Can a River Be A Person - Indigenous Traditions: Crash Course Religions #7
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Date: 2024-10-23
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Comments and reviews: 10
pedrostormrage
Crash Course Philosophy described personhood as the quality of deserving moral consideration. I don't know about the moral part (I don't really have any way of connecting to the spiritual/sentient part of Te Awa Tupua, but considering a river as a person reminds me of the Gaia hypothesis (about the Earth itself behaving as a single, self-regulating organism. At the very least rivers (and also nature in general) deserve ecological consideration, seeing how we depend on them for things like water, food (fishing, transportation, and (hydro) power. Moreover, it's quite possible that the religious/spiritual consideration came from recognizing the ecological importance (so much so it transcended to the non-mundane/sacred sphere, so that's basically another way of expressing something we all should recognize.
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Crash Course Philosophy described personhood as the quality of deserving moral consideration. I don't know about the moral part (I don't really have any way of connecting to the spiritual/sentient part of Te Awa Tupua, but considering a river as a person reminds me of the Gaia hypothesis (about the Earth itself behaving as a single, self-regulating organism. At the very least rivers (and also nature in general) deserve ecological consideration, seeing how we depend on them for things like water, food (fishing, transportation, and (hydro) power. Moreover, it's quite possible that the religious/spiritual consideration came from recognizing the ecological importance (so much so it transcended to the non-mundane/sacred sphere, so that's basically another way of expressing something we all should recognize.
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viccie211
My religious studies teacher in high school was a devout christian and taught in a very condescending way about the other religions he had to teach about from the curriculum (This also meant that we got the bare minimum about other religions while we spent about two years on christianity and judaism. Even though I was and am a christian myself it always felt wrong the way he taught this. I'm telling all this because I want to thank you, John and the team, for your work in this series. You're teaching this in the way I would have never dreamed such a topic could be taught. With respect, dignity, an open mind to what is important to people from all over the world and some wholesome humour sprinkled in.
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My religious studies teacher in high school was a devout christian and taught in a very condescending way about the other religions he had to teach about from the curriculum (This also meant that we got the bare minimum about other religions while we spent about two years on christianity and judaism. Even though I was and am a christian myself it always felt wrong the way he taught this. I'm telling all this because I want to thank you, John and the team, for your work in this series. You're teaching this in the way I would have never dreamed such a topic could be taught. With respect, dignity, an open mind to what is important to people from all over the world and some wholesome humour sprinkled in.
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noble_sword64
Oh hey, the colonisers also did the same thing with the word dharma. Now in Hindi along with its original meaning we also use the word dharma to mean religion, since there is no word for religion in the western sense.
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Oh hey, the colonisers also did the same thing with the word dharma. Now in Hindi along with its original meaning we also use the word dharma to mean religion, since there is no word for religion in the western sense.
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theMifyoo
Hmm, so recently I had a conversation on what it would mean if an ai was granted human rights. This video made me think person hood really isn't dependent on sentience. Like company's having personhood and even a river.
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Hmm, so recently I had a conversation on what it would mean if an ai was granted human rights. This video made me think person hood really isn't dependent on sentience. Like company's having personhood and even a river.
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AP-ds9pj
Instead of belief I prefer to think of it as ways of being. People live with the river in the same way they live with each other. A couple of rivers and Mother Water have been granted legal personhood in Peru as well.
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Instead of belief I prefer to think of it as ways of being. People live with the river in the same way they live with each other. A couple of rivers and Mother Water have been granted legal personhood in Peru as well.
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therongjr
So fascinating to me that anyone so highly educated who understands that cultures the world over view religion so differently, but remains identified with the one that's more-or-less in which they were raised.
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So fascinating to me that anyone so highly educated who understands that cultures the world over view religion so differently, but remains identified with the one that's more-or-less in which they were raised.
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timseguine2
The constitution may prohibit laws respecting an establishment of religion, but that doesn't necessarily stop them from making a law disrespecting an establishment of religion. /s
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The constitution may prohibit laws respecting an establishment of religion, but that doesn't necessarily stop them from making a law disrespecting an establishment of religion. /s
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bmckelvy5717
Y’know, the point that we legally recognize corporations as people does make the recognition of a river’s personhood seem a lot less silly
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Y’know, the point that we legally recognize corporations as people does make the recognition of a river’s personhood seem a lot less silly
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cavemann_
Reminds me a lot of the Japanese religious traditions. I've always found this way of interpreting the world to be beautiful.
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Reminds me a lot of the Japanese religious traditions. I've always found this way of interpreting the world to be beautiful.
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thenaiam
9: 55 the fact that the US Supreme Court deemed that corporations can be people is really telling of what the US religion is.
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9: 55 the fact that the US Supreme Court deemed that corporations can be people is really telling of what the US religion is.
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