Transcript Non-Theistic Religious World Views

Non-Theistic Religious
World Views
“Remember
that you were at that time
separate from Christ,… and strangers from
the covenants of promise, having no hope
and without God in the world” Eph 2:12
Animism: religion of nonliterate tribal peoples
• Belief that personalized supernatural beings or souls inhabit all
objects and govern their existence
• Est. 100 million tribal people in thousands of tribes on major
continents and islands
• Simply stated: “Everything is alive,” “everything is conscious” or
“everything has a soul.”
• In this world view humans are denizen, or part of nature, rather
than superior to or separate from nature.
• In these societies, ritual is vital for survival – it wins favor of the
spirits of one’s source of food, shelter and fertility and keeps
malignant spirits away.
• “Good luck” is the result of spirits being pleased
• Most animistic belief systems believe the spirit survives physical
death
• Some believe the spirit pass to an easier world of abundant game
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Animism includes…
• Rituals, such as rites of passage (relating to birth, puberty,
marriage, death, etc) are performed by shamans, “witchdoctor” or
priests who usually are seen as possessing unusual powers
(healing, curses, transmigration of soul as in a Jaguar).
• No distinction between physical and unseen spiritual world—what
happens in one, effects the other. Physical world worshiped as
Mother Earth, everything is alive.
• Clan feasts, magic, myths and legends, fertility cults, and fetishism
• Priests/shamans/witch doctors, mana (“impersonal supernatural life
force that permeates universe”) and rules over all creation, though
not controlled by gods or man
• Unseen forces include supernatural powers like fate, cosmic moral
order, evil eye, magic and witchcraft.
• Impersonal energy forces or spirits in objects give the objects
power to do good or evil
• Totemism and veneration of the dead
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Basic Themes in Animism
• Community-centered life —Ancestors, living and
unborn are center of life. Life meaning is only in the
context of a community
• Role of Spirit world —Humans surrounded by
supernatural beings and forces, mostly hostile
• Focus on the present —seek to deal with success
and failure, power and knowledge to control life
• Focus on power —life is constant struggle against
spirits, other humans and supernatural forces—life
goal is to control these forces
• Pragmatism —science and learning is only valuable
if secures a good, meaningful life and protects from
evil
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Basic Themes in Animism
• Transformation and Transmigration —Spirits can
take the form of animals or plants; Shamans in a
trance can travel distances (Jaguar), harm enemies
and even to spirit world to find information, etc
• Holistic view of life —invoking good luck, avoiding
bad luck involves every aspect of life (what you eat,
dress, furniture, greetings, etc)
• Particularism —People are tied to their land, their
“gods” gave it and give victories and defeats are
attributed to territorial gods
• Fear —In a world of spirits, omens and spells, life is
rarely secure. People turn to their ancestors, gods
and spirits for protection
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Other Characteristics
• Trance: altered state of consciousness or awareness.
Such altered states of consciousness include:
– Channeling: receiving messages or inspiration from an invisible
spirit, e.g. angels or Jesus
– Dreams: seeing things as though they were real, imagination
– Premonitions: future events, often calamitous in nature are
foreknown via psychic experience
– Euphoria: an intensely good feeling
– Ecstasy: experience being outside of one’s self, a heightened
capacity for exceptional thought , profound emotional experience,
extraordinary physical abilities or one might make a spiritual
journey in an ecstatic trance with the cessation of voluntary bodily
movement.
– Note: This is a major activity of shamans, who use trances to
travel to other places, underworld to interact with spirits,
clairvoyance and healing. These can be induce by drugs, rituals,
music, dance, ascetic practices or visual designs as aids to
mental disciplines – In Buddhism there will be 8 states of trances
or “absorption” into Nirvana.
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Other Characteristics
• Clairvoyance or extra-sensory perception (ESP)
is not unusual, where a person receives
information through unexplainable means. This
can be through “telepathy” (one mind to your mind
without speaking) or “precognition” (gaining
information about places and events in the future).
• Apparitions of spirits of the dead, God or Satan
• Wraith, an apparition of a living person, as an
omen, that the person is about to die (e.g. Lord of
the Rings)
• Hallucinations: false sensory perception of the
unseen world, often intentionally induced by drugs.
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Necrolatry (worship of the dead)
• Teach that people possess immortal souls—at
death soul is free to wander near the grave,
continue to participate in the lives of the family
• Neglecting to reverence them could bring sever
consequences
– They are the founders of the family, clan or tribe and
remain interested. Must be consulted in decisions.
– They help the living through dreams, necromancers
and visions
– Some have accomplished great achievements which
must be celebrated- in time exaggerated to be gods
– Animists believe that they protect the family
– The spirits function as mediators between God and
the family
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Necrolatry (worship of the dead)
• One’s happiness in the afterlife depends on
the care given by one’s descendants—
Forgotten by family means extinction!
• Feel the need to keep them favorably inclined
toward the living by following appropriate
rituals, dances or diet
• This is especially true of those who die
unnaturally
– Such a spirit might return to “haunt” the living as a
“ghost” searching for a body to inhabit or bring
harm
– By appropriate ceremonies they can help them on
to the land of the dead
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Spirit Worship
• Most animistic religions teach a Supreme God, but
he has withdrawn from creation and cannot be
known personally. Once was close but His anger
with man made Him removed Himself
• He then left men to their own devices and lesser
gods or spirits to accomplish His purposes
• A host of evil spirits inhabit the earth, air, fire,
storms, business, marriage, death, water, trees,
mountains and animal life
• The whole of life is governed by taboos and rituals
designed to placate, manipulate and keep away
the spirits
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Shamanism
• The witch doctor (black or white) serves as
mediator, but can live separate from tribe
• He knows the proper sacrifices and
incantations or rituals that will please the
spirits
• Called upon in times of sickness
• In many tribes he is the chief (if “white” witch
doctor, that is, a healer)
• Some rituals can last 24 hours or longer and
must be followed without error or become an
offense
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Basic Practices of Animism
1. Numerous taboos or prohibitions, to
preserve the harmony between spirit and
physical world
2. Sacred places of worship or contact with spirit
world
3. Sacred things possess power and are
potentially dangerous (stones, jewelry, plants,
insects, carved images)
4. Sacred actions includes sacrifices of animals
or plants. Shamans perform sacred rites,
omens (origin of “God bless you” after a
sneeze)
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Basic Practices of Animism
5.
6.
7.
8.
Sacred words —many oaths, curses and blessings,
spells of white and black witchcraft possess sacred
power, mana.
Sacred persons —witches use their powers for good
and evil, to protect their community, heal or kill
enemies, inject foreign bodies. Many believe they can
transpose themselves into animals, i.e. Jaguar
Sacred rituals —performed regularly either by head
of family or witchdoctor; can be brief or a long
enactment of a legend in a dance
Practice of magic and divination —casting of spells
and communication with spirit world is reserved for
shamans
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Magic
• Often the “spirit” is not a personal thing, but an
impersonal force of nature
• Magical beliefs and practices are developed to use
these forces resident in nature for their own purposes
• Imitative magic seeks to bring harm to an enemy by
attacking a representation of him (voodoo doll)
• Contagious magic depend on the connection between
a person and something associated with him (hair
clippings, nail parings, or feces)
• Magic is used for good as well – blood of hunted
animal can be drunk for strength.
• Cannibalism is practiced to gain the power of the
enemy
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Fetishism
• A natural object believed to have
supernatural powers, or an object created by
people that has power over people. (i.e.
Voodoo)
• Charms, amulets or fetishes are seen as
inhabited by spiritual energy or force (not a
personal spirit)
• Such charms are not limited to animistic
tribes
• Many have superstitious charms for good
luck
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Naturism
• Personification and worship of forces of nature
(sun, moon, stars, fire, volcanoes, storms or
animals)
• Ideas are evident in “higher” religions, such as
sacred cow of Hindus or sacred mountain of
Japanese Shinto
• Sometimes hard to distinguish magical practices
and naturism (except in later nature is actually
worshipped)
• Commonly naturism develops into idolatry and
polytheism
• Much of naturism relates to fertility in agriculture
and sexual relations – rituals and sacrifices are
intended to guarantee fertility
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Totemism
• The totem is usually an animal or other
naturalistic figure that spiritually represents a
person or a clan
• Comes from American Indian word for “brothersister-kin” – to emphasize the unity of the clan
with some sacred plant or animal
• This is the aspect of the continuity between
human life and nature around him
• The totem animal or plant is sacred to the tribe
and must not be eaten except at special
ceremonial feasts, if at all
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Conclusion of Animism
• The whole life is pervaded with fear which governs nearly all
activities
• May have a concept of a Creator God, but he is aloof and
indifferent from human affairs
• No absolutes of morality—sin is seen as violation of culture,
taboos, custom and natural forces
• Lack of personal relationship with God causes a fatalistic
attitude since all events of life are predetermined and
controlled by nature or demons
• Rom 1:21-25 imply Noah’s descendants once knew God,
but degenerated into animistic practices
• Houghton, “The common essence of heathenism is not a
denying of God…but an ignoring of Him in worship of
natural powers and mysterious demonic powers through
magic and magical sacrifices and ceremonies.” (A.T.
Houghton, “Animism” in The World’s Religions, ed. J. N. D.
Anderson, 1st ed. (1951), p. 9.
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Overcoming Animism
• Fear is the major disposition
– One is never sure if a taboo has been broken
– Animism includes feared practices: sorcery, magic, voodoo, curses
• Converts will only be free when their minds are transformed
with God’s Word
– There is only one God: Isa 43:10, “You are my witnesses and my servant
whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and
understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be
one after me.” There is no pantheon of gods
– In the Bible God forbids the animistic practices of witchcraft, necromancy,
magic and worship of foreign spirits Deut 18:10
– No need to live in fear of hostile spirit beings and spells (Col 2:15, He
“disarmed the powers and authorities, making a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them by the cross.”
– Psa 91:1, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the
shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my
fortress, my God whom I trust.’”
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