Religious worldview

by John Norton

I

n a Short History of Progress, by Ronald Wright, the Rapanui people of Easter Island are examined as a microcosm of how religious worldviews dictate and direct all aspects of life. A religious worldview shapes culture, gives meaning to life and death and can determine the success or demise of an entire civilization.

According to Progress, the Rapanui people arrived on Easter Island in the sixth century on enormous catamarans. They were likely attempting to travel between known distant islands but were blown off course by a large storm and taken much farther afield, landing by chance on the Easter Island, which is just 64 acres in size.

Archaeologists have concluded that the Rapanui fished the abundant schools surrounding the outer banks of the island. They used their catamarans and built canoes with which to fish. With the abundant fish supply, the Rapanui’s population swelled to around 10,000.

The Rapanui began developing a more complex society as the generations passed. Ancestor worship developed, although no one knows why. Perhaps a Rapanui remembered to follow his deceased father’s advice and was saved from a big storm while out fishing at sea. Or perhaps when a child was sick it was taken to the place where its grandparents had been buried and for some unknown reason became well. Whatever the reason, the Rapanui prayed to their ancestors for protection and blessing. These ancestors held the keys to protection from the uncertainties of disease, fishing, storms and other calamities that would naturally befall a Pacific island people.

The Rapanui began the practice of carving stone statues in honour of their ancestors. These statues are the famous moai. Soon different tribes competed in carving the largest statues. The Rapanui began moving the moai from where they were cut to the shoreline. The moai were stood facing out toward the ocean. The Rapanui believed that if they carved the moai and moved it to the ocean’s edge, it would protect the Rapanui.

In order to move the moai to the shoreline, the Rapanui had to use wood. They had to use tons of wood. Eventually all the wood on the island was used up. The tiny island was not able to reproduce enough wood to replace all that was being cut down.

For a generation or so, there was probably enough old lumber to haul the great moai to their perches by the sea. There was probably also enough wood to repair the catamarans and canoes used for fishing. But eventually, when the last boat was gone and could not be repaired, the Rapanui lost their ability to reach the outer banks of the island. They lost their access to food.

The population dwindled as the food supply decreased. There was no new wood to repair the big boats and no wood with which to build new ones. The Rapanui ate almost all the birds and animals on the island. Soon there were no animals left for hunting.

The Rapanui still carved the moai. They couldn’t haul them anymore to the shoreline as their ancestors had done. So they stood where they were carved, in great stone quarries.

Dutch explorers discovered the island in the eighteenth century. The Rapanui were then just a remnant of their former civilization. For several centuries they had survived in caves, perhaps because there was no wood with which to build homes. They had been reduced in numbers greatly and fought over the limited amount of food the island still provided.

Soon after the first outside contact, the Rapanui turned on the moai. By the time Captain Cook arrived on the island in the 19th century, a vicious attack on the moai stones was underway. The Rapanui were thorough and deliberate.

Perhaps because of the arrival of European explorers, or perhaps for some other reason, the Rapanui finally recognized the failure of their ancestor worship. Their ancestors, rather than saving and protecting them, had cut down all the trees on the island in order to move and erect the moai. In so doing, the ancestors had condemned subsequent generations to impoverishment and starvation. The Rapanui took revenge on their ancestors and toppled every single moai, leaving none standing.

What can we learn from this? Religious worldviews are largely similar in that they instill and create zeal. Yet a religious worldview can be destructive. It can compel its adherents to do abominable things against their environment or other people, such as things that they would not normally ever do.

I see parallels between the Rapanui, the moai and the worship of ancestors on Easter Island with the great religions of today, including Christianity.

Writer: John Norton lives in London, Ontario, Canada with his wife and two children and they can usually be found on Sunday mornings at their local Anglican church. John works as a lawyer and previously worked as a Salvation Army officer in Russia.

4 Comments to Religious worldview

1. John,
   Interesting story. It’s a great example of the logical consequences of a religious world view. Also, I’m very interested to know what you believe is a parallel between the Rapanui and Christianity?
   All the best,
   Keith
keith on August 16th, 2008

2. Thanks Keith. I agree.

   I think the most obvious parallel is ecological and economical. The Rapanui, because of their religious belief, destroyed all their wood in order to serve their gods. Yet they needed this wood to survive, to build boats and to fish, etc. So their religious belief led to ecological and economic disaster. The parallel to Christianity would be Genesis 1:26, telling “man” that we are made in God’s image to rule over the rest of the animals. Traditionally this had led to a theology of domination and destruction of the earth - which is a theology that supported the industrialization of the West but has now led us very near to ecological disaster (and consequential economic disaster) on our small planet, which disaster is not dissimilar to that experienced by the Rapanui on their much smaller “world” where all the trees, and consequentially, all the animals were destroyed.

   There are other parallels of course to Christianity besides this one. And of course this applies to all religions, not just Christianity.

   Importantly, the lesson I have learned is that we must question our religious worldviews to determine if they are in fact helpful or hurtful.

   I think we all like zeal. We like to feel strongly about things. It is easier and less messy than being uncertain and indecisive. But we need to be certain that our beliefs are correct and helpful.

   I think the history of the Rapanui people also speak to the fact that most religious beliefs are of human invention and not based on real historic fact. This should cause us at least to pause for reflection on the historical facts in our own faith traditions.
John Norton on August 16th, 2008

3. John:

   Thanks for the novel perspective.

   I’m glad that you responded to Keith with modern day parallels.

   For me though, drawing parallels on the basis of poor environmental performance, just doesn’t work. “Rule” doesn’t necessarily equal “domination”; and this is especially true if we don’t see God as a dictatorial plunderer. I see “rule” rather as a call to stewardship. And if we have proper confidence in Him we will not engage in the neurotic hoarding or wanton waste of his provision.

   In any case, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of mainstream ancestor worship these, though it would seem to persist in pockets of western society. We seem to be all about forgetting the past and reinvention.

   You’re right that religion is people made, but faith especially that which looks beyond idols is not. Perhaps casting out idols is itself an anthropologically necessary step to faith.

   Thanks again,

   Andrea
Andrea614Regent on August 18th, 2008

4. To me the sculpting act was a religious activity that at first seemed to be correct, thus the zeal. The zeal fueled the activity but the true enabler was the wood. While the people of course knew that the wood was essential they ignored its care and maintenance. Blind zeal without accountability and assessment regarding the activity and its value caused them to destroy the enabler unwittingly. So what I was thinking was that it could be an analogy of how we in the Christian church will carry on an activity that we are personally excited about ad nauseum and fail to verify that we ought to still be doing it. The Spirit, our enabler, gets ignored and abused and we eventually quench it (recognizing that the supply is endless but our connection to it can be severed) - or would if no one were to call us to account. We have to maintain the connection to God’s purpose to maintain the Spirit’s involvement. Then final piece of the analogy is that we then lash out against the product of our activity as though it were the problem. Direct examples? - I’m afraid to say
   Or maybe it’s just a reminder not to worship idols… haha.
Gordy on August 20th, 2008

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