5 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: /r/philosophy Open Discussion Thread | February 10, 2025
People often say religions emerged because of existential dread
People being whom, precisely? "People" can say whatever they want... that doesn't mean that they understand the subject matter. I would submit that many people don't really have a working definition of what religion means, outside of that their own specific culture defines as such. So I see what you're saying, but "people often say" simply isn't a good reason to engage with a topic, if that's all it is. It's not something that many laypeople find important to get right. Because they have day jobs and all that.
Comment by simon_hibbs at 12/02/2025 at 12:34 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Furthermore Old Testament Judaism didn't have a concept of an afterlife, it's one of the things other cultures found weird about it. "For dust you are and to dust you will return". The only hints of such came very late and almost certainly due to Greek and Zoroastrian influences.