Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
An outsider who was a threat to the orderly allocation of resources in the society who could not follow societies rules was stoned to death. This helped the genetic material of the survivors be passed down and groups that didn’t have this trait did not survive or were infiltrated and taken over.
So yes following religion led to structural stability in the indifferent universe.
You also gain comfort that your actions will prevent the same fate from befalling your group.
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It should be pointed out that the passages Cheese has cited are badly misunderstood today, thanks in no small part to how the Church over thousands of years marshalled the idea of "scripture" to equate with "the Word of God."
The book of Deuteronomy was royal propaganda written in the sixth century BCE by the priests in King Josiah's administration, and it was intended to bolster his programme of religious reforms which sought to eradicate sacrificial offerings to gods other than the nationalistic deity of Judah, YHWH. But moreover, this programme was also set on ensuring that ALL sacrifices were performed exclusively within the Temple precincts in Jerusalem, which was frequented only by a very select few men on a regular basis. The edict described here is commonly called "the ban," or "the ḥerem," and it made for good rhetoric, but was almost certainly never practised. It is fairly typical of language in royal propaganda pieces from throughout the Ancient Near Eastern world.
The second passage stems from another text written by priests, probably not any earlier than the mid-eighth century BCE. The purpose of this document were to establish correct procedures of sacrifice in the Jerusalem temple, and also to bolster the exclusive legitimacy of the priestly caste commonly designated the
b'ny Aḥaron, or the "Sons of Aaron." Much like the first passage, while this is an account of astonishingly arbitrary and unforgiving punishment for what seems to be an extremely minor offense, the exaggeration is also part of the point. Again, it is almost certain that such punishments were never actually carried out, and that this was part of a much larger hyperbolic reminder of the cruciality of "holiness," and the lengths to which one must go to attain it.