I suspect people who take religion seriously try to look for its cultural adaptive functions at too high a level of abstraction, like “meaning making”
The adaptive function is mainly at the action figure level for 90% of “believers.” Narrative sensemaking with Mary Sue options.
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By the typology in the Gita of 4 types of faith, I think the pie chart is:
Gnana yoga (knowledge faith): 1%
Raja yoga (self-mastery faith): 9%
Karma yoga (righteous-action faith): 20%
Bhakti yoga (devotional/fandom faith): 70%
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Oh damn I wonder if my pie chart of yogas can be mapped to keirsey mbti temperaments. Wouldn’t be surprising since jungian thought has roots in myth too.
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Replying to @vgr
having gods as action figures u can touch and pose seems very mbti S (sensory)
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Gnana yoga: NT
Raja yoga: SP?
Karma yoga: SJ
Bhakti yoga: NF?
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Speaking of tech updates, there’s this AR app coloring roll app for Hindu pantheon. You put it up on wall, kids color it, and scanning a god in AR app brings up augmented content.
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This is why Zuck is smart to bet on the metaverse. The Hindu metaverse will be a huge deal. And Meta probably knows it since half the content on Indian WhatsApp is fandom traffic. Images, songs, etc.
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In case it isn’t clear, I’m taking the opposite view to the usual interpretation that comic book EU fandoms are modern religions. I think religions are old fandoms that acquired some intellectual/philosophical trappings. Religions supervene on fandom/larp phenomenology.
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I’m surprised somebody hasn’t rushed to make nft collections based on Hindu mythology. Get each minted hash blessed by a priest. Famous temples could sponsor ongoing mints. Donate at Tirupati, QR code pops, scan it and you have proof-of-darshan nft.
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I mean all the blessed threads and amulets and stuff are basically physical nft mints. I just got a red thread from a family religious thing.
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Pilgrimages are collection quests. Often the collected artifact is holy water. People have mint condition sealed little brass pots of Ganga water in their home shrines. It’s like comic-con souvenir badges or something.
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An interesting Hinduism 1/1 NFT is saligrams: ammonite fossils that are co-opted as Vishnu symbols. Most religious households have a few and they play an important role in some rituals.
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The value of a NFT stems from collective belief.
Religious artifacts and why people collect is mostly rooted in individual belief even if community inspired. Nothing is transferable either.
The motivations and dynamics are different.
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These type of devotion has a lot of sensual feel and touch to it which expands the mindfulness practice applied in Hinduism.. NFT lacks that sensual feeling or empowering us with meditative states.. it will be like sticker collection without much depth to it.
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This thread made me think of @AmandaMontell’s Cultish 🙌🙌
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