Civilization #2: Religion and the Dawn of Society

Okay, to review, last class we discussed, uh, three prehistorical sites, right? Including Göbekli Tepe, Jericho, and Çatalhöyük. And the argument I made to you, um, last class, which is the general scholarly consensus, is that, um, what drove, what compelled the transition to agriculture was, was the religious beliefs of the people at that time. Okay? So it was humanity's religious impulse that, uh, drove our transition into agriculture.

What I will show you today, okay, my argument to you today is that this religious impulse, this need for religion, this need to understand why we are here today, and what we must be doing, and where we're going, it's all always been there. Okay? In fact, religion is what makes us fundamentally human. And to prove this case, I'm going to talk about Ice Age cave paintings.

So I ask you to look at, um, these cave paintings that we found all around the world, okay, that go back 30,000, 40,000 years. And, uh, as you can see from, um, those pictures, they're beautiful, right? Um, and they're extremely creative, uh, artistic. And, um, so I want to look at three questions about the cave paintings today. First of all, how were they painted? They didn't have the technology we have today, so how do they paint these, um, cave paintings? Second question is, why did they do this? Because when you're in a cave, it's very dark, it's very cold, and it's very hard to breathe, but they spend days in there painting them. So why do they do that? Okay, that's a second question. The third question is the hardest question. Is, um, what do these cave paintings represent, or what do they mean?

So, um, the first, uh, yet, the first thing I want you to be aware of is that there's absolutely no agreement on any of these questions. Cave paintings is something that, um, we have a lot of around the world, but there's very little evidence as to what they are, what they represent, and how they were painted. So there are a lot of guesses. Okay? And the case that I will present to you today is my own personal interpretation based on my research and my understanding of the evidence. But please be aware that, um, there are many different interpretations, and the evidence is extremely unclear about many of these things. Okay?

Okay, so, um, let's start. The first thing you need to understand is that, um, for most of human history, it's been very cold. Okay? So the Ice Age only ended about 12,000 years ago, and we've seen a general warming of the planet, which is, which has allowed us to adopt agriculture. But before then, we're basically living on a very cold planet.

Now, the history of humanity is this: 300,000 years ago, um, we came into being in Africa. But because the world became very cold about 100,000 years ago, um, that meant a scarcity of resources, and that forced us to seek food and resources elsewhere. And so that drove our movement into Europe, which then drove our movement into Asia, and then across the Bering Strait, remember, because this was all ice, right, into North America, and into South America. And then from Asia, we went down to Australia. Okay? So we basically colonized, um, the planet. But there weren't that many of us. There was only about 1 million of us all around the world 20,000 years ago. And the other thing to remember is that in this process, there were actually other human beings in other places. So the Neanderthals were here, the Denisovans were here, and we interbred with them until we became the dominant human species. Okay?

Okay, so does that make sense? All right. So that's the background. Now let's look at some cave paintings. Because, uh, this is in the Chauvet Cave, and we, and this started about 30,000 years ago. Go. So these cave paintings were a continuous process where different people at different times went to the caves and painted different pictures. They might have added more things to the pictures as well. Okay? But as you can see, this is clearly representing animals, right? Bison, horses, rhinos. The other thing that's interesting about these paintings is that there's really no focus. Okay? You see, uh, lions, you see horses, you see rhinos. Okay? It's almost like nature is one interconnected picture.

Okay, um, these are lions. Okay? Um, this is Lascaux Cave, about 20,000 years ago. And the most, and a very famous artist, Pablo Picasso, actually was invited into one of these caves, and he said that, "Wow, we have learned nothing in 10,000 years." Meaning that they were just as good back then as they are today, artistically speaking. Humans have not improved at all. Okay?

So, um, these are horses. Okay? This is Altamira, Spain, which goes back to 34,000 BCE. And, uh, you can see that they're not looking for a realistic depiction of animals. Okay? They're trying to imagine the natural world in their own way. Okay?

So now the question then is, okay, how did they paint these pictures? So first of all, they mainly used red and black. Okay? Red came from ochre, which is a type of clay, and black comes from charcoal. Okay? So that's the coloring they used. Um, inside a cave, it's very dark, so they had to use lighting. Okay? So what they did was they got some animal fat and put fire on it. Okay? So they could see some of the, um, um, caves, but not all of them. Okay?

And then, um, so now the question is, why did they paint these pictures? And the clue is this. The clue is where we found these paintings. And we found these paintings in a very special place in the cave. We found these paintings in the cave section of the cave where the acoustics was the best, the sound was the best. So what this means is, we're fairly convinced that these paintings were part of a ritual which included music, because we found musical instruments as well, flutes. Okay? So, in other words, we think that these paintings are like, um, Göbekli Tepe, which is like, maybe now. And then these hunter-gatherers would come into this cave for a religious festival where there's music, dancing, okay, and they're watching these paintings together. So these paintings are part of a religious festival. In other words, these paintings are not about art. It's really about religion. It's expressing the religious beliefs of the people at that time. Okay? So does this make sense, guys? All right. Yes.

Okay, so I'm going to answer the question, what are the beliefs, right? Now, okay. All right. So again, no one knows what their beliefs are because they, they wrote nothing down. They are preliterate. We can't go back in time and talk to them. Okay? So we have to use our imagination. So let's imagine that we go back in time to this time. It's very cold, and our memories have been wiped out, meaning like we've lost the knowledge of today. We've lost science, we've lost what we learned in biology class. Okay?

So my first question is, we're in this world, and what are things that amaze us, or make us wonder, or make us in awe? What are things that capture our imagination? Okay? Meaning like, we see these things, we're like, "Oh my God, God must exist because there's no way I can explain what happened." What, what are these things that we would see and we would be surprised by, be marveled at, basically being in awe of? What are things about our life that amaze us? What, what's the first thing that we, that we can think of? What's the first thing you're in this world, right? You should use your imagination. What's one thing that's like, "Oh, okay, there must be a God, or there must be some supernatural powers that govern our world"? What's the first thing that comes to mind?

How about childbirth? Childbirth, right? Does that make sense, you guys? Because I'm a father, I have three kids, and I can tell you, when I first saw my child being born, I was amazed because you have this life come out of nothing, right? Okay. And if you don't, if you never studied biology, you can't explain what happened. So that's the first thing that amazes us about being human: childbirth, right? What's the second thing that would amaze you if you were back here? Yeah. Uh, child growing up. Okay, so child growing up. Yes. What else? How about, yeah, okay. How about the stars, right? It's, it's late at night, and remember, there's no pollution, so you see out into the darkness, and it's all stars glowing, right? That's pretty amazing. So what do you think these stars are? You're staring into outer space, right? And you see these stars glowing brightly in the sky. What are they? What's your own explanation, really? Excuse me. Okay, possibly. Okay, possibly souls or other worlds. Okay, planets, worlds. In other words, the first thing that you recognize is that our world is just one of many worlds out there. Does that make sense? All right. What, what else amazes you about the world? Excuse me. Okay, recovery from disease. Okay, so healing, right? How, how do you explain healing then? What, "God saved me"? God saved you. Okay, all right. Yeah. Okay, so there are some supernatural powers. But another way to explain healing, okay, is that you have a body and you have a soul, right? And the soul could be one of the stars. So what's causing disease in this world? Is the soul and the body in conflict? And so healing is about bringing the soul and the body aligned together. Okay? And we think this because, look at Chinese medicine, right? It's the same idea, right? Where the soul and the body are in conflict, right? And you want to align the two in order to heal. Okay?

So, what, other things that we're surprised by is nature, right? The animals, the trees, the vastness of nature. Okay? Now, these are things that surprise us, and they force us to ask the question, "Why?" So now let's try to construct a theory of how to connect all these things. Okay? All right. So we know that the stars, there's other powers out there, right? There has to be gods, or the souls of really, uh, great people, or other planets, or other worlds. How does childbirth happen then? How does childbirth happen? What is the womb? It comes from the womb, right? What's a womb then? A portal? A door, right? So what the womb is, is a portal that the soul comes from another world into our world. Does that make sense? Then how do people return to the other world? If the womb is a portal that allows souls to come into our world, how do these souls return to their world again? But, but what do they do in death? How do we, so people die, and then burial. Thank you. You understand. So this is symmetry, right? The soul comes into our world from the mother's womb, from darkness, and then for us to return the soul back into the original world, we bury this person in darkness that carries that person back to the original world. Does that make sense? Okay. So this is probably the simplest explanation for how life and death works. Okay?

All right. So there are these portals. Okay? And what in nature most resembles a womb? What in nature most resembles a womb, a mother's womb, like a cave, right? Do you understand? A cave. So we can think that, okay, we humans come from a mother's womb, which is a cave, right? A tunnel. But animals also come from wombs, which is the cave. Okay? So the cave is a portal into another world. So why are we in the cave celebrating animals? Why are we doing that? What, what are we really doing? We respect what? We respect the soul. And what else are we doing? Because, and why are we respecting the soul? Yeah, we kill them, right? So we kill them, and now what are we trying to do? Let them forgive us. But what else are we really trying to do once we eat them? What, what must we do now? Excuse me. Yes. Bring them back, right? Do you understand? So when we kill them, we think they go back, they go back into the spirit world, right? So now we have to summon them back from the spirit world into our world. Okay? Does that make sense? So, in other words, what this religion, what this belief is really saying is that we are all interconnected, and for every action that we make, we have to do something else to compensate for that action. Okay? So if we kill an animal for to eat the meat, then we need to ask forgiveness and then bring this animal back into the spirit world to maintain balance and harmony in nature. Does that make sense, guys? Okay.

So why is it in this world there's balance and harmony? Why do we think there's balance and harmony? Because what gives life to everything? What's the force that gives life to everything? The Mother Goddess, right? Mother Nature. Okay? And so if we think that there's one force, the Mother Goddess, that gives life to everything, that means that for us, trees, animals, us, are all equal. We're all the children of Mother Nature. We all have souls. Okay? And so what gives us permission to kill other animals? How, why are we allowed to kill other animals? The other animals are our brothers and sisters, right? So what gives us permission to kill the other animals? Why, why are we allowed to do so? Because Mother Nature, Mother Goddess, has a plan. Okay? Each thing on this planet has a function. The function is to maintain balance and harmony. If we do not kill the other animals, we will die. Okay? But also, if you don't kill the other animals, they'll be, there'll be too many of them, you understand? So, in other words, the world is a cycle. It's a circle, and each person, each animal has a part to play in this. As long as we play our part, then the world will be harmonious and balanced and perfect. Okay? Does that make sense? Okay. Does that make sense, guys? Okay.

So, um, we have actually a word for this religion, and this word is, um, animism. Okay? Animism. And what animism is, it's a very, it's probably the first religion. Okay? It's a belief that each living thing, whether it's a tree, a mosquito, a person, or anything that's living, has a soul. Okay? And we're all interconnected because we all have souls. And so we must maintain balance and harmony. And so, um, many of the predated religions, okay, if you go to, um, talk to Native people in North America and South America and Australia, they all have this belief. But also, there are many religions such as Buddhism, which also has this belief. Okay? And we believe that this is the first religion.

So let's go over some, um, evidence that this is, in fact, what they believed. Okay? So, um, a recent discovery that we made is that trees talk to each other. You guys, you guys know this? So what happens is that trees, there are maybe thousands of trees in a forest, and their roots are connected through mushrooms, through fungi, and this allows them to share information. So, for example, what we know is that if one tree in one part of the forest lacks nutrients, like water, okay, the other trees will send nutrients to that tree. Does that make sense? Okay? So it's almost like the forest is one big brain or one big living organism, and they're all trying to communicate with each other. Another thing that we've discovered is that if there are pests or insects that attack one tree, okay, this tree will automatically communicate to the other trees, and these trees will start to prepare for the pest or the attack. Okay? The third thing, uh, which is the most interesting, is that trees will recognize their own children. So if the children, these child trees, need nutrients, the mother trees will send the nutrients to the children right away. Does that make sense? So this is something that we've recently discovered. But if you think about it, if you're, um, living back then, you can sense the, um, you can sense almost how trees communicate because you're always in touch with nature. Okay? Does that make sense?

All right. This is, um, cave painting, and you can see that these animals, okay, gazelles, they're going somewhere. And there are two beings here. Okay? We believe that these two beings represent the Mother Goddess because, as we discussed last class, the Mother Goddess comes in the form of a bird. Right? The bird flies around the sky. The sky is the Mother Goddess. Okay? So it's almost like the Mother Goddess is channeling or herding the animals from the spirit world back into our own world. What you also notice is that these, um, birds almost like humans. Okay? And so we, what we think is that the shamans dressed up like birds in order to channel the energy of the Mother Goddess to control the animals. Okay? And there's actually a lot of evidence for this. So this is clearly, um, an animal. But this is also a person who's an animal, who, who's a human being, right? Because of the figure. So these are human beings, shamans, who dress up like animals in order to better communicate with animals, but also to better communicate with the spirit world. Okay?

Okay. And this is actually a more clear picture of shamans trying to access the spirit world. Okay? Are we clear so far? So from this religion, we can guess that the people back then were extremely compassionate. They believed that everything has a soul, and every life is precious. Okay? And one evidence for this is this. This is a skeleton. What's interesting about the skeleton is that it's a dwarf. Okay? So there are some humans back then who are born with diseases or handicaps or physical deformities. This person is a dwarf. Now, this is interesting because dwarfs aren't able to contribute that much to your community, right? So as a hunter-gatherer, you need to hunt together to access meat, to get meat, to feed everyone. If you're a dwarf, you're not really doing that much. So, in theory, because it's such a harsh life being a hunter-gatherer, you would think that they would discard the dwarf, kill the dwarf, or maybe leave the dwarf behind. Okay? But from DNA analysis, what we know is this: this skeleton, okay, this person had the same amount of food, the same quality of food as everyone else. Meaning that even though this person was not contributing to the community, everyone worked hard to make sure this person was treated well and was fed as well as everyone else. And at the end of this person's life, he was, um, granted an elaborate burial. And we know this from the archaeological research. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. Does that make sense, guys? All right.

So let me ask you this question. Let's make the assumption that he was, in fact, contributing to the community. How could he contribute to the community? How, they clearly thought he was special. But what made him special? If you're a dwarf, you can't hunt. What can you do? Me? Okay. Um, okay. But what else can you do besides food? Why would they, why would they think he was a special person? What could he do that others couldn't do? Yeah. Thank you. Okay, so maybe the religion back then is that everyone is special, everyone's the same, right? So if you're different, it doesn't mean you're less special. It means you're more special. It means that the Mother Goddess has given you a special power. And maybe this power is to communicate with the spirit world. Okay? So maybe the cave paintings, as you say, were done by people like this who were in a constant state of meditation with the spirit world, and that's what inspired him to create the cave paintings. Okay? Because clearly, if you look at the cave paintings, they were done by a special mind. And if you are a dwarf, you clearly see the world in a different way. And being a dwarf, it makes more sense to be a shaman, not only because people think you're special, but because you can invest time into meditation, into religious practice, that enables you to communicate with the spirit world. Okay? Does that make sense?

Okay. And not only that, um, but what, what we found is that there are many burials like this. So this is a passage from "The Dawn of Everything," which is a fantastic book, okay, by David Graeber and David Wengrow. They're both anthropologists, and this is a fantastic book. Okay? But this is a passage from the, um, book. So number two is the dwarf. He goes back 10,000 years. Okay? And it was a pretty elaborate burial. And as this paragraph says, we know he ate exactly the same food as everyone else. Okay? He was not discriminated against in any way. And the last passage here is, "Neither is Ratal an isolated case." We have many examples of this. When archaeologists undertake a balance of appraisal of hunter-gatherer burials from the Paleolithic, meaning Ice Age, they find high frequencies of health-related disabilities. Okay? So the people who are buried tend to be the ones who are disabled, they have some form of disease, which makes us think that maybe they're shamans. They were picked to be shamans because hunter-gatherers thought, "You're different, therefore you must be special. Therefore the Mother Goddess favors you." And high levels of care until the time of death. Sometimes their funerals were remarkably lavish, which meant that they were prioritized by the community. They were highly valued by the people around them. Okay? The best explanation is, well, they were shamans. They were people who could access the spirit world and communicate with it. Okay? Doesn't make sense, guys? All right. Any, any more questions? Any questions before I move on?

All right. Now, what, another, another amazing thing that we found about Ice Age cave paintings is that they have symbols. Okay? So, so we saw pictures, but, um, a Canadian anthropologist named Geneviève von Petzinger, she went all around the world and she documented symbols in these Ice Age cave paintings. And she found recurring symbols. For example, the hand. Okay? There's the hand everywhere. The spiral, the quadrangle, the circle, okay, the asterisk. Let me ask you this question: Why would paintings have symbols? Why would drawings have symbols? Why can't you just draw the thing? Why do you need to have symbols?

Okay, so you're right. Okay. So we think that this is a written language. Okay? It's one of the first written languages, which meant that back then, they actually had the ability to read and write. Okay? So maybe this is a common language. What are, what are some other possibilities? Why would you want to use symbols in a painting? Excuse me. To keep the content mysterious. Okay, that's interesting. Okay. To keep the content mysterious. And so, what, where do these symbols come from? To keep the content mysterious, right? You have these symbols, and they're secret signs. Where, where are the secret signs from? I know, but, but, but where do they believe they got the signs from? Okay, do you understand? Okay. So another theory, okay, again, we don't know. Okay? No one knows. But like, let's look at different theories. Another theory is that this is the language of the gods, right? As you say, to keep the content mysterious, to give it divine or holy or sacred meaning. Okay? Does that make sense?

Okay, what are some other possibilities? Yes, exactly. Okay, yeah. So this can also be a shamanic. We call this shamanic. But also, like, there's some things you can't draw. For example, love, or energy, or repetition, or balance, harmony, cycle. Right? These things you can't draw. So you have to represent them using symbols. So there are many different possibilities, which means this. Let's just summarize what the possibilities are. What are the symbols in art? The first is that maybe you're trying to visualize an idea. You can't draw energy or life force or cycle, so you just have to use a symbol to represent it. Which means what? Which means that each picture is a mythology. It's a story. Okay? Do you understand? The pictures aren't trying to show you a picture, they're trying to tell you a story about the world. That's why symbols are important, because in the story, there are ideas that you cannot visually express. Okay? Does that make sense? Okay. That's the first thing. Second thing is that you're trying to visualize the language of the spirit world. So this goes back to making the content mysterious. Why do we think this? The answer is this. Okay? We think that when they drew, the way to access the spirit world is to use drugs. Okay? What we call psychedelics. So, in other words, there are certain plants that if you drink, okay, it makes you see things. And the things they see are, in fact, the symbols, the geometric signs. So, in other words, they went to the spirit world, or they think they went into the spirit world, and then they're just trying to express the language of the spirit world. Okay? Does that make sense?

All right. So this is a complicated idea. Okay? But I want to introduce this idea to you, like how we perceive or how we understand reality. So for most of human history, we thought that, oh, reality was just reality, and we are just trying to see reality. Reality is something that you must see. And then along came a philosopher, and he's a very famous philosopher. I want you to remember the name. But his name is Immanuel Kant. Okay? And he is considered the greatest philosopher who ever lived. Immanuel Kant, German. And his idea is this: his idea is that reality is not something that we experience or we see. Reality is something that we imagine, that we create with our mind. The example he uses is time and space. Okay? The idea of time, like one, two, three, four, it does not exist in nature. It doesn't exist. Okay? It's something that we, our minds made up. So our reality is something that we imagine every day. Okay? Does that make sense?

Now, what's really interesting is that Immanuel Kant was writing maybe over 200 years ago. And today, we have a new science called neuroscience. Okay? Neuroscience is the study of the brain. And what's really amazing, okay, and we will discuss this in future classes, is that neuroscience has confirmed Immanuel Kant, meaning like, we now know that the brain imagines reality. It projects reality. Does that make sense? So what drugs do is they change the structure of your brain so that you, you see a different reality. Okay? Does that make sense, guys? So that's what drugs do. And so when they see a different reality, maybe they're seeing symbols. So that's a second thing about symbols in art. The last thing is, um, these symbols are mysterious, right? And mystery makes things sacred and divine, right? So back to childbirth. Childbirth is something that back then they couldn't understand. Therefore, they have to believe that childbirth is sacred and divine. And therefore, women are sacred and divine because only women are allowed, are able to give birth. Men are not allowed to give birth. Okay? So back then, we believed that for most of human history, either we were egalitarian, meaning like men and women were equal, or women had more power than men. Only in recent history do men have more power. Okay? And how this happened, I'll explain to you next week. Okay? But just remember, like, back then, there was no separation of sexes. If anything, women were considered superior to men. Remember, like the God is a Mother Goddess, a female, and therefore women are more special than men. And they know this is because women give birth, not men. Okay? And childbirth is mysterious. Does that make sense?

Okay. So we understand symbols and art as doing these three things. Now we have a more comprehensive or complete understanding of why they did art. The first reason is, what they're trying to do is, they're trying to visualize their mythology. Okay? They're trying to take this idea, their understanding of how the world works, the religion, and they're trying to visualize it. Okay? So art is basically religion. There's no difference. Second thing is that they're trying to show to themselves how reality works. They're trying to show that the underlying reality is a soul or God. Okay? Does that make sense? The last thing, which is the most important, is they're trying to create a common memory and imagination, a language, mythology that they all share together. And this is what we call society. Does that make sense?

So, in other words, okay, the argument I'm trying to make, you're trying to make, the argument I'm trying to make to you today is: One, religion has always been there since the dawn of humanity. Okay? That's the first. Second thing is that religion allows us to communicate with each other, to be together in society. So the third thing, the third thing is religion is what allows us to be fundamentally human. Without religion, we could not be human. We could not think, we cannot communicate, we could not imagine. Does it make sense, guys? Okay. Any questions about this?

Okay. Now let's look at a quote. What is religion? And this is from Émile Durkheim. Okay? And I want you to remember the name. Émile Durkheim. Okay? He's just as famous as Immanuel Kant. Émile Durkheim is considered the founder of sociology. Okay? So when you go to university and you study sociology, guess what you'll mainly be studying? Émile Durkheim. Okay? So this is what he says about religion: "Religion is above all, okay, first and foremost, religion is this: a system of ideas by which men imagine the society of which they are members." Okay? It's to create society and the obscure, yet intimate relations they have with it. Religion is a way for them to understand the world. Okay? Does that make sense, guys? All right.

So let's look at what he says again in more detail. Okay? So, "The great service that religions have rendered to thought is to have constructed a first representation of the relations of kinship between things." Okay? So what this is saying is that religion allows us to construct an understanding of the world. Okay? So basically, the first religion was this, right? And this is just a theory of the world. This is important because from this theory, we are able to construct more theories. "Given the conditions in which it was tried, that enterprise could obviously lead only to makeshift results." Meaning that, okay, well, listen, religion, it's all about guessing, it's all about hypothesizing. Okay? So you know, a lot of these ideas aren't going to work out. That doesn't matter. But then, "Are the results of any such enterprise ever definitive, and must it not be taken up again and again?" Okay? So our desire to know, our curiosity, forces us to constantly reimagine our religion. Furthermore, "it was less important to succeed than to dare. The fact that we try is what was important. What has, what was essential was not to be, to was not to let the mind be dominated by what appears to the senses, but instead to teach the mind to dominate it and to join together what the senses put asunder." So as human beings, we're not trying to see the world, we're trying to imagine the world. Okay? That's what makes us human. Going back to Immanuel Kant, our ability to imagine reality is what makes us fundamentally human. "As soon as men became aware that internal connections exist between things, science and philosophy became possible." So from religion, we develop, develop philosophy and science. In fact, you can say that science today is our religion. There's really no difference. It's just an understanding of the world based on our imagination and some evidence. "Religion made a way for them. It is because religion is a social thing that it could play this role to make men take control of sense impressions and replace them with a new way of imagining the real, a new kind of thought had to be created, collective thought." Okay? So religion is our collective consciousness. It's what every, it's what allows society to come into being. "If collective thought alone had the power to achieve this, here is the reason: creating a whole world of ideals through which the world of sense realities seem transfigured would require a hyper-excitation of intellectual forces that is only possible in and through society." Okay? It's only because we are together are we allowed, are we inspired to come up with religion. So religion is fundamental to being, to being human. Without religion, there could be no society. Without society, there could also be no religion. You understand? So the implication of all this is, like, as a human, first of all, you are not alone. If you're alone, you're not being human. You're a human because you live in society, you're with other people. And because you're with other people, you must have a collective consciousness or an idea you share together. And we call this being religion. Okay? Does that make sense? Is this clear to you guys? All right. Any questions? Anything you are not clear about? Do you see how all this connects together? Okay. The cave paintings is what started. Cave paintings is expression of a religion. Then when the Ice Age ended, we had a chance to settle down. We created communities to celebrate our religion. That's what gave rise to agriculture. Okay? And the religion that we use is probably, probably something like this: the world is interconnected. There's a Mother Goddess that gives life to everything. Okay? Any questions? Anything you are, you, you, you're unclear about? Yeah.

Okay, so that's a good question. Okay. So the question is monotheism. Okay? So the, the three major religions of today, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, they're all monotheistic, meaning they believe in one God. So this is actually a very recent innovation. Okay? So, um, back then, they wouldn't have a concept of power or hierarchy. You understand? They wouldn't think that the Mother Goddess is the greatest god of all. They could only think like the stars, right? There's no hierarchy in the stars. They're all over the place. Okay? So maybe the Mother Goddess gives birth to our world, but maybe there's another God that gives birth to another world. Okay? So they wouldn't think in terms of hierarchy. We think in terms of hierarchy today because of monotheism. But back then, they wouldn't think so. Does that make sense? Yeah. So maybe today you can think of a pyramid. There's people at the top. But back then, they would think think like it's a river. We're all part of the river. It's a cycle. It just goes in circles, and there's no differentiation, or there's no power hierarchy. Things go wrong when there's conflict inside this river. Okay? When people don't do things they're supposed to be doing. Okay? So, and what, and these things are what, what are things that defy the Mother Goddess or go against the, the Mother Goddess? How about incest, right? How about killing animals without making the proper sacrifices, right? So you just kill the animals, but you don't go in the cave to, uh, pray for them, for their return. Okay? So, in other words, in this world, religion is basically ritual. And this is something that we'll study next class. How religion is just ritual. Okay? Just habits and practices and actions. Any more questions? That's a great question, by the way. But monotheism is something that we will look at very closely in future classes, and it's very important because it's a basis for our society. Okay? Any, any other questions? Yeah.

Yes. Well, you can't live in a cave, though, right? You can't live in a cave. You can only go there now and then. There's no oxygen in the cave. It's too dark. It's too cold. You can't live there, right? So you're right in that. Okay. If a cave were livable, they, um, could build farms around that cave. So, okay. That's actually a great question. Besides caves, what are some other portals in the world? What are some other portals in the world that have like spiritual energy besides caves? In nature, if you were back then, you would think that this place is special because it both connects our world and the spirit world. And these places would be mountaintops, right? Mountaintops. Guess what? Göbekli Tepe was on a mountaintop. Where, where else would there be portals? Rivers. Okay? Rivers. Does that make sense? These are places that people would think are portals into the out, into another world, and therefore they are special. And we find that when they settled down and built agriculture, they did so on mountaintops, and they did so around rivers. Okay? Does that make sense? But not caves, because you could actually live in caves. Okay? Does that answer your question? You can't live in a cave. There's no food, and it's cold and it's wet. Oh, they, oh, great question. Okay. Yeah. So they lived outside in tents. No, no, you can't live in a cave. There's no oxygen. Okay? Any, any more questions?

Okay. So your question actually makes me think of a point I want to end the class with. Okay? So today, we think that we are either economic animals, economic animals, or, uh, biological animals. So the person who introduced us, like, who introduced to us the idea that we are economic animals is called Marx. Okay? And his argument is that we are driven by our need to have money. Okay? That's what we believe today, right? You're in school because you want to get good grades so you can go get into a good university, and then you can go get a good job. Now, there are other people who believe that we are biological animals. And these people are called evolutionary biologists. They are inspired by Charles Darwin. So the idea here is that we are motivated by our desire to spread our genes. Okay? So if I'm a man, I want to sleep with as many women as possible because if I sleep with as many women as possible, I spread my genes, right? But if you're a woman, you want to find a man who will be loyal to you because the cost of childbearing, child-rearing is very high. Okay? Does that make sense? So, and we'll be discussing both these theories, um, more throughout the semester.

The argument I want, I want to make to you today is that no, we are first and foremost a religious animal. We have the fundamental need to understand why we are here. We have a fundamental need to connect with everyone, okay, to connect with other people. But that does not mean that we are not economic and biological animals. They all play together. You understand? So what we'll see later in the semester is that you might have a religion, but this religion is not meeting your economic and biological needs. Then you have to either abandon the religion or change the religion. But we also know that the economic need is not enough. You also need religion. So there is an interplay between economics, biology, and religion. And that's what drives human history. Something that we, we will learn more about, uh, next week. Okay? Sorry, next week. Okay. So, um, yeah. Any more questions? Okay.