It's the giant snake god!
The rock carving was found in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. Red spear points were found near the site which may signify there was a complex rule set for the cult. To give some background, humans were scattered around in Africa at this time and were also just beginning to penetrate the Mideast.
This discovery is big. Some evolutionary biologist, including Richard Dawkins with his book God Delusion, have argued the idea of a higher being and religion are by-products from the latter days of evolution. The giant snake runs counter to this argument (yet does not discredit the idea). The find advances the theory that religion is a part of human nature. Some deep thoughts to chew on... (and if cosmology is not your thing, just enjoy thinking about a giant snake idol!)
Hat Tip: Evangelical Catholicism
7 comments:
Pardon my Archaeological ignorance, but I don't a snake in that picture!
The snake is "hiding in plain sight" as the saying goes, it took me a second to notice also. See the log tubular thing? That's the snake!
Are you sure they aren't worshiping a GIANT wee-wee?
Note: edited for content
Anon,
While the male phallus has long been a symbol of power and modelled as such in ancient cultures, I'm going with the archaeologists on this one.
ha ha ha snake god. Fox News. Funny.
Even if it were a "snake god" statue doesn't that just add one more superstition to a pantheon of thousands? So people were idiots a few years earlier. Big whoop.
You sound desperate. Are the gaps where you can place these supposed gods getting a little small?
Anon,
?
i always find it amusing how the hardcore atheist crowd are so elective in the evidence they present in their arguments :D
It's been established by more than one study that there is a location in the brain hardwired to respond to spirituality, most commenters on the formation of human civilization hold that it was religion and spirituality (enhanced through the judicious application of psychoactive compounds that lead to the first formation of human civilization, temples are amongst the most prominent structures we see in proto-civilizations... the list goes on.
I just wish that atheists had a better spokesman than Dawkins really, because his sole argument is that he resents his parents dragging him to church as a child...
Post a Comment