The Morphogenesis and Self-Organization of Myth and Religion

Abstract

In the first step, the domain of religion (including myth and pre- or post-religious symbolic forms) is delimitated. In the second step, the emergence of myth and religion and the morphogenesis of concrete religious structures in some world religions are described. In the third step, major religions’ spatial and temporal characteristics are analyzed (concepts of past, future, apocalypse, and spatial itineraries). Some features of religious morphogenesis are modeled in the format of catastrophe theory. The self-organization of elaborated religions (based on texts) is exemplified in the early history of Christianism. The semantics of religious concepts (God, angel, heaven, etc.) are deviant from everyday discourse as their reference (called tanscendent) is endangered by vagueness and ambiguity. This feature leads to the question of truth in religion, religious pluralism, and the phenomenon of “bricolage” (Lévi-Straus) or systemic construction in myth and religion. The final section deals with xenophobia and racist distortions of history in the political mythology of the Nazi regime.