No religion...

[Externet]

Hi all.

Is there in the world a nation, tribe, ethnicity... with no content of religion in their beliefs/activities ? No scriptures, commandments, rites... ?

[rigney]

Hi all.

Is there in the world a nation, tribe, ethnicity... with no content of religion in their beliefs/activities ? No scriptures, commandments, rites... ?

 

Doubtful at best. Seems everyone wants to get a free a bag of groceries off someone.

[zapatos]

The Pirahã have no concept of a supreme spirit or god[11] and they lost interest in Jesus when they discovered that Everett had never seen him. They require evidence for every claim made. They aren't interested in things if they don't know the history behind them, if they haven't seen it done.[5] However, they do believe in spirits that can sometimes take on the shape of things in the environment. These spirits can be jaguars, trees, or other visible, tangible things including people.[12] Everett reported one incident where the Pirahã said that “Xigagaí, one of the beings that lives above the clouds, was standing on a beach yelling at us, telling us that he would kill us if we go into the jungle.” Everett and his daughter could see nothing and yet the Pirahã insisted that Xigagaí was still on the beach.[13]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirah%C3%A3_people

[iNow]

Hi all.

Is there in the world a nation, tribe, ethnicity... with no content of religion in their beliefs/activities ? No scriptures, commandments, rites... ?

It really depends on how broadly or narrowly you define religion. It can mean many things to many people, and is a tough term to define precisely. Usually, of course, we're referring to one of the world's major religions, generally Abrahamic.

[questionposter]

There's isolated tribes in the amazon, all they really have is a moral code.

[tar]

Zapatos,

 

Interesting as well, is the fact that the Piraha also have no concept of numbers greater than 3.

 

Just concepts of many and such. I have run into them several times where they are mentioned in linguistic studies, in the context of discussions of "Universal Grammar". That is, what concepts are we born with, that can be found universally in all humans, in one form or another, and what concepts are "synthesized". Kant had a lot to say on the matter (even though "Universal Grammar" was not specifically the topic he was discussing.)

 

I don't know why the Mod split this off of Inow's thread. Nature-nurture is almost central to the broken-not broken consideration.

 

You can not believe in imaginary Gods. But then you have to "see them on the beach".

 

Regards, TAR2

Edited May 4, 2012 by tar

[charles brough]

Hi all.

Is there in the world a nation, tribe, ethnicity... with no content of religion in their beliefs/activities ? No scriptures, commandments, rites... ?

No and there never has been since we learned language and became able to speak well over 100,000 years ago. People have to have common beliefs so they can better feel a sense of community and can cooperate to solve common problems. That is the problem we have now in the world. Our big ideological systems (religions) are so old and splintered into "isms" and sects that we haven't enough unity to agree on how to solve our common world (and even national) problems.

[charles brough]

It really depends on how broadly or narrowly you define religion. It can mean many things to many people, and is a tough term to define precisely. Usually, of course, we're referring to one of the world's major religions, generally Abrahamic.

Yes, it is understood in inconsistent ways, a truly sloppily defined term. Yet it is used in the social "sciences" and social theory. Actually, social theorists are motivated to keep it so poorly defined because you cannot define it accurately, without offending the faithful.

 

I define it as "old world-view belief systems" in the glossary to my book because all of humanity does and has had world-view belief systems because they are essential to us so we can achieve enough unity of thought to feel a sense of community and be able to cooperate to solve common problems. Even our secular beliefs, "Secular Humanism," is an ideology.

 

It is just that world-view systems grow too old in time as human thought improves. The old ones have had to be replaced now and again in the long course of human events. Our problems now stem from the fact that neither the Marxist nor our secular ideological systems are advanced, accurate, effective enough to do it. We need something better. . .