Can you debunk Animism or nature-focused religions? What's wrong with respecting and praying to the real world you can see around you, rather than some entity that has never shown itself to you like Abrahamacists do?I can see the sun, mountains, rivers... I've never seen Yahweh, Allah, or any other such deity.So why exactly shouldn't all the people groups of this Earth just create their own organised, structured form of nature & ancestor worship?Look at Japan for example, it clearly works exceptionally well and leads to a highly stable, prosperous society.It binds together cultures and communities and there's none of the schizophrenic nonsense or fundamentalist terror like you get from Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. People understand it's kind of a larp where ritual matters more than faith, but it's a productive one, based on respect for real things that actually exist.And no don't tell me "Neo-Paganism already exists!". Animism, Polytheism, Paganism are all distinct concepts. Neo-Paganism is a social club for New Age freaks or greasy Neo-Nazi chuds and is almost always just rehashed Christianity with Odin/Zeus/Perun put in place of Christ.
>>18717891>Look at Japan for example, it clearly works exceptionally well and leads to a highly stable, prosperous society.Which wasn't due to animism specifically. Mongols were also very animist before the communist era, with a revival in it today, yet their society hasn't been stable or prosperous at all throughout history, barely so even during their brief empire. By your logic, if animism is specifically the thing that led Japan to peace and prosperity, Mongols should logically share in that same peace and prosperity, not to mention that countless African and Native American tribes that have also been significantly more animist than Japan throughout history and most especially today.>It binds together cultures and communitiesIn what universe? Animism tends to be very much based around specific ethnicities. Not universal like Christianity or Buddhism.>schizophrenic nonsense or fundamentalist terror like you get from Islam, Christianity, and JudaismHow is believing that spirits exist in trees and rocks any less schizophrenic than believing in a monotheistic God? >People understand it's kind of a larp where ritual matters more than faith, but it's a productive one, based on respect for real things that actually exist.And why do you think ritual matters more to animists than others? A Catholic would certainly hold ritual as essential to the point of salvation requiring it. The bread and wine used by them in ritual is just as real as the rivers and trees, yet whether they contain the body and blood of Jesus Christ is just as debatable as whether the rivers and trees contain spirits.
>>18717928>Their society hasn't been stable or prosperous at all throughout historyMongols live in a barren steppe that can't grow most crops, that said Inner Mongolia, where most Mongols live, has a "Very High" HDI rating. It is very prosperous by global standards.>Animism tends to be very much based around specific ethnicitiesLike I said it binds *cultures* and *communities*. It isn't universalist but rather binds together people of shared identities.>How is believing that spirits exist in trees and rocks any less schizophrenic than believing in a monotheistic God?It isn't and that's not the issue. The issue is Abrahamicists like to roll around on the floor speaking in tongues, want to bring about the end times, like blowing people up, believe in and try to justify all sorts of insane crap in the Old Testament like total global genocide, sending bears to maul children, as if such things were literal events and also well deserved.>And why do you think ritual matters more to animists than others? Not what I said. But to practitioners of Animism, Shinto, Chinese religion, Siberian shamanism, etc, the ritual is the point. It's a social activity. It doesn't matter what you believe, it exists to build bonds between people.Other religions see ritual as exclusively or primarily some means to achieve a spiritual goal.
>>18717891Animism seems uniquely implausible compared to other religious beliefs, because there's a very straightforward evolutionary explanation of why people would believe it even if it were false (hyperactive agency detection), and there are almost no good arguments for it.
>>18718194how is that different from other types of religious/supernatural beliefs ?
>>18718228There are way more arguments for belief in God, for one.
>>18717966>Mongols live in a barren steppe that can't grow most crops, that said Inner Mongolia, where most Mongols live, has a "Very High" HDI rating. It is very prosperous by global standards.Inner Mongolia is Han majority, not Mongol, and has been so for a long time now. And their lack of crops shouldn't matter if animism is what directly contributes to prosperity as you claimed. There's no correlation between animism and prosperity at all.>Like I said it binds *cultures* and *communities*. It isn't universalist but rather binds together people of shared identities.Quite redundant then, if it only binds people together who are already bound together in their shared identity. What exactly is the difference between how animism unites a community compared to say, Catholicism or Judaism? >The issue is Abrahamicists like to roll around on the floor speaking in tongues, want to bring about the end times, like blowing people up, believe in and try to justify all sorts of insane crap in the Old Testament like total global genocide, sending bears to maul children, as if such things were literal events and also well deservedAnimists worldwide have traditions of spirit possession and the Japanese practically created the tradition of blowing oneself up in warfare with kamikaze attacks. None of these things have been uncommon among animists.>Other religions see ritual as exclusively or primarily some means to achieve a spiritual goal.As does most if not every animist tradition. Ritual is for spirituality for them as well.In conclusion, you seriously seem to be confusing animism with Confucianism with your entire argument. Confucians were often animists in following Chinese folk religion, Shinto, and Korean shamanism, but animism is not synonymous with Confucianism.
>>18719031>Quite redundant then, if it only binds people together who are already bound together in their shared identity. What exactly is the difference between how animism unites a community compared to say, Catholicism or Judaism?idk man, maybe different Japanese sub ethnicities only look similar because animism bound them as a group
