'via Blog this'
As I go through Herodotus to playfully create my own prose precis, I am struck by the reason for the priesthood and religion generally. Occupationally, professional religion is a protection against getting killed. Fast forward to Shakespeare. He was the first to show how silly it is to venerate honor when honor means you get killed routinely in battles. To do this, Shakespeare created Falstaff and then left him under the bus of Henry IV. Honor survived and remains the stuff of war and of binary literature even now. However, the rise of nonviolence in the last century, and the actual decline in violence (Pinker), tells me that the delayed reaction to what Jesus had in mind (compromise, helpfulness, tolerance, etc.) is taking shape in today's world with little thanks to religion. Think about how right it is to not get killed and how wrong it has been to follow leaders who got us into wars. In Herodotus, there is an even balance between warfare and consultation with the temples and priests and prophetesses. But now is the first time in history when realism tips in the direction of nonviolence as a way of existing. If so, I would change my headline to read I think the world is undergoing a sea change away from conflict to holistic peace (Jesus). The positive function of religion from time immemorial has been to provide an excuse not to be killed and now we can say, That's OK.
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