Amazonian tribe turns missionary into atheist »
Posted By Coatl 9 months, 1 week ago in ReligionWhen Daniel Everett first went to live with the Amazonian Pirahã tribe in the late 70s, his intention was to convert them to Christianity. Instead, he learned to speak their unique language - and ended up rejecting his faith, losing his family and picking a fight with Noam Chomsky.
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Coatl
I'm a sotfware engineer here in Mty Mexico, I'm not entirely liberal nor conservative, I do like to know other's point of ...
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Coatl9 months, 1 week ago
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"Thirty years of living with the Pirahã has taught Everett that they exist almost completely in the present. Absorbed by the daily struggle to survive, they do not plan ahead, store food, build houses or canoes to last, maintain tools or talk of things beyond those that they, or people they know, have experienced. They are the "ultimate empiricists", he argues, and this culture of living in the present has shaped their language." -
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Coatl9 months, 1 week ago
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"It's wrong to try and convert tribal societies," he (Daniel Everett) says. "What should the empirical evidence for religion be? It should produce peaceful, strong, secure people who are right with God and right with the world. I don't see that evidence very often. So then I find myself with the Pirahã. They have all these qualities that I am trying to tell them they could have. They are the ones who are living life the way I'm saying it ought to be lived, they just don't fear heaven and hell." -
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Coatl9 months, 1 week ago
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" "If anything, they are superior in many ways to us. Thinking too much about the future or worrying too much about the past is really unhealthy. The Pirahã taught me that very lesson. Living in the moment is a sophisticated way to live. I don't see depression. I don't see some of the things that afflict our society - and that's not because they don't face pressures." -
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Coatl9 months, 1 week ago
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" Missionaries and government officials see Pirahã society as poor and seek to help by giving them money and modern technology. "The Pirahã aren't poor. They don't see themselves as poor," he says. He believes capitalism and religion are manufacturing desires. "One of the saddest things I've seen in Amazonian cultures is people who were self-sufficient and happy that now think of themselves as poor and become dissatisfied with their lives. What worries me is outsiders trying to impose their values and materialism on the Pirahã."" -
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lvrofwolvesComment removed: Spam
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BB649 months, 1 week ago
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A tribe turns a missionary into an atheist? Big deal. Serve as a Church Council President in the inner city. If you don't get mugged by your membership, change religions or become an atheist, you end up being locked away in the enchanted village....
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So the government and scientists feel it's better to leave them in the hunter gather's world. What happen when that world comes to an end? I think teaching them basic farming skills would be a prudent move.-
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Coatl9 months, 1 week ago
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You entirely missed the point of this article, they have a very simple live and they're happy with it, I think we the supposedly civilized world should stay away from them unless the asked us in.
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Having seen what happens when 2 completely different civilizatinos meet, I just dont' know if trying to change their wordlview by givng them the ideas of planning ahead (something needed for farming) it's a prudent move. History is full of stories of people making other's lifes worst by trying to "help".
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Coatl9 months, 1 week ago
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Well, atheists and agnostics are more close to each other than most people think. Some people when they have just left religion don't like to label themselves as atheist (myself included) because it's such a strong word (almost evil). But when you realize that if you live af if there's no god you're truly living an atheistic life, then you understand that athesim is not about being sure there's no god but about thinking the probabillity of a god to exist is small.
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