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Behavioral Exomorphisms

Relevance of the Ark of the Covenant in the
Settings and Practices of Current Times

This article is for the purpose of answering a question submitted by X on
the 3 of December 2006 through e-mail to the author. The question was regarding a
subject he was lectured on, and discussed, in what he mentioned as being ‘temples today
being modeled after the Tabernacle’. In this case the Tabernacle refers to the structure
constructed by Moses and the Hebrews as recorded in Exodus. The specific question
relating to this subject, which X inquired of is what is the Latter-Day
equivalent to the Ark of the Covenant? What follows is the author’s suggested
explanation of the relevance of the Ark of the Covenant and its modern significance.

Civilizations have constructed temples for
worship as far back as the dawn of
Neolithic societies. The construction of
them for worship today continues to occur
within religions throughout all habitable
areas of the world. Implied purposes of
temples vary across religions, but the
general purpose of a temple is held in
commonality for all religions. This general
purpose being a sanctuary for attendants to
participate in ceremonies or practices
proscribed for attendants. These temple
ceremonies or practices vary across
religions, and restrictions in behaviors of
attendants within a temple, and of who
may attend a temple, is decided by each
religion. Because each religion or sect
maintains this variance according to their
doctrines, temples will vary in their
comparisons between civilizations and
cultures, and across time.
Sometimes, religions have influenced
temple practices between each other as
diffusion of their traditions occurred
between cultures through immigration,
trade, and secularization. In this way,
traditions of worship have been carried
from place to place and sometimes have
mixed with others. At other times,
successive branches of later religions have
implemented aspects of doctrine and...