{"id":14374,"date":"2017-10-12T16:23:25","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T23:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=14374"},"modified":"2017-10-12T16:48:41","modified_gmt":"2017-10-12T23:48:41","slug":"homo-sapiens-and-the-power-of-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/homo-sapiens-and-the-power-of-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Homo Sapiens and the Power of Story."},"content":{"rendered":"

Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

These are questions that Philosophy, Theology, and Science all seek to answer.<\/p>\n

The book Sapiens<\/strong><\/em>, by Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, is a detailed attempt at providing answers to these ultimate questions via the discipline of Anthropology.
\nHarari\u2019s popular book claims that 6 million years ago a female ape gave birth to two daughters. Chimpanzees are the offspring of one daughter, humans are the offspring of the other. Harari goes on to identify a variety of human species (homo neanderthalensis, homo erectus, homo soloensis, etc.) that lived at the same time as homo sapiens, yet became extinct.<\/p>\n

The main idea of Harari\u2019s book is that there have been three great revolutions of humanity:<\/p>\n

The Cognitive Revolution<\/strong> is supposed to have occurred 70,000 years ago. This is the revolution that placed homo sapiens above the animals. The ability to develop language and communicate abstract concepts is the hallmark of this revolution. During this time, homo sapiens climbed the food chain ladder to become the predominant species on the planet. There was also a massive migration of people that saw humans reach Australia, Oceana, and the Americas.<\/p>\n

Harari claims that The Agricultural Revolution<\/strong> is dated at 12,000 years ago. During this time crops and animals were domesticated. Our diets formed around what crops could be easily farmed (rice, wheat, olives, lentils, etc.) as well as livestock (cattle, sheep, goats, etc.). During this time, humans built cities in areas that contained access to these resources.<\/p>\n

The Scientific Revolution<\/strong> is placed by Harari at 500 years in our past. Harari claims that we are still in this era. During this era, breakthroughs in science are motivated by either religion or ideology. The conquests of the Americas and parts of Asia by Europeans are a result of this revolution. So is the development of weapons. The climax of the Scientific Revolution happened in Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945, when the first atomic bomb was tested. For the first time in history, homo sapiens achieved the power to wipe out their own species. In simple terms, this allows homo sapiens to become their own gods.<\/p>\n

While Harari discusses in detail the unique role of religion in the development of humankind, he is clearly not Christian. Harari does not believe that humans have souls<\/strong>. Harari views humans as advanced, organic, computers. They are led by their programming. This is counter to many of the major religions of the world…except Buddhism. Harari is clearly enamored with Buddhist thought.<\/p>\n

In Sapiens<\/strong><\/em>, Harari states:<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are liberated from suffering not when they experience this or that fleeting pleasure, but rather when they understand the impermanent nature of all their feelings, and stop craving them. This is the aim of Buddhist meditation practices. In meditation, you are supposed to closely observe your mind and body, witness the ceaseless arising and passing of all your feelings, and realise how pointless it is to pursue them. When the pursuit stops, the mind becomes very relaxed, clear and satisfied. All kinds of feelings go on arising and passing \u2013 joy, anger, boredom, lust \u2013 but once you stop craving particular feelings, you can just accept them for what they are. You live in the present moment instead of fantasising about what might have been.
\nThe resulting serenity is so profound that those who spend their lives in the frenzied pursuit of pleasant feelings can hardly imagine it.\u201d (Harari, 99)<\/p>\n

This above quote could have just as easily been written by the Dali Lama.<\/p>\n

There is much in Sapiens<\/strong><\/em> for Christians to disagree with, including the denial of the existence of a Creator God. Yet, Harari has one interesting concept for Christian leaders to ponder\u2026 the power of story.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harari spends a lot of energy talking about \u201cmyth\u201d and \u201cfiction\u201d as something that makes humans different from the rest of the animal kingdom. A rat can learn how to avoid a simple mousetrap in order to get to the cheese, but it will not offer up a bit of cheese to the great rat god in the sky<\/em>. Animals can learn, and they can communicate, but they do not tell stories.\u00a0 According to Harari, humanity\u2019s most powerful ability is to tell stories that unite us together, drive progress, and keep us focused. Concepts like laws, money, heritage, politics, nationalism, etc. are extremely powerful forces in the world. Yet, these are simply ideas that have to be agreed upon to be of any value.<\/p>\n

For Christians, our faith is based on a very powerful story<\/strong>. This is the story of a creator God who loved His creation so much that He sent His only Son to the earth in order to redeem creation\u2026 to save humankind from eternal destruction. This is the story that Christians believe to be true. This is a story for which many have died.\u00a0 In fact, many continue to die in our world rather than recant this story.\u00a0 Because of this story, followers of Jesus can greet believers in Iran, Laos, or Somalia as a part of their faith family. Christians are willing to make sacrifices for other Christians, though they might be strangers.<\/p>\n

The difference between myself and Harari is that I believe this story to be true\u2026it is not a myth. I believe that my faith is real, not because of my evolved brain, but because Jesus is real.<\/p>\n

As Christian leaders, we need to acknowledge the power of the story of God<\/strong>. We should not apologize when we tell this story. We should not expect people to reject it. God created men and women to be drawn to this story. The past, present, and future are filled with humans who have done great things because of the story of God. As guardians of this story, we must recognize its power to change lives, and change history.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind<\/em> (London: Penguin Random House, 2011)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? These are questions that Philosophy, Theology, and Science all seek to answer. The book Sapiens, by Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari, is a detailed attempt at providing answers to these ultimate questions via the discipline of Anthropology. Harari\u2019s popular book claims that 6 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":14380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[760,763,1041,957],"class_list":["post-14374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-harari","tag-sapiens","tag-story","tag-stu-cocanougher","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14374"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14397,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14374\/revisions\/14397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}