Религиозные ритуалы древности и современность: почему мы всё ещё молимся о милости богов

During this month, we are being inundated with promotions for the soon-to-be-released movie, The Odyssey. I hope that whatever the merits of this film, it will inspire some to read Homer’s work, as it is rich with insights about the human condition, including insights about religion. Consider this passage (from Book III, lines 418–460, translation by Richard Lattimore) in which Nestor offers a sacrifice to Athena: Act quickly now, dear children, and do me this favor, so that I may propitiate Athene … let one man go to the field for a cow, so that she may come with all speed … Steadfast Thrasymedes stood by with the sharp ax in his hand, to strike down the heifer. Perseus held the dish for the blood … and the aged horseman Nestor began with the water and barley, making long prayers to Athene … Thrasymedes … struck, and the ax chopped its way through the tendons of the neck and unstrung the strength of the cow … . They lifted the cow from the earth [and] slaughtered her. Now when the black blood had run out … they divided her into parts, and cut out the thigh bones all according to due order, and wrapped them in fat, making a double fold, and laid shreds of flesh upon them. The old man burned these on cleft sticks, and poured the gleaming wine over. Many in our present day tend to sneer at the ancients, ridiculing their polytheism and some of their rituals, but the fact is that a core feature of Greek religion, as well as that of other ancient religions, remains a central feature of religions today, especially the Abrahamic religions: the notion that we must placate God, begging him for favorable outcomes. Indeed, the notion that God demands sacrifice is the defining characteristic of Christianity. God sacrificed his son (which, confusingly, is also himself), torturing him on a cross to atone for humanity’s sins. This is not mere metaphor, but rather the central doctrine of Christianity. Indeed, Jesus is often depicted as a sacrificial lamb, known as the Paschal Lamb, in Christian art and literature, and, in a macabre tradition, many in Europe still make Paschal Lamb cakes at Easter, to commemorate the sacrifice, with a red ribbon around the lamb’s neck symbolizing the blood Jesus shed for us. Of course, Christianity inherited the view that God demands sacrifice from Judaism. The Torah has many examples of animal sacrifice (and one can interpret the Abraham/Issac sacrifice myth as a condemnation of child sacrifice that must have flourished at one time), and ritual animal sacrifices continued until the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. Similarly, Islam, reflecting its borrowing from Judaism, obligates Muslims to engage in animal sacrifice. See, e.g., Surah 22, verses 33–36. But the view that the deity is a being who must be propitiated extends beyond literal blood sacrifice. Petitionary prayer accompanied animal sacrifice, but it can stand on its own as a means of appeal to God, and among most believers today this is the most common means of demonstrating obeisance to God and begging for his favor. That the relationship of believer to God is that of a lowly supplicant is amply demonstrated by the prescribed posture for prayer: on one’s knees, if not completely prostrate. And, of course, the longer and more frequently one prays for X, the more likely the prayer might be granted. One glaring problem for the practice of petitionary prayer—at least for those who actually think about the logic of the practice—is that an all-knowing, benevolent, timeless deity for whom the future is already present (the standard portrayal of God by theologians) will have granted, or denied, one’s petition before one falls to one’s knees. The prayer is otiose. But logic and religion are cut from entirely different cloths. The latter is an atavistic hangover from our past, when our lack of understanding of how the world works, as well as our instinctive concern for our survival, caused us to resort to supernatural explanations for storms, floods, drought, disease, and unexpected deaths. This was combined with the modeling of our gods on how humans react: you want a powerful person’s favor, you provide a gift and beg. No, there is no call to sneer at the ancients. They represent the infancy of humanity—an infancy that most inhabitants of Earth have not yet outgrown. Whether they ever will remains an open question. Editor’s note: This will be my last column as I am soon leaving the post of editor. Given that the title for my series of columns is “Unprayerful Reflections,” I thought it fitting to end the series with a reflection on prayer. Interestingly, as a historical note, the first article from me that Free Inquiry published dealt at some length with the topic of petitionary prayer. See Free Inquiry, Summer 1984, pp 6–7, “Why Do Kids Need to Pray?”