Predictive History - The Story of "Civilization", "Secret History", "Game Theory" and more - Civilization #2: Religion and the Dawn of Society

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Civilization #2: Religion and the Dawn of Society

Okay, to review last class we discussed three pre-historical sites, right? Including Goboletepe, Jericho, and Kana Hoiak. And the argument I made to you last class, which is the general scholarly consensus, is that what drove, what compelled the transition to agriculture was, was the religious beliefs of the people at that time. So it was humanity's religious impulse that drove our transition into agriculture. What I will show you today, okay, my argument to you today is that this religious impulse, this need for religion, this need to understand why we are here today, and what we must be doing and where we're going, it's always been there, okay?

In fact, religion is what makes us fundamentally human. And to prove this case, I'm going to talk about Ice Age cave paintings. So I ask you to look at these cave paintings that we found all around the world, okay? That go back 30,000, 40,000 years. And as you can see from those pictures, be beautiful, right? and they're extremely creative, artistic. And so I want to look at three questions about the cave paintings today. First of all, how were they painted?

They didn't have the technology we have today, so how do they paint these cave paintings? Second question is, why did they do this? Because when you're in a cave, it's very dark, it's very cold, and it's very hard to breathe. but they spend days in there painting them. So why do they do that? That's the second question.

The third question is, and the hardest question is, what do these cave paintings represent or what do they mean? So the first caveat, the first thing I want you to be aware of is that there's absolutely no agreement on any of these questions. Cave paintings is something that

We have a lot of around the world, but there's very little evidence as to what they are, what they represent, and how they were painted. So there are a lot of guesses, okay? And the case that I will present to you today is my own personal interpretation based on my research and my understanding of the evidence. But please be aware that there are many different interpretations and the different interpretations. evidence is extremely unclear about many of these things okay so let's start the first thing you need to understand is that for most of human history it's been very cold okay so the ice age only ended about 12,000 years ago and we've seen a general warming of the planet which is a which has allowed us to

adopt agriculture But before then, we're basically living on a very cold planet. Now, the history of humanity is this. 300,000 years ago, we came into being in Africa. But because the world became very cold, about 100,000 years ago, that met a scarcity of resources. And that forced us to seek food and resources elsewhere. elsewhere and so that drove our movement into Europe which then drove our movement into

Asia and then across the Bering Strait remember because this is all ice right into North America and into South America and then from Asia we went down to Australia okay so we basically colonized the planet but there were that many of us there's only about one million of us all around the world 20,000 years ago And the other thing to remember is that in this process, there are actually other human beings in other places. So the Neanderthals were here, the Neasovans were here, and we interbred with them until we became the dominant human species. Okay? So does that make sense? All right, so that's the background.

Now, let's look at some cave paintings. Because this is in the Shovel Cave, and this started about 30,000 years ago. So these cave paintings were a continuous process where different people at different times went to the caves and painted different pictures. They might have added more things to the pictures as well. But as you can see, this is clearly representing animals, right? Bison's rhinoceros. The other thing that's interesting about these paintings is, that there's really no focus okay you see lions you see horses you see rhinos okay

it's almost like nature is one interconnected picture okay these are lions okay this is lecoqqqa about 20,000 years ago and the most in a very famous artist Papa Picasso actually was in invited into one of these caves and he said that, wow, we learned nothing in 10,000 years, meaning that they were just as good back then as they are today. Artistically speaking, humans have not improved at all. So these are horses, okay? This is Altamara, Spain, which goes back to 34,000 BCE.

And you can see that they're not looking for a realistic depiction of animals, okay? They're trying to imagine the natural world in their own way. So another question then is, okay, how did they paint these pictures? So first of all, they mainly use red and black. Red came from ochre, which is a type of clay, and black. comes from a charcoal. So that's the coloring they used. Inside a cave, it's very dark.

So they had to use lighting, okay? So what they did was they got some animal fat and put fire on it, okay? So they could see some of the caves, but not all of them. And then, so another question is, Why did they paint these pictures? And a lot of the clue is this. A lot of the clue is where we found these paintings.

We found these paintings in a very special place in the cave. We found these paintings in the cave, the section of the cave where the acoustics was the best, the sound was the best. So what this means is we're fairly convinced that these paintings, paintings were part of a ritual which included music because we found musical instruments as well, flutes, okay? So in other words, we think that these paintings are like Gopo Tepae, which is like maybe now and then,

these hunter-gathers would calm into this cave for a religious festival where there's music, dancing, okay? And there are watching these paintings together. So these paintings are part of a religious festival. In other words, these paintings are not about art. It's really about religion. It's expressing the religious beliefs of the people at that time. So does this make sense, guys? All right.

Yes. Okay, so I'm going to answer a question, what are the beliefs right now okay all right so again no one knows what their beliefs are because they wrote nothing down okay they are pre-literate we can't go back in time and talk to them okay so we have to use our imagination so let's imagine that we go back in time to this time it's very cold and our memories have been wiped out meaning like we've lost the of today. We've lost science, we've lost what we learn in biology class, okay? So my first question is, we're in this world and what are things that amaze us,

or make us wonder, or make us in awe, what are things that capture our imagination? Okay? Meaning like we see these things and we're like, oh my God, God must exist because there's no way I can explain what happened. What are these things that we would see and we would be surprised by, be marveled at, basically be an all-all? What are the things about our life that amazes us? What's the first thing that we can think of? What's the first thing?

You're in this world, right? Use your imagination. What's one thing that's like, oh, okay, there must be a god, or there must be some supernatural powers that govern our world. what's the first thing that comes to mind? How about childbirth? Childbirth, right? Does that make sense to you guys?

Because I'm a father, I have three kids. And I can tell you, when I first saw my child being born, I was amazed. Because you have this life come out of nothing, right? And if you don't, if you never say biology, you can't explain what happened. So that's the first thing that amazes about, amazes us about being human childbirth, right? What's the second thing that would amaze you if you were back here?

Yeah? Child growing up, okay, so child growing up, yes. What else? How about, yeah? Okay, how about the stars, right? It's late at night, and remember, there's no pollution. So you see out into the darkness, and it's all stars glowing, right?

That's pretty amazing. So what do you think these stars are? You're staring into other space, right? And you see these stars glowing brightly in the sky. What are they? What's your own explanation, really? Do you mean? Okay, possibly, okay?

Possibly souls or other worlds, okay? Planet, worlds. In other words, the first thing that you recognize is that our world is just one of many world out there. Does it make sense? All right? What else amazes you about the world? Excuse me?

Okay, recovery from disease, okay, so healing, right? How do you explain healing then? What thoughts save you? Oh, the God save you. Okay. All right, yeah, okay. So there are some supernatural powers. But another way to explain healing, okay,

is that you have a body and you have a soul, right? And the soul could be one of the stars. So what's causing disease in this world is the soul and the body are in conflict. And so healing is about bringing the soul and the body aligned together, okay? And we think this because look at Chinese medicine,

right it's the same idea right with a soul in the body are in conflict right and you want to align it to you in order to heal okay so what so other things that were surprised you is nature right the animals the trees the vastness of nature okay now these are things that surprise us and they force us to ask the question why So now let's try to construct a theory of how to connect all these things, okay? All right. So we know that the stars, there's other powers out there, right? There has to be gods or the soul of really great people or other planets or other worlds, okay?

How does childbirth happen then? How does childbirth happen? What is the womb? It comes from the womb, right? What's the womb then? A portal, a door, right? So what the womb is, is a portal that the soul comes from another world into our world. Does that make sense?

Then how do people return to the other world? If the womb is a portal that allows souls to come into our world, how do these souls return to their world again? But what do they do in death? How do we... So people die and then? Burial, thank you. Do you understand? So this is symmetry, right?

The soul comes into our world from the mother's womb, from darkness, and then for us to return the... soul back into the original world we bury this person in darkness and that carries that person back to the original world okay does that make sense okay so this is probably the simplest explanation for how life and death works okay all right so these there are these portals okay and what in nature most resembles a womb What in nature most resembles a womb? A mother's womb? Like a cave, right?

Do you understand? A cave. So we can think that, okay, we humans come from a mother's womb, which is a cave, right? A tunnel. But animals also come from a womb, which is a cave, okay? So the cave is a portal into another world. So why are we in the cave celebrating animals?

Why are we doing that? Why are we in a cave celebrating animals? What are we really doing? We respect what? We respect the soul and what else are we doing? Because why are we respecting their soul? Yeah, we kill them, right? So we kill them, and we respect them,

now what are we trying to do let them forgive us but what else are we really trying to do once we eat them what what what must we do now to me yes bring them back right you understand so we kill them we think they go back they go back into the spirit world right so now we have to summon them back from the spirit world into our world okay does that make sense so in other words what this religion what this belief is really saying is that we are all interconnected and for every action that we make we have to do something else to compensate for action okay so if we kill an animal for to eat the meat then we need to ask

forgiveness and then bring this animal back in the spirit world to maintain balance and harmony in nature doesn't make sense guys okay so Why is it in this world there's balance in harmony? Why do we think there's balance in harmony? Because what gives life to everything? What's the force that gives life to everything? The mother goddess, right? Mother nature. Okay?

And so if we think that there's one force, the mother goddess, that gives life to everything, that means that for us, trees, animals, us, are all equal. We're all the children of Mother Nature. We all have souls, okay? And so what gives us permission to kill other animals? Why are we allowed to kill other animals? The other animals are brothers and sisters, right?

So what gives us permission to kill the other animals? Why are we allowed to do so? Okay, because Mother Nature, Mother God has a plan, okay? Each thing on this planet has a thing planet has a function the function is to maintain balance in harmony if we do not kill the other animals we will die okay but also if you don't kill the other animals they'll be there'll be too many of them you understand so in other words the world is a cycle it's a circle and each person each animal has a part to

play in this as long as we play our part then the world will be harmonious and balance and perfect okay does that make sense okay but does that make sense guys okay so um we have actually a word for this religion and this word is um animism okay animism and what atomism is it's a very it's probably the first religion okay and it's a belief that each living thing whether it's a tree A mosquito, a person, or anything that's living, has a soul. Okay? And we're all interconnected because we all have souls. And so we must maintain balance and harmony. And so many of the print of religions, okay, if you go to talk to native people in North America and South America and Australia,

they all have this belief. But also there are many religions such as Buddhism which also has this belief okay and we believe that this is the first religion okay so let's go over some evidence that this is in fact what they believed okay so a recent discovery that we made is that trees talk to each other you guys don't you guys know this so what happens is that trees, there are maybe thousands of trees in the forest, and their roots are connected through mushrooms, for fungi. And this allows them to share information.

So for example, what we know is that if one tree in one part of the forest lacks nutrients, like water, okay, the other trees will send nutrients to that tree. Doesn't make sense, okay? So it's almost like the forest is one big brain or one big living organism and they're all trying to communicate with each other. Another thing that we've discovered is that if there are pests or insects that attack one tree, okay?

This tree will automatically communicate to the other trees and these trees will start to prepare for the pest or the attack, okay? And the third thing, which is the most most interesting is that trees will recognize their own children so if the children these children trees need nutrients the mother trees will send the nutrients to the children right away okay does that make sense so this is something that we've recently discovered but if you think about it if you're

living back then you can sense the you can see sense almost how trees communicate because you're always in touch with nature Okay, does that make sense? All right. This is a page painting and You can see that these Animals okay, gazelles, they're going somewhere and there are two beings here. Okay, we believe that these two beings are represent the mother goddess because as we discussed last class the mother goddess comes in the form of a bird right the bird flies around the sky the sky is the mother goddess okay so it's almost like the mother goddess is channeling or

herding the animals from the spirit world back into our own world what you also notice is that these birds almost like humans okay and so we what we think is that the shamans dress up like birds in order to channel the energy of the mother goddess to control the animals okay okay and there's actually a lot of evidence for this so this is clearly an animal but this is also also a person who's an animal who's a human being right because of the figure so these are human being shamans who dress up like in order to better communicate with animals,

but also to better communicate with the spirit world. Okay? And this is actually a more clearer picture of shamans trying to access the spirit world. Okay. Are we clear so far? So, from this religion, we can guess that the people back then were extremely compassionate.

They believed that everything has a source. thing has a soul and every life is precious okay and one evidence for this is this this is a skeleton what's interesting about the skeleton is that it's a dwarf okay so there are some humans back then who are born with diseases or handicaps or physical deformities this person is a dwarf Now, this is interesting because dwarfs aren't able to contribute that much to your community, right? So as a hunter-gatherer, you need to hunt together to access meat, to get meat, to feed everyone. If you're a dwarf, you're not really doing that much. So in theory, because it's such a harsh life, being a hunter-gatherer, you would think that they would think that they would

would discard the dwarf, kill the dwarf, or maybe leave the dwarf behind, okay? But from DNA analysis, what we know is this. This skeleton, okay, this person had the same amount of food, the same quality of food as everyone else, meaning that even though this person was not cute. contributing to the community, everyone worked hard to make sure this person was treated well and was fed as well as everyone else. And at the end of this person's life, he was granted an elaborate burial, okay? And we know this from the archaeological research, yeah?

Yeah, okay. Okay, does that make sense, guys? All right, so let me ask you this question. Let's make the assumption that he was in fact contributing to the community. How could he contribute to the community? How? They clearly thought he was special, but what made him special? If you're a dwarf, you can't hunt, what can you do?

Do you mean? Okay, okay, but what else can you do? food why would they why would they think he was a special person what could he do that others couldn't do yeah mm-hmm thank you okay so maybe the religion back then is that everyone is special everyone's the same right so you're different it means it doesn't mean you're less special it means you're more special it means that the monog goddess has given you a special power And maybe this power is to communicate with the spirit world, okay?

So maybe the cave paintings, as you say, were done by people like this, who were in a constant state of meditation with the spirit world. And that's what inspired him to create the cave paintings. Okay? Because clearly, if you look at the cave paintings, they were done by a special mind. And if you are a dwarf, you clearly see the world in a different way. And being a dwarf, it makes the most sense to be a shaman, not only because people think you're special, but because you can invest time into meditation, into religious practice that enables you to communicate with a spirit world.

Okay? Does that make sense? Okay. And not only that, but what we found, is that there are many burials like this, okay? So this is a passage from the dawn of everything, which is a fantastic book, okay, by David Graber and David Wengro. They're both anthropologists. And this is a fantastic book, okay?

But this is a passage from the book. So Roman II is the dwarf. He goes like 10,000 years, okay? And it was a pretty elaborate burial. And as this paragraph says, we know he ate exactly the same food as everyone else. He was not discriminated against in any way. And the last passage here is neither is rheumatole and isolated case. We have many examples of this.

When archaeologists undertake balance of praisos of hunter-gathered burials from the Paleolithic, meaning the Ice Age, they find high frequencies of health-related disabilities. Okay, so the people who are buried tend to be the ones who are disabled. They have some form of disease Which makes us think that maybe they're shamans. Okay, they were paid to be shamans because hundred-gathered fought you're different therefore you must be special Therefore the mother goddess favors you, okay? And high levels of care until the time of death sometimes their funerals were remarkable markedly lavish which meant that they were prioritized by the community they were

highly valued by the people around them okay the best explanation is well they were shamans there were people who could access the spirit world and communicate with it okay doesn't make sense guys all right any more quite any questions before I move on all right now what another another amazing thing that we found about ice ice age cave paintings is that they have symbols okay so so we saw pictures but a Canadian anthropologist named Genevieve von Pettinger she went on the world and she documented symbols in these ice age cape paintings and she found recurring symbols for example the hand okay

The hand is everywhere. The spiral, the quadrangle, the circle, the asterisk. Let me ask you this question. Why would paintings have symbols? Why would drawings have symbols? Why can you just draw the thing? Why do you need have symbols? Okay, so you're right, okay?

So we think that this is a written language. It's one of the first written languages, which meant that back then they actually had the ability to read and write okay so maybe this is a common language what are some other possibilities why would you want to use symbols in a painting to keep the kind of mysterious okay that's interesting okay to keep the content mysterious and so what so where do these symbols come from to keep the kind of mysterious right you have these symbols in their secret signs where where the secret signs from I know but but but where do they believe they got the

signs from okay do you understand okay so another theory okay again we don't know okay no one knows but like let's look at different theories another theory is that this is the language of the gods right as you say to keep the caught mysterious to give it divine or holy or sacred meaning okay does that make sense Okay? What are some other possibilities? Yes, exactly. Yeah.

So this can also be a shorthand, okay? We call this shorthand. But also, like, there's some things you can't draw. For example, love or energy, or repetition, or balance, harmony, cycle, right? These things you can't draw. So you have to represent them using symbols. Okay? So there are many different possibilities.

Which means this, okay? Let's just summarize what the possibilities are. One of the symbols in art, okay? The first is that maybe you're trying to visualize an idea. You can't draw energy or life force or cycle repetition, so you just have to use a symbol to represent it, okay? Which means what? Which means that each picture is a mythology.

It's a story, okay? Do you understand? The pictures aren't trying to show you a picture, they're trying to tell you a story about the world. That's why symbols are important. Because in the story, there are ideas that you cannot visually express. Does that make sense?

Okay? That's the first thing. Second thing is that you're trying to visualize the language of the spirit world. So this goes back to making the content mysterious. Why do we think this? The answer is this. We think that when they drew

the way to access a spirit world is to use drugs, okay, what we'll call psychedelics. So, in other words, there are certain plants that if you drink, okay, it makes you see things. And the things they see are, in fact, the symbols, the geometric signs. So in other words, they went to the spirit world, or they think they went into the spirit world, and then they're just trying to express the language of the spirit world okay does that make sense all right so this is a complicated idea okay but I want to introduce this idea to you like how we perceive or how we understand reality so for most of human history we thought that oh reality was just reality and we are trying just trying to see reality okay reality is something that you must

see and then along came a philosopher and he's a very famous philosopher I want you I want you to remember the name but his name is Emmanuel Kant okay and he is considered the greatest philosopher whoever lived Emmanuel Kant German and his idea is this his idea is that reality is not something that we experience or we see reality is something that we imagine that we create with our mind. The example he uses is time and space. Okay?

The idea of time, like one, two, three, four, it does not exist in nature. It's not, it doesn't exist, okay? It's something that we, our minds, made up. So our reality is something that we imagine every day. Okay, does that make sense? Now, what's really interesting is, is that Emmanuel Kant was writing maybe over 20 years ago okay and today we have a new

science called neuroscience okay neuroscience is the study of the brain and what's really amazing okay and we will discuss this in future classes is that neuroscience has confirmed Emmanuel Kant meaning like we now know that the brain imagines reality okay it projects reality it doesn't make sense So what drugs do is they change the structure of your brain so that you see a different reality. Okay, doesn't that make sense, guys? So that's what drugs do. And so when they see a different reality, maybe they're seeing symbols, okay?

So that's the second thing about symbols in art. Now, last thing is these symbols are mysterious, right? And mystery makes things sacred and divine. right so back to childbirth childbirth is something that back then they couldn't understand therefore they have to believe that child birth is sacred and divine and therefore women are sacred and divine because only women are able to give birth men are allowed to give birth okay so back then we believe that for most of human history either we were egalitarian

meaning like men and women were equal or woman had more power than men only in recent history do men have more power okay and how this happened I'll explain to you next week okay but just remember like back then there was no separation of sexes if anything women were considered superior to men remember like the god is a mother goddess a female and therefore women are more special than men and they know this because women give birth not men okay and childbirth is mysterious does that make sense okay so we understand symbols and art as doing these three things now we have a more comprehensive or complete understanding of why they did art okay the first reason

is what they're trying to do is trying to visualize their mythology okay they're trying to take this idea their understanding of how the world works the religion and they're trying to visualize it okay so art is basically religion there's no difference second thing is that they're trying to show to themselves how reality works okay they're trying to show that the underlying reality is a soul or god okay the Does that make sense? The last thing, which is the most important is, they're trying to create a common memory and imagination,

a language, mythology that they all share together. And this is what we call society. Does that make sense? So in other words, okay, the argument I'm trying to make you, the argument I'm trying to make to you today is, one, religion has always been there since the dawn of humanity okay that's the first second thing is that religion allows us to communicate with each other to be together in society so the third thing

the third thing is religion is what allows us to be fundamentally human but religion we could not be human we could not think we cannot communicate we could not imagine Doesn't make sense, guys. Okay, any questions about this? Okay, now let's look at a quote. Okay, what is religion? Okay, and this is from Imel Durham, okay?

And I want to remember the name, Imel Durkham, okay? He's just as famous at Immanuel Kott. Imel Durkham is considered the founder of sociology. Okay, so when you go to university and you study South sociology, guess what? you'll mainly be studying Imel Dorcom, okay? So this is what he says about religion. Religion is above all, first and foremost, religion is this,

a system of idea by which men imagine society of which they are members, okay? It's to create society, and the obscure yet intimate relations they have of it, okay? Religion is a way for them to understand the world. understand the world all right does that make sense guys all right so let's look at what he says again in more detail okay so the great service that religions have rendered to thought is to have constructed a first representation of

the relations of kinship between things might be okay so what this is saying is that religion allows us to construct an under understanding of the world. Okay, so basically the first religion was this, right? And this is just a fear of the world. This is important because from this theory, we are able to construct more theories. All right.

Given the conditions in which it was tried, that enterprise could obviously lead only to make-shift results, meaning that, okay, well, listen, Religion, it's all about guessing. It's all about hypothesizing, okay? So, you know, a lot of these ideas aren't going to work out. That doesn't matter. But then are the results of any such enterprise ever definitive

and must not be taken up again and again? Okay? So our desire to know, our curiosity, forces us to constantly reimagine our religion. Furthermore, it was less important to succeed than to dare. The fact that we tries what's important, what was essential, was not to let the mind be dominated by what appears to the senses, but instead to teach the mind to dominate it and to join together what the senses put asunder.

So as human beings, we're not trying to see the world, we're trying to imagine the world. That's what makes us human. Go back to Immanuel Kant. Our ability to imagine reality is what makes us fundamentally human. As soon as men became aware that internal connections exist between things,

science and philosophy became possible. So from religion, we developed philosophy and science. In fact, you can say that science today is our religion. There's really no difference. It's just an understanding of the world based on our imagination and some evidence. Religion made a way for them. It is because religion is a social thing that it could play this role. To make men take control of sense, impressions, and replace them with a new way of imagining the real,

a new kind of thought had to be created. Collective thought, okay? So religion is our collective consciousness. It's what allows society to come into being. If collective thought alone had the power to achieve this, here is the reason. Creating a whole world of ideals through which the world of sense realities seem transfigured would require a hyper-exitation of intellectual forces that is only possible in and through society. It's only because we are together, or we allow, are we inspired,

to come up with religion. So religion is fundamental to being human. Without religion, there could be no society. Without society, there could also be no religion. Okay? You understand? So the implication of all this is that as a human, first of all, you are not alone.

If you're alone, you're not human. You're a human because you live in society. You're with other people. And because you're with other people, you must have a collective consciousness or an idea you share together. We call this thing religion. Okay? Does that make sense? This is clear to you guys.

All right. Any questions? Anything you are not clear about? Do you see how all this connects together? Okay? The cave paintings is what started it. Cave paintings is the expression of a religion. Then when the Ice Age and then when the Ice Age and then, you know, it's the caseh ends.

we had a chance to settle down we created communities to celebrate our religion that's what gave rise to agriculture okay and the religion that we use is probably probably something like this okay the world is interconnected there's a mother goddess that gives light to everything okay any questions anything you are you're unclear about yeah okay so that's a good question okay so the question is monotheism okay so the more the three major religions of today are Christianity Islam and Judaism okay they're all monotheistic meaning they believe in one god so this is actually a very recent innovation okay so back then

they wouldn't have a concept of power hierarchy you understand they wouldn't understand they wouldn't understand the mother goddess is the greatest god of all they could only think like the stars right there's no hierarchy in the stars they're over the place okay so maybe the mother goddess gives birth to our world but maybe there's another god that gives birth to another world okay so they wouldn't think in terms of hierarchy we think in terms of hierarchy hierarchy today because of Monotheism but back then they wouldn't think so. Does that make sense? So maybe maybe today you can think of a pyramid okay there's people at the top but back then they would think

think like it's a river okay we're all part of the river it's a cycle it just goes in circles and there's no differentiation or there's no power power hierarchy Things go wrong when there's conflict inside this river, okay? When people don't do things they're supposed to be doing. And these things are what? What are things that defy the mother goddess or go against the mother goddess? How about incest, right? How about killing animals, about making the proper sacrifices?

So you just kill the animals, but you don't go in the cave to pray for them for the return. Okay? So in other words, in this world, religion is basically ritual. And this is something that we'll study next class, how religion is just ritual. Okay, just habits and practices and actions. Any more questions? That's a great question, by the way. But modern theism is something that we will look at very closely in future classes. It's very important because it's a basis for our society, okay?

Any other questions? Yeah? Yes. But you can't live in a cave though. Right? You can't live in a cave. You can only go there now and then. There's no oxygen in the cave.

It's too dark. It's too cold. You can't live there. Right? So you're right in that, okay, if a cave were livable, they could build farms around that cave. cave okay so okay that's actually a great question okay besides caves what are some other portals in the world what are some other portals into the world that have like spiritual energy besides caves in nature if you were back then you would

think that this place is special because it both connects our world and spirit world and these places would be mountain tops right mountain tops Guess what? Gopletepe was on a mountaintop. Where else would there be portals? Rivers, okay? Rivers. It doesn't make sense?

These are places that people would think are portals into another world, and therefore they are special. And we find that when they settle down and build agriculture, they did so on mountain tops and they did so around rivers. Does that make sense?

But not caves because you can actually live in caves. Does that answer your question? You can't live in a cave. There's no food, and it's cold, and it's wet. Oh, great question, okay? Yeah, so they live outside in tents. No, no, you can't live in a cave.

There's no oxygen. Any more questions? Okay, so your question actually makes me think of a point I want to end the class with, okay? So today we think that we are either economic animals, economic animals or biological animals. Okay, so the person who introduced us, like who introduced to us the idea that we're economic animals

is Karl Marx, okay? And his argument is that we're driven by our need to have money, okay? And that's what we believe today, right? You're in school because you wanna get a good grades, so you can go get into a good university, and then you can go get a good job, okay? Now, there are other people who believe that we are biological animals, and these are people

are called evolutionary biologists. They're inspired by Charles Darwin. So the idea here is that we are motivated by our desire to spread our genes, okay? So if I'm a man, I want to sleep with as many women as possible, because if I sleep with as many women as possible, I spread my genes, right? But if you're a woman, you want to find a man who will be loyal to you because the cost of childbearing, child rearing is very high. Does that make sense?

So we'll be discussing both these theories more throughout the semester, okay? The argument I want to make to you today is that no, we are first and foremost a religious animal. We have the fundamental need to understand why we are here. We have a fundamental need to connect with everyone, okay? To connect with other people. But that does not mean that we are not economic and biological animals, okay? They all interplay together. Do you understand? So what we'll see later in the semester is that you might have a religion, but this religion is not meaning your economic and biological needs, then you have to either a badden the religion or change your religion, okay?

But we'll also know that the economic need is not enough. You also need religion. So there is an interplay between economics, biology, and religion. And that's what drives human history. It's something that we will learn more about next week, okay? Sorry, next week. So, yeah, any more questions?