James Joseph: Image and Pilgrimage (3)

Turner writes in his book on the nature of religious practices for the purpose of human health: "Rituals are performed to propitiate or exorcize supernatural beings or forces believed to be the cause of illness, ill luck, or death..the curative process is conducted by an association of religious specialists or 'doctors'". While this may seem an odd point to bring out of a book with more significant and poignant statements, this one really stuck out to me. While reading this passage in the book, it dawned upon me how much we as humans have changed since our days of tribal existence. We no longer solely rely on religion for our everyday needs, but instead we have gotten used to using devices and tools of our innovative technological progress as humans to help us along the way. While almost all would view this as forward motion for the human race, but I am beginning to think the opposite. Now that we have all these new technologies and devices that help us with our lives, we have less reliance on others (as seen in a religion or even in the sacred itself) and have more reliance in our selves and our ability to properly use these technologies to survive. Doesn't that, in a profound way, take away from our own skill level, and even our connection with the spiritual? For if we constantly use this technologies, instead of having to think and devise new ways of existence, we begin to solely exist and nothing more. We have different motives now, we work and learn so that we can make larger amounts of money and respect, when we could easily exist without going through all the hoops our society (and progression of mankind as a whole) put in front of us. Yet in an opposing view of thought, has not what we call "science" become a religion of it's own, with each of it's "technologies" being simply tools we use to implement that religion? For like what Turner stated, people used to use religion to help heal and remedy people in need, and they would have had faith in their religion, believing that the rituals they performed were positively affecting the person. Is that not what we do nowadays? Isn't it our faith in science that keeps us positive while we wait outside the ER, even though we know the chances are slim? The world around us has changed so much over time, and so have we as humans. But in the same light, maybe we haven't changed at all, and maybe we've just thought ourselves into a different school of thought yet still following those same patterns of thinking that we've always known and had?