Superstition
In Polybius' writings he saw the use or at least the practice of religion at that time was becoming a "superstition". There were those who reduced the wisdom of the ages to more mindless superstitions by unmooring the precepts from the metaphors and allegories of the wise. They believed in the symbols of the ancient stories rather than their wisdom.
Polybius saw the degeneration of the masses and the downfall of the republic a 150 years before the first Emperor of Rome and 175 years before the birth of Jesus Christ and John the Baptist.
Polybius used the term "superstition" to described what was seen as a mysterious establishment of "cause and effect" many did not understand by reason nor personal revelation how the God of Nature worked through the quantum or spiritual realm.
He saw this "superstition in ancient Rome" as an "instrumentum regni" a term used by Tacitus meaning "instrument of rulers". Tacitus said there is "No better instrument of good government than being good friends"[1] He used the phrase to express the exploitation of a form of legal religion by State as a means of controlling the masses. These practices of Public religion through legal charity degenerated the social bonds of communities and weakened the people to achieve political power and control over a more compliant population.
Public religion and legal charity could make the people extremely dependent upon the State and its free bread while they forgot the ancient ways of charity but clung to the symbols rather than their essence and meaning. The ancient ways were forgotten[2] as the people indulged in the dainties of the rulers often at the expense of their neighbors.
There has been a sacrifice of truth and the hands of Sophistry of those who would use the ignorance of people to control them by unmooring the meanings of the Memes of culture from their purpose.
What was the purpose of the golden calf?
It was not mere superstition that motivated them, but practicality and a lack of faith. The people literally deposited their gold on the altar of the golden calf. Gold was deposited into a large statue for all to see. The wealth and the community was melded together into a common purse. [3]
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Footnotes
- ↑ Nullum maius boni imperii instrumentum quam bonos amicos esse» Tacitus, Historiae, IV 7.
- ↑ Jeremiah 18:15 Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways [from] the ancient paths, to walk in paths, [in] a way not cast up;
- ↑ “Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.” Proverbs 1:14-19