our galaxy is one of hundreds of billions in the known universe. We are a mere spec in the grand scheme of things.
Early humans did not know any of this because they couldn't. Yes there are cultures that tracked the stars, seasons, moon cycles, etc. But those cultures had no way of viewing anything out in the cosmos beyond what the human eye could see.
If you stand on the Earth, the sky appears to move around it. As does the sun, the moon and the stars. For those that did not know any better, it would appear as if the Earth was at the very center. It would make sense for various religious mythologies to develop based on that concept because that's all they knew! It is the same reason that early people believed the Earth was flat, and if you traveled too far you would fall off the edge.
The point of all this is that you can't apply modern day logic to religions that were created long ago. You have to put yourself in the mindset of someone who had no clue what a comet was. Or a meteorite. Or a star that went supernova. They had no clue what caused an earthquake (wrath of the gods!), or why some people fell to the ground convulsing (demonic possession...nah, just epilepsy).
We are far more educated than those people. Let's act like it.
Geocentricity (earth centric creation) was the reigning religious concept for centuries. God created everything for our benefit on Earth, to include the sun, moon and stars. Little did those early, primitive, uneducated people know that earth was not the center of creation. It took Galileo pointing a telescope at the night sky to have an "uh oh" moment. He challenged the claim of geocentricity and the Roman Catholic Church put him on trial for heresy, because the concept of the Earth not being the center of creation destroyed many religious tenets.
The truth is that the Earth is not the center of creation, which anyone with half a brain knows. It is not the center of our solar system, as that spot goes to our sun. We are not even at the center of our galaxy. And our galaxy is one of hundreds of billions in the known universe. We are a mere spec in the grand scheme of things.
Early humans did not know any of this because they couldn't. Yes there are cultures that tracked the stars, seasons, moon cycles, etc. But those cultures had no way of viewing anything out in the cosmos beyond what the human eye could see.
If you stand on the Earth, the sky appears to move around it. As does the sun, the moon and the stars. For those that did not know any better, it would appear as if the Earth was at the very center. It would make sense for various religious mythologies to develop based on that concept because that's all they knew! It is the same reason that early people believed the Earth was flat, and if you traveled too far you would fall off the edge.
The point of all this is that you can't apply modern day logic to religions that were created long ago. You have to put yourself in the mindset of someone who had no clue what a comet was. Or a meteorite. Or a star that went supernova. They had no clue what caused an earthquake (wrath of the gods!), or why some people fell to the ground convulsing (demonic possession...nah, just epilepsy).
We are far more educated than those people. Let's act like it.
Many ancient and pre-Christian cultures had complex knowledge of astronomy, especially the Mesoamerican civilizations. We don't know exactly what the extent of their knowledge was because the Spanish destroyed much of their civilization, including their writings, but they certainly were not "primitive" or "uneducated". To say such is highly insulting. People did the best with what they had and even that could be a marvel.
