Civilization #3: The Religious Imagination

okay so I want to summarize and review what we have learned so far so the main message is that for most of human history we have been peaceful egalitarian and artistic so about 300,000 years ago our species homoa sapiens uh we were born in Africa and then um 50,000 years ago because of climate change um we started to spread around the world okay and throughout most of our history um we have been hunter gatherers and we don't know that much about our history we can only guess but based on the available archaeological evidence we we have we were for most of the time peaceful egalitarian and artistic okay so peaceful does not mean we were not violent there's lots of evidence that there was ingroup conflict um so for example we discovered uh in burials people with skull fractures okay so there's been violence but there's been no no evidence of organized Warfare that comes much later okay that's the first thing second thing is that we were egalitarian meaning that there was no difference in status and power between men and women men and women were considered equal there was no hierarchy meaning that there were people who are considered more wealthy than other people we know because we could not find any evidence of um hierarchy meaning larger houses meaning groups with special privileges now there are individuals who might have higher status and we know because they were buried more elaborately than other people so for example shamans right shamans were their religious leaders and as such they were accorded higher status than everyone else Okay the third thing is Artistic so as we know they were engaged in cave paintings they built monuments in order to celebrate and worship their religion so for them art really was about the expression and celebration of their religion okay so for most of human history we were peaceful egalitarian and artistic and we know that today we are not peaceful we are not egalitarian we are not that artistic so what changed next week I'll explain to you what changed okay basically a new group of uh people called the yamaya came came into being and they had a different religion that celebrated Warfare P patriarchy and wealth okay and eventually spread all around Europe and Asia and they conquered everyone and they created a new history of humanity that's next week okay so I want to um explain the evidence for why we think most of human history we were peaceful otan and artistic okay so something else that we discussed um in class is we don't know what their religion uh was but we suspect that it was animism and Shamanism okay remember that animism is the belief that we all come from the mother goddess from one source of life including trees animals and humans so every living being has a soul okay and the other thing is that the soul is permanant you can never kill it okay the body and the Soul are different so it doesn't really matter matter if you die because your soul will go somewhere else and maybe come back okay so death was not a big deal and the third thing is that there's a spirit world or Another World which is more real than our world okay our world is just a manifestation a physical manifestation of the spirit world but what matters is a spirit world and the last thing is that there's a order to the universe we have a part to play so for example we can kill animals to feed ourselves but we must pay tribute to these animals before and after we kill them in order to maintain the harmony of the universe okay so that's what what we believe the religion of early humans were everywhere in the world okay including in China including in Europe um this is goe and you can see that this is a te pillar um and it's meant to represent a human and inside the te pillar is an animal so basically the te pillar represents um the manifestation of the animal spirit in us and we believe that this is a religious Festival that they would have before they went hunting the evidence for this is that other site we found a lot of animal BS okay so does that make sense guys all right so again this is all just review um this religion goes back a long time okay so this is 40,000 years ago we found this small um figurine okay it's a very small figurine in a cave in Germany and this dates back to 40,000 years ago okay so remember 50,000 years ago we started to leave Africa and Venture around Venture into Europe and around the world okay so this goes back to the beginning the dawn of humanity this is a flute okay that goes back at to the same time so at the beginning of humanity we were religious we celebrated um our religion through music and through ART and through Shamanism does that make sense guys yes it's a figurine it's a doll okay so they believe that these dolls have religious qualities right okay does that make sense it's like paintings okay so um remember like they also have these cave paintings where they're celebrating the mother goddess and they're sing the fact that life is a circle after you kill the animals their soul goes back into the spirit world and then through uh proper trute and worship you can bring them back into this world okay okay this is um a shaman dressed as an animal okay so now the question then is okay if you if we cannot go back in time and um observe their religion how do we know what their religion is and the answer is we have a field of study called anthropology okay anthropology anthropology is a study of other cultures if it and if our theory is right then we should be able to find other cultures that are still alive today that practice this religion and what we've discovered is that if you go to to um places in the jungle um in South America and in Africa in Australia they do practice this religion okay so understanding the religion gives us tremendous insight into the thinking uh and Religion of Early Humans and that's what we will do today okay to truly understand what early humans thought um and how they understood the world okay does that make sense guys all right so the first passage we're going to look at is um from a book called The wayfinders by Wade Davis okay this is a great book if you if you guys ever have a chance please read this book okay it's extremely well written um way Davis he's an anthropologist Canadian um and this recently came out okay so he spent a lot of time uh traveling around the world to explore and to understand indigenous peoples people who are native to the land and they've been there for a long long time so this is what he says about a tribe in the Amazon forest okay in the beginning before the creation of Seasons before the ancestral mother Romi kumu woman Shaman opened her womb before her blood and breast milk gave rise to rivers and her ribs to the mountain ridges of the world there was only chaos in the universe spirits and demons known as hul prayed on their own Kindred bred without thought committed incest about consequence devoured their own young Roman kumu responded by destroying the world with fire and floods then just as a mother turns over warm slap all of maniac bread on the gridle she turned the inated and charred world upside down creating a flat and empty template from which life could emerge once again as woman Shaman she then gave birth to a new world land water forest and animals okay so this is what we call a creation myth and every single civilization every single people have a creation myth so let me ask you this question okay why why do you need a creation myth what's this crean myth doing what does it explain okay how the world forms okay but it does something much more important than that which is what excuse me who are we where we come from yes but there something it yes it explains all that who we are where we come from okay that's what all creation myths do what else is this myth doing which is very important for us excuse me okay so it's telling us How the Universe was formed okay what is in here that's very important and which is important for society to function well okay so the woman Shaman is a mother godess but what's in this paragraph that's very important in order for society to function what do you need for society to function you need rules and laws right so what this chistian myth is doing what all chisan myths is doing is build explaining to you the legal structure of your Society why you can't do certain things okay so for example you can't um commit incest okay you can't eat your young people you can't kill the young people okay why because that's what evil people do you understand so what this Christian myth is doing is it's basically explaining the legal system the rules and why we have them we have these rules because they're evil they represent the evil spirit okay does that make sense guys okay the other thing that you will notice about this creation myth is that it's very sophisticated and very elaborate okay so this is a visualization of their understanding of creation and as you can understand it's very complicated okay does that make sense why is it complicated why is it complicated why is this so complicated there there there are reasons for it why okay so one thing that you will learned in this class is that what's really important is for you to believe that your religion is correct okay it is just correct as science and what makes people believe that your religion is correct um you have you have to accomplish three things okay the first is grandness meaning that is com huge okay it's vast and as you can see this is a vast religion a vast cosmology of how things started so grandness is very important then you have then you you then you need completeness and the idea of completeness is that everything that you see in the world must be explained in this cosmology okay so what this is doing is explaining to you how everything started okay where everything comes from so completeness is important last thing is Unity meaning that there's a beginning and there's an end okay as you can see there's a beginning and then there's an end okay so this is something that we will learn in this class as we explore other religions including uh Judaism and Christianity where for religion to be powerful for it to be authoritative you need these three ideas grandness completeness and unity okay does that make sense all right let's keep let's keep on going all right so thus for the people living today in the forest of the par Parana okay this is the Amazon forest the entire natural world is saturated with meaning and cosmological significance okay they feel that everything around them has life and it's all connected it's one unified hole okay every Rock and waterfall embodies a story plants and animals are but distinct physical manifestations of the same essential spiritual Essence okay we all come from the woman Shaman we all come from the mother goddess therefore we all have the spark of life in us and therefore we must be respected okay the plants and the animals all must be respected as much as we are respected at the same time effing is more than it appears for the visible world is only one level of perception behind every tangible form Tang means concrete physical okay every PL and animal is a shadow dimension a place invisible to Ordinary People but visible to the shaman so in other words our world is a world we can see but there are other worlds the Shadow Dimension which is more real which captures our Essence where the soul resides okay that's more real and it's a job of the shaman to see and communicate with this world this is the realm of the H Spirits a world of deified ancestors where rocks and rivers are alive plants and animals are human beings sap and blood the bodily fluids of the primor river of the anacon hidden in cataracts behind the physical veil of waterfalls in the very center of stones are the great malakas of the H spirit where everything is beautiful The Shining feathers the Coca the Calabash of tobacco powder which is in itself the skull and brain of the sun okay now reading this what what can we say about their religion what can we say about their religion that would be surprising to you okay first of all it's very imaginative right it's very imaginative they have a vivid imagination okay the other thing is that it's extremely sophisticated and complex so one major um Prejudice that we might have all these people is well they don't drive cars they don't have cell phones therefore they must be stupid but clearly from our understanding of their religious beliefs they're actually extremely imaginative and extremely sophisticated okay does that make sense guys all right so this is their shamans in religious practice okay what can we say about this picture what stands out about this picture what surprises you or what cap what catches your eye about them what what can we say about their beliefs based on this picture okay yeah so there's a lot of um there's a lot lot of thought put into what they wear right okay so again sophistication their clothing the way they dress suggests that this is a very sophisticated religion okay it's not like they just put on anything it's like it seems they put a lot of care and thought into what they wear okay that's the first thing what's the other thing what's the other thing excuse me well there AR that many of them there's three of them but what do you notice about the way they look in their bodies and the way they stand in relationship to each other what do you notice yeah um okay yeah I mean he probably has a higher status okay and he stands in the middle okay what else excuse me okay so um the so you're right in like okay if this is a tribe and all they're trying to do is hunt and eat food none of this makes makes any sense right but the main argument that I've been trying to tell you is like no their first priority is their religion okay so everything they do has a religious significance to it we don't know what it is they don't really speak our language but for them everything that they do must have a religious meaning okay so it's the religion that centers their life so the other thing I I would say is you can see there's some organization in order to it right so as you say the person the Elder stands in the middle okay and these two can you see the Symmetry okay it's clear that they are doing a religious ceremony and because of this religious ceremony requires their bodies to be a certain way in relation to each other it requires them to dress a certain way it requires them to say certain things okay clearly they are in prayer of some sort we call this the idea of ritual ritual is just the expression of religion in everyday practice in other words their lives are extremely ritualized meaning what they do every second has a religious meaning and religious significance okay does that make sense to you guys right so for example you come to school and you think your your life is very ordered right because maybe at 8:00 you start class and then when class starts the teacher takes attendance okay that's all ritual and then at 8:45 the bell rings and then you go off and get some water or something okay if you want to go to the restroom you have to raise your hand this is all what we call ritual so your lives are extremely ritual ized the thing about ritual is behind the ritual there has to be a belief system okay so for us the school we believe the system is set up so that you learn how to do well in life right you learn how to be on time you learn how to respect authority you learn how to read books Okay so this Society is in exactly the same way where every minute of their lives there's order and structure to what they do that has meaning and purpose okay does that make sense guys okay so uh let's talk about their ritual okay is to the realm of the ho spirit that the shaman goes in in ritual so the shaman is responsible for entering the world of the demons and negotiating and communicating with them okay that's his role that's why he has his power and authority contrary to popular law in the west the shaman of the barazana never uses or manip manipulates medicinal plants his duty and sacred pass is to move in the Timeless Realm of the hull embrace the primordial powers and harness and restore the energy of all creation he is like a modern engineer who enters the deaths of a nuclear reactor to renew the entire Cosmic order okay so if for example plants are dying outside what does this mean if plants are dying outside what does this mean the animals and plants are dying how can we fix a problem why are bad things happening bad things are happening because the spirits are unhappy right does that make sense so therefore you must go into the spirit world and understand why the spirits aren't unhappy and fix it okay and that's the role of the shaman and what this is saying is this what this is saying is that our world doesn't matter guys okay our world is insignificant what matters is the spirit world because the spirit world is what controls everything okay does that make sense guys okay among the barana such we knew is a fundamental obligation of the living in practice this implies that the barana see the Earth as potent the force as being alive with Spiritual Beings and incestual powers to live off the land is to embrace both its creative and destructive potential human beings plants and animals seeare the same Cosmic origin in a profound sense are seen as essentially identical responsive to the same princi obligated by the same duties responsible for the collective well-being of creation there is no separation between nature and culture without the forest and the rivers humans would perish without people the natural world would have no order or meaning all would be chaos dozen Norms that drive social behavior would have no order or meaning sorry would also Define the manner in which human beings interact with a wow the plants and animals the multiple phenomenon of the natural world lightning and thunder the Sun and the Moon the scent of a blossom the sou order of death okay so everything is connected with each other we're all equals okay does that make sense guys all right this is what we call animism all right so let's talk about hunting okay this is something we talked about last class if we are the same if we're if we are the same as animals and plants what allows us what gives us permission to kill other animals okay and this passage explains it when men go to the forest to hunt or fish it is never a trivial passage you you you you cannot just go and Hunt okay you need permission first the shaman must travel in trance to negotiate with the masters of the animals forging a mystical contract with the spirit Guardians in exchange based always on reciprocity okay reciprocity means give and take if I give you a present you must give me a present okay the Brana compared to marriage for hunting too is a form of courtship in which one seeks the blessings of a greater Authority for the honor of taking into one's family a precious being meat is not the right of a hunter but a gift from the spirit world to kill without permission is to risk death by a spirit Guardian be it in the form of a Jaguar an aona Tapo or harpy eagle okay this something that we discussed in the cave paintings why did they spend so much time painting these animals and we said this it's because they're trying to pay tribute to the animals right if I kill you I must thank you for taking your meat to replenish myself but I also must ask for your forgiveness otherwise the animal soul may seek Vengeance okay does that make sense so this is the essence of the religion if we hunt we must first pay tribute okay and that's and that's what explains katah hoic right okay the bull and the people before they go hunting they must tribute to all the animals okay this is TR and you also look at the cave paintings right they have all these cave paintings and what they celebrate is not themselves what they celebrate are the animals because it's the animals that give them life that give them nourishment and meat okay does that make sense so and you can see this in caves all around Europe and around the world okay all right as the ritual begins time collapses there are two series of dances separated by the Lial moments of the day dawn dusk and midnight okay so the shock in during the ritual is once needs to communicate with the animals in the spirit world okay to do that he changes he changes from fish to animal to human being and Back Again transcending every form becoming pure energy flowing among every dimension of reality past and present here and there Mythic and mundane his chance recall by name every point of geography met on the ancestral journey of the anaca okay so as you can see before the hunt the ritual is extremely elaborate sophisticated and complex and its main purpose is to celebrate the unity of life and to ask permission and to ask for forgiveness as the hunters go kill the animals okay does that make sense guys and again this explains okay so so the shamans will change into animals okay in order to better communicate with the animals and this explains all the cave paintings and how 40,000 years ago they were creating dolls of Shaman dressed as animals okay because for them this is what is true okay does that make sense guys all right so any questions far before I move on are you guys clear about what's going on okay all right now let's move to Africa okay we were in South America and there're still there today if you want to go visit that tribe you can do so okay now let's go to Africa and in Africa there's a group of people called the pygmies okay the pygmies um and there's a very famous book by an a British Anthropologist uh by the name of um Colin chbo okay and he discusses how the pig Mees practice the religious religious beliefs at the very center of the religion is something called the mimo okay which is a trumpet-like instrument and the mimo allows them to communicate with the forest it allows them to communicate with the spirit world and that's how they resolved every issue okay and um the mimo also captures the sound and spirit of the forest okay all right so um even though we are in a different part of the world we're in Africa and even though the pygmies have different religious beliefs than the people of the Amazon what you will discover what you will notice is that essentially the same religion okay the same idea that we are part of Nature and that our job is to help nature maintain balance and Harmony okay okay so what I want to do now okay is compare contrast the way we think today and how they thought before okay so let's read I had no idea of how far we had come or in what direction so he's following the group of pigs around as they hunt but I knew we had left the camp far behind it was the first time I had known a group of pygmies to be so silent normally unless hunting they are deliberately noisy but now just at the time that leopards would be prowling about in search of food they seem unwilling to do to disturb the forest or the animals it concealed just the opposite in fact it was as if they were a part of the silence and the Darkness of the forest itself and were only fearful lest any sound might betray their presence to some person or thing not of the forest they stood there quiet and still and it struck me with a sudden shock that not one of them carried a spear or bow and arrow as they peered into the dust and cocked their heads first on this side then on that satisfying themselves that we were really alone it seemed that they felt themselves so much AP part of the forest and of all the living things in it they had no need to fear anything except that which was not of the forest one of them said to me later when we are the children of the forest what need have we to be afraid of it we are only afraid of that which is outside the forest okay so what I want to do now is through by analyzing this passage passage explore how our minds are different from their minds okay so our mind is what we considered modern and their mind is what what we considered premodern okay what's the first major difference between I okay the British Anthropologist and how we think and how they think what's the first difference you you notice from this passage okay first of all what is the word that tells us that he doesn't really understand how these people think and behave what's the word that tells us he doesn't really understand these people this is actually a great sat question if you guys plan on taking the SAT okay there's a word in this passage that that tells us he is actually he is actually he doesn't really understand how these people think and feel what's the word shock right shock okay so he's surprised by their behavior why is he Sur surprised what confuses him anyone why what yes exactly okay why does that surprise him exactly okay so here's the first big difference why do we think the nature is dangerous why do they not think nature is dangerous what why why guys that's exactly right okay he thinks nature is dangerous because they're leopards they're Predators okay they don't think nature is dangerous what's the difference what's the difference okay the ma first major difference is this our minds think that we are separate from nature okay man versus nature man versus nature but they think they are part of nature okay so let me ask you this question why do we fear nature what makes us fear nature if I put you in a forest you're afraid why yes okay why are you afraid of the unknown okay you don't know what you encounter but why does that make you afraid okay why why would the unknown make you afraid what is that that we are obsessed with excuse me okay we're obsessed with control right we have to control everything we want to know something because we want we want to control it okay we like animals in the zoo right we do not like animals in the forest we we can control animals in the zoo we cannot control animals in the forest okay so we're obsess with control why aren't they afraid of nature what's their attitude what the pym's attitude we want to control nature but they they what therefore they okay the word where you the word is trust right trust they don't have to control nature because they trust nature they believe the leopard know them and they know the leopard okay does that make sense okay so that's the first major difference between our world and their world and we've been taught that nature is our enemy or nature is outside US whereas they believe that they are part of nature okay does that make sense guys all right let's move on all right so this is about their religious practice okay so they have a meal together and then they sing or they use the malomo to make noises and they sing and dance okay everyone ate his field as and when he pleased a couple of the older men saying they would wait until the youngsters had finished before they ate but they did not wait for long I was told however that everyone had to eat eat just as no adult male was allowed to sleep but to sing while malomo was singing was in progress Apparently one of the greatest crimes that the pygmy can commit if not the greatest is to be found asleep when the malomo is singing when the men stood up and miming as all pigments love to do he showed how they used to search for sleeping man a spear under each arm and how if they found one they would spear him in the stomach and kill completely and forever I was told that then his body would be buried under the k m okay the K is a great fire in which they practice their religion okay and nobody would be allowed to mention his death even to REM mark on his absence the woman would be told that the Momo itself the great animal of the of the forest had carry off one of their number but like the men they would ask no questions and would never again mention the missing men okay so in this world the greatest crime you can commit is not to kill someone but to sleep during the religion can someone explain why that's the case in this world okay the pygmy world the worst thing you can do is sleep why is that the case okay let's just say that we're having a class and one of you um is sleeping okay and I get so angry that I I want to kill that person why would I want to do that what's my logic it's disrespectful of what okay it's dis respectful of my authority that is true but then I just ask a person to leave my class right I shout that at that person but I want to kill that person why what's happened okay what is a classroom what's a classroom okay a place to study what else what are we doing now yeah but what is class what is what is classroom what allows a classroom to exist H what is the ritual we're practicing okay so classroom you can understand as the collective experience okay a classroom happens when everyone is participating in it does that make sense that's what makes a classroom alive so why would why would be angry if one of you one of you is sleeping but and why does that matter if you're sleeping what do you telling me yeah you it's not a classroom it's not real this discussion is not real it's pointless you understand so that's what's happening here they mmal singing the ritual it's meant for everyone to recognize that the religion is real it's more real than reality okay but if you're sleeping you're saying no guys this doesn't matter okay what we're doing does not matter and therefore what you're doing is you're not committing violence on one person you're committing violence on the community you're committing violence on the religion you're insulting the forest you're insulting the God does that make sense and that's the worst crime because reality happens this religion is only possible if everyone believes that it is true if you're sleeping it means you don't think it's true and therefore you are first of all rejecting the community right you're telling you're telling everyone you're all idiots okay second second is that you might endanger the community because you're insulting the forest okay does that make sense guys okay so for most of human of human history people take their religion extremely seriously so seriously that they think it's more real than reality as long as everyone believes in it it's true but if someone doesn't believe in it then we have to kill that person because if he doesn't believe in it then it might cause our religion to die okay does that make sense any questions so far any questions we're all clear right okay and what I'm trying to show you is the power of religion okay how once we have the religious imagin ation we can create things that are actually for us more real than reality okay so that's the second thing that's different about us from other human beings for most of human history we were spiritual okay we're spiritual meaning like we believe like the world of the spirits our soul it exists okay today the word we use is materialistic materialistic and the idea of materialistic is this if we cannot see it okay it's not real okay God can't be real because we can't find it the soul can't be real because we can't measure it imagination can't be real because we don't know where it comes from does that make sense and obviously okay obviously this idea of materialism is wrong how can you say the imagination doesn't exist but unfortunately we have structured our society around this idea all science okay when you go to science class they teach you this okay if it's real you can measure it you can see it you can feel it but for most of of of human history we didn't believe that we thought like okay there is a spiritual world and that matters just as much as reality okay in fact it matters Pro it probably matters more than reality okay so the so this is making sense right guys okay okay for a month I sat every evening at the Kam moo listening watching okay if I still had little idea of what was going on at least I felt that ear of importance and EXP and see every evening when the woman shut themselves up pretending that they were afraid to see the animal of the forest every evening when the men gathered around the for fire pretending they thought that the woman thought that the dream pites were animals every evening when the trumpet drum drain pipes imitated leopards and elephants and buffaloes every evening when all this make believe was going on I felt that something very real and very great was going on beneath it something that everyone else took for granted and about which only I was ignorant okay clearly he does he does not understand these people what word tells us he doesn't understand these people he doesn't know what's going on why what what word tells us this excuse me why is he ignorant there's a word in here that tells us he doesn't understand understand this people at all this word shows that there's a Chasm okay a huge difference between the pygmies and us what is this word what word would the pmics not use here they've be insulted by this word what's a word you use it over over again right there's a word here that's insulting no what word here in this passage would the pmies find insulting so if another teacher comes in to my class and he says wow your class is a lot of fun I've be insulted why I've be insulted why no well you guys have so much fun in this class you play a lot I've be insulted why ex me you yeah this is not study okay this is not serious academic work this is playing it has no significance no meaning right so what word implies that here it repeats itself over and over pretending right pretending we think they're playing what do they think we think they're pretending we think they're playing what do they think they think it's all true you understand for them their religion is more true than this world okay that's a power of the human imagination you can imagine a world and this world as long as many of you are Imaging it together it's more true more powerful more real than this world that's a power of religion okay what we call the religious imagination and we'll see this over and over again in human history okay does that make sense guys Okay so we've been taught that oh you can't see it it must be pretending it must be make believe but for most of human history for most people this is not playing this is not pretending it's true it's real it's what allows ows us to be close to God okay God is real this world we live in it's not real okay does that make sense guys all right okay so let's look at the last paragraph and then we'll finish and then we'll finish for the day he went on to tell that the pygmies called the malomo whenever things seem to be going wrong it may be that the is bad he said or that someone is ill or as now that someone has died these are not good things and we like things to be good so we call out the malimo and it makes them good as they should be okay so this is very similar to the shaman going into the spirit world when things are bad okay things are bad because the spirits AR happppy normally effing goes well in our world in our forest but at night when we are sleeping sometimes things go wrong because we are not awake to stop them from going wrong Army ANS invade the camp leopards may come in and steal a hunting dog or even a child if we were awake these things would not happen so when something big goes wrong like illness or bad hunting or death it must be because because the force is sleeping and not looking after its children so what do we do we wake it up we wake it up by singing to it and we do this because we want it to awaken happy then effing will be well and good again so when when our world is going well then also we sing to the forest because we wanted it to share our happiness okay do you understand so this is like them going to the spirit world and communicating with the spirits so it's almost the same religion okay maybe the details are different but the idea is the same the idea is that we're all interconnected animals plants humans all the same this is not the real world the spirit world the forest they're the real world and for us to maintain our health and our happiness and our safety we must always communicate with this other world and make sure they're happy okay does it make sense and because of this belief it means we shouldn't go to war with other people okay because because then that causes um Mayhem and Chaos in the spirit world our job is to maintain Harmony and balance in this world we're caretakers okay it means we should should not be in conflict with each other we should be equalitarian we should be equal because we're all from the same mother goddess we're all from the same Forest we're all from the same from the same woman Shaman okay it means we have to be artistic because we have to celebrate and worship the spirit world does that make sense okay so again for most of human history we were like this and even today in a lot of cultures around the world they're still like this so now the question is um what changed why do we have War why do we have hierarchy why do why do we have patriarchy why are men Superior to women why do some rich people have all the power okay this clearly goes against this religion and what I will show you um starting next class is the beginning of a new religion and how this new religion that worships wealth uh Power and War conquered everyone okay does that make sense okay any questions before we break anything you unclear about okay okay