(THREAD)

Explanation of idol worship from a utilitarian perspective: https://twitter.com/BeingTheShakti/status/1304088612930121729

We 1st define 'superrationality': Kind of rational decision-making, different from the widely-accepted game-theoretical one. A player whose opponent is also superrational will cooperate in the Prisoner's dilemma problem, whereas a game-theoretically rational player will defect.

This means that in a scenario where cooperation is better than competition, a superrational strategy would almost always beat a competition based strategy. This is why we see Hinduism producing exceptional individuals but Islam producing stronger groups.

This happens because while exceptional individuals might have disagreements among them, thus dividing their combined strength, a superrational strategy combines the strength of all participating individuals. Hence, they win as a group and seldom as individuals.

Overall, superrationality is a feature of tribalism. What does idol worship have to do with it? Simple. It's a way to strengthen an individual's commitment to superrationality. Idol worship is composed of 2 parts: 'Idol' and 'worship'.

An idol is a physical representation of the divine. Worship means to love unquestioningly. Hence, idol worship is about loving unquestioningly the physical representation of what one considers divine.

When a group worships an idol, it establishes a common ground between the individuals, thus strengthening tribalism among them. This is why countries have flags. A US marine would die defending US flag and an Indian Army Jawaan would do it for the Indian flag. Why?

Because the flag is a physical representation of what these soldiers consider divine or sacred, i.e. a free and strong motherland. This is why, even though a flag is just a piece of cloth, the willingness of a soldier to not let it get burnt or destroyed, makes it indestructible.

Note that it is not the flag itself which is indestructible, but the faith a soldier has in it that makes it so. This is why a man who is attached to his mother would never spit on her photograph, even though a photograph is just a piece of paper.

Similarly, those who find themselves to be connected to the divine, and see an idol as its physical representation, protect it, find solace in its presence and make its worship a common ground with other individuals of the group, thus strengthening superrationality.

Given, these facts, it's easy to discern that tribes that used idol worship for bonding and rituals had greater cohesion and thus, greater success. Hence, idol worship is a feature that resulted from the complex adaptive nature of human struggle for thousands of years.

This is why idol worship was a common feature in all known natural religions, e.g. Ancient Romans, Egyptians, Indians, Mayans, Aztecs, Chinese, Japanese, African, etc. religions. As expected, it is absent in all reactionary religions (normative inversion). But is it truly?

Do Judaism, Christianity and Islam not have any 'objects' that are considered sacred or divine? Do they not love these 'objects'? The fact is that counter-religions require stronger tribalism than natural religions. Hence, their idols are also more 'sacred beyond question'.

That's why they chimp out when someone burns a book or draws the wrong person. These are nothing but their sacred idols, semantics be damned. They don't want to stop idol worship, they just want to stop YOUR idol worship. Their black stone is not an idol. Your Shiv Linga is.

But apart from its utility as an aid to tribalism (and superrationality), does idol worship have another use? Yes. Read on.

Question: Vajrabahu has some number of mangoes. He puts them in a cubical box, with equal number of rows, columns and shelves. When he gives away 2 shelves and 21 additional rows of mangoes, he's left with 18 mangoes. How many mangoes did Vajrabahu have at the beginning?

There's a caveat though. You cannot use algebra to solve the problem, i.e. you cannot assume that an answer exists and that you can represent the actual answer (truth) with a different physical representation i.e. a variable (an idol).

Now. How do you solve the question?

You can try but it's very hard to solve. You'll have to test for every natural number until you reach the answer, which is 216. On the other hand, if you assume that an answer exists & you represent it with x or y or a or p, etc., you can just write a polynomial eqn. & solve it.

What do we learn from this exercise?

1. It is does not matter whether we use x, y, a or p as the variable. The eqn. would look different but it would actually solve for the same problem and would present the same answer. That's why idol worship and polytheism are interconnected.

The variables i.e. the 'idols' can look different but that doesn't change the final ground truth for which we are making the philosophical inquiry.

2. If a simple question like this, which involves solution of polynomial eqn. cannot be solved without 'assuming that an answer exists' and 'its representation using a variable (read: idol)', how can one solve much tougher problems which involve multi-variable calculus?

Hence, using an idol as a physical representation of the ground truth allows our problem to be simplified. This in turn helps us solve much harder problems. An idol is a proof of one's clarity of thought and philosophical sophistication.

Thus, regions of abundance gave rise to natural religions/idol worship while regions of scarcity produced counter-religions. A reading of their 'holy' books shows lack of philosophical sophistication for this reason & makes their religion look like a collection of do's & dont's.

In summary, idol worship is an outcome of complex-adaptive human societies. It strengthens superrational behaviour, thus ensuring civilizational longevity. It provides clarity needed to solve tough problems and is a sign of philosophical sophistication, found in ancient cultures.