(no subject)

[dreamer_easy]

"This discussion may seem too abstract and 'reasonable' to say something useful about a society that had hundreds of gods and expended a great part of its resources on building temples, providing for the cult, and performing other religious actions (not that such actions are any more irrational than many features of modern society)... For the Westerner, problems in comprehending the alien and the rationality of religious practices may be posed most acutely by magic. Magic and rationality do not conflict: magic is rational, and its argumentation is often rationalistic. Magical spells and performances exploit many methods of inference and arguments from analogy that have strong logical coherence. These procedures and arguments differ from Western rationality less in their organization and formal properties than in their premises, which often assume different agents and modes of causation from those commonly accepted in the West."

Baines, John. "Society, Morality and Religious Practice". in Shafer, Byron E. (ed). Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice. Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY, 1991.