EDUCATION

THE FESTIVALS, RELIGION, AND EDUCATION

RELIGION

[W]e restate religion as the demand for mindfulness, and then analyze how the different civilizations have used different methods and different ‘religions’ to provide that mindfulness – with emphasis on the external and long term consequences of the means of providing ‘opiates to the masses’.

Our conclusion is that a more modern version of Stoicism, Reformed Education, Reformed ‘Worship’ consisting of Ancestors and Heroes, Nature and the Universe, and the development of agency to produce the Transcendence of Man into the gods we imagine  will serve the function optimally.

Religion was, and remains, the ‘hard problem’ of social science simply because it functions by precognitive training and is understood  pre-cognitively (felt) rather than thought. And as such it is difficult for us to discuss with any degree of reason, despite the fact that it is as understandable as the need for math, money, maps, and law.

The Constitution of Religion
(tying it all together)(blow your mind) (core)

Religion provides us with personal, social, and political rituals to train us to into mindfulness(tolerance), forgiveness, and cooperation at increasing scales. It serves as the institutionalization of harmony so that We Can Tolerate Anonymity, Lack of Reinforcement, Expansion of Hierarchy, Loss of Agency, in Markets, in The Division of Labor in Exchange for the Dramatic Lowering of Costs From That Division of Labor.

If you understand this then you will understand the purpose of religion, where it evolved, and when and why it evolved, and how and why a religion or any given aspect of a religion succeeds or is good, or fails or is bad. Religion trains the intuition, reason trains us in understanding, negotiation and planning, and skills train us in production in that division of sensation, perception, cognition, memory, advocacy, negotiation, and labor.

With Religion we scale the hunt. Which in turn consists of the phases of the prey drive. Which is the eternal cycle of our lives. To search, to hunt or gather, to come together, to feast, to celebrate, to reproduce, to rest, to care, to want or need, and to begin again. Religion is a celebration of the cycle of life from the reptilian, mamilial, and human brain. We can never fully leave the animal behind, we can only satisfy it’s needs so that we can be human and take advantage of the returns on the division of labor.

DEBT:
Where worship means demonstration of appreciation for inheritance: debt.
– Nature worship (debt)
– Kin and Ancestor worship (debt)
– Gods, demigods, heroes and saints worship (debt)

CAPITALIZATION:
And training in mindfulness:
– Action: heroism – achievement – contribution and competition (cost)
– Reason: stoicism – self authoring – tolerance and cooperation (cost)
– Experience: epicureanism – peace and security (cost)

REWARD:
And the Ritual of the Feast – building community.
– The Gathering, The Fire, The Call (reward)
– The Parable, The Oath, the Testimony (reward)
– The Sacrifice, The Feast, The Thanks (reward)
– The Celebration (festival), The Sport (competition), The Dispersal ( sex, rest, care) (reward)

RULES:
And there are three sets of laws evident in the structure of the universe whether those laws were made by structural consequence, the design of divinity, or the hand of god.
– The laws of nature. (physical limits)
– The natural law of Sovereignty and Reciprocity (personal limits), with the christian via positiva law of love improving upon the via negativa natural law.
– The evolutionary law of transcendence of man into gods. (political limits)

This constitutes the law of religion.