Notes from Session 5: Thoughts to Ponder

Religion as binding people together is so very true at the immediate view. It is a common ground many, if not all, find comforting and familiar in ritual, song, chant, prayer, but above all in community. It has brought many together that may normally be separate in a crisis, yet has also been the very crisis that has caused great separation among a whole.
I appreciate the inter faith ministries and the purpose of bringing about all we have to offer and finding the common ground and the common link.
This brought me to take a look further at the model that technology must change immediately. Until taking a look at Dr. Marvin Harris Universal Social System and the story of the Serene Sea coasters: Environment, Technology, Division of Labor, Human Groups. I had not given it a deeper reflection, until review of this model for explanation and societal development.
These may be random thoughts from notes, but they are interconnected in the work in which I am uncovering and providing additional tools for my theological tool box.
In this story, which is our story, does behavior cause belief or belief cause behavior. As Dr. Shepherd posed: “A theological Chicken and the Egg”
A great and clear, perfect Yes! and No! :) One of those dynamic answers that can be argued for both.
Clearly it comes from their belief they must survive and they begin a behavior of the whole process as in the story and it is also clear by their behavior and the instinct to survive they develop a belief system around that and thus comes the rituals and “religions” around that practice.

“Of course, we do not have to approve customs which seem foreign and unnatural to us in order to use cultural relativism as a working hypothesis.
    We merely have to accept that others see the world quite differently than we do.”
 -Dr. Shepherd, Session 5 Christianity and Culture: A Social Science Model

I get very excited about a good meal, sometimes even do a “happy dance” and hum happily as I enjoy the taste and contentment in my tummy.
I do not go out naked and dance around a fire, although it sounds like fun. However, doing so may be considered the norm, folkway, more or taboo depending on where the fire is and where I’m dancing! But a good meal is always a joyful celebration clothed or not.