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@@ -691,3 +691,8 @@ sub { padding: 1.5rem; margin: 2rem 0; } + +.hidden { + display: none; +} + diff --git a/blog.css b/blog.css new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e28fc4f --- /dev/null +++ b/blog.css @@ -0,0 +1,5 @@ +.p-summary { + font-style: italic; + font-size: 80%; +} + diff --git a/blog/2024/01/14/sapiens_on_religion/index.html b/blog/2024/01/14/sapiens_on_religion/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..686b506 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/2024/01/14/sapiens_on_religion/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,128 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en-GB"> + <head> + <meta charset="utf-8" /> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/reset.css" /> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/base.css" /> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/hcard.css" /> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/blog.css" /> + <title>Hariri’s Sapiens on Religion | joeac’s blog</title> + </head> + + <body> + <article class="h-entry"> + <aside> + <p>This is a blog post by <a class="p-author h-card" href="/">Joe Carstairs</a></p> + <p>He wrote it on <time class="dt-published" datetime="2024-01-14">the 14<sup>th</sup> of January, 2024</time></p> + <p>Go back to his <a href="/blog">blog</a> if you like</p> + <p><a class="u-url uid" href="https://joeac.net/blog/2024/01/14/sapiens_on_religion">Permalink</a></p> + </aside> + + <h1 class="p-name">Harari’s <i>Sapiens</i> on Religion</h1> + <p class="p-summary"> + In which I discuss why I think Harari’s characterisation of religion + is inadequate because it’s too materialistic. + </p> + + <div class="e-content"> + <p> + I’ve been slowly re-reading Yuval Noah Harari’s 2014 classic, + <a href="https://www.ynharari.com/book/sapiens-2">Sapiens</a>, + which apart from being ridiculously over-scoped and hilariously + under-evidenced, is proving delightfully entertaining. + </p> + + <p> + I’ve just finished chapter 12, covering the world history of all + religion in thirty pages. Of course, at that level of brevity, + there will be many deficiencies. But here’s some thoughts - not + terribly well organised - which stand out to me. + </p> + + <p> + Hurari generally assumes a materialist metaphysic (a problem which + blights the book more generally). Nothing exists except physical stuff. + This gives him severe tunnel vision. As a consequence of this + restricting metaphysic, he is forced to adopt limiting accounts of what + the role of religion is in world history, and therefore what religion is. + </p> + + <blockquote> + <p> + The crucial historical role of religion has been to give superhuman + legitimacy to [all social orders and hierarchies]. + </p> + <p>…</p> + <p> + Religion can thus be defined as <em>a system of human norms and + values that is founded on a belief in a superhuman order</em>. + </p> + <footer>p. 234</footer> + </blockquote> + + <p> + It might seem a little unfair to criticise Harari for giving a + materialist account of religion. <i>Sapiens</i> is, after all, a + materialist world history. + </p> + + <p> + But this account is just one extreme example of how that project, to + give a materialist account of world history, will inevitably lack the + metaphysical resources to really understand the human story. + </p> + + <p> + On Harari’s view, any human enterprise which attempts to understand + that which transcends direct human experience is at best an effort in + imaginative story-telling. All scientific theory, theology, ethics and + metaphysics either contorted out of all recognition into a pragmatic + fiction or is cast to the flames. + </p> + + <p> + In particular, it’s a view which is incapable of taking seriously some + of the most important questions human beings have grappled with in the + course of their history. Those who know me won’t be surprised at which + ones I’m going to pick out: who was the being which made their covenant + with Abraham? How is that promise being fulfilled? And who the heck was + Jesus of Nazareth? + </p> + + <p> + If Harari’s characterisation of religion is adequate - and the Abrahamic + faiths come under that banner - then those questions are reduced to + nothing more profound than Doctor Who fans arguing over ‘canon’. The + question of who God is becomes a mere tool for the organisation of + society, rather than a substantial and important question on a matter + of fact. + </p> + + <p> + This is a shortcoming for its own sake: a materialist account of + religion cannot adequately account for the phenomenon of religion + itself. + </p> + + <p> + But it is also a shortcoming even by its own lights. Without giving + serious consideration to the substantial matter of what Harari calls + ‘religion’ (which, to his mind, includes the Abrahamic faiths, + Hinduism, paganism, animism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Confucianism, + capitalism, communism and Nazism), even the material facts are + inexplicable. Why would, as Harari is keen to point out, out, people + fight and die over and over again for a fiction? + </p> + + <p> + The material facts themselves prove that ‘religion’ as he construes it + is not window dressing to the real story of history. It cannot merely + serve as a mechanism in the churning of material history. It is itself + the centre of the story. + </p> + </div> + </article> + </body> +</html> + diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..86e8b1a --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en-GB"> + <head> + <meta charset="utf-8" /> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/reset.css" /> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/base.css" /> + <link rel="stylesheet" href="/hcard.css" /> + </head> + + <body> + <section class="h-feed"> + <h1 class="p-name"> + My blog + </h1> + + <aside> + <p> + This blog is written by <a class="p-author h-card" href="/">Joe Carstairs</a> + </p> + + <p> + <a class="u-url" href="https://joeac.net/blog">Permalink</a> + </p> + </aside> + + <ul> + <li> + 2024 + <ul> + <li class="h-entry"> + <a class="u-url p-name" href="/blog/2024/01/14/sapiens_on_religion"> + Harari’s <i>Sapiens</i> on Religion + </a> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </section> + </body> +</html> + @@ -48,6 +48,35 @@ </p> </div> </section> + + <section class="h-feed"> + <h2 class="p-name"> + My blog + </h2> + + <aside> + <p class="hidden"> + This blog is written by <a class="p-author h-card" href="/">Joe Carstairs</a> + </p> + + <p> + <a class="u-url" href="https://joeac.net/blog">Permalink</a> + </p> + </aside> + + <ul> + <li> + 2024 + <ul> + <li class="h-entry"> + <a class="u-url p-name" href="/blog/2024/01/14/sapiens_on_religion"> + Harari’s <i>Sapiens</i> on Religion + </a> + </li> + </ul> + </li> + </ul> + </section> </body> </html> |