#42 Why Priests Lost Their Power
There are 4 stages in human evolution, from external authority to inner wisdom.
Knowledge tends to move through the following four stages:
Gods.
Priests.
Philosophers.
Scientists.
If you grew up around religion, you probably moved through the same sequence.
As a child, you learned the stories about God.
Later, a priest took center stage. You did not feel shame before God. You felt it before the priest. His words carried weight. Sometimes more weight than God’s. The distinction blurred.
Then, at some point, a thinker entered your life. Maybe a teacher, a mentor or a philosopher. Someone whose way of seeing the world mattered more to you than doctrines and rituals.
And eventually, as an adult, when something breaks, you consult a specialist.
A doctor for the body.
An engineer for machines.
A technician for systems.
In other words, people like you.
This doesn’t happen only in the personal development realm. It’s also how civilizations evolve.
Ancient Greece followed the same arc.
First, the gods.
Then, the priests.
Then, the philosophers.
And gradually, philosophy leaned toward science.
Aristotle wrote on biology, physics, meteorology, astronomy, logic, and many other sciences.
Europe followed a similar pattern over the last two millennia.
Early Christianity centered on God.
Then priests accumulated power. They could imprison or absolve.
Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, philosophers became more important than priests.
Eventually, scientists became more important than philosophers.
These layers do not cancel each other. They coexist.
You can believe in God.
Participate in rituals.
Think like a philosopher.
And solve problems using scientific methods.
Here’s why we’re sharing this:
The entire movement points in one direction: from outside to inside.
Early on, authority is external. Truth is received, not questioned. God’s will is interpreted for you by others. Eventually, authority moves inward. You learn to think. You learn to question. You learn to see for yourself.
This is not about dismissing God.
It is about maturity.
You discover that what once had to be believed from the outside can eventually be understood from within.
In that sense, the arc of knowledge is not moving away from God.
It is moving toward the God within.
Love and Wisdom,
Monica and Stefan
