The belief in Gods has always existed throughout human’s recored history. Whether it be the Greek Gods: Apollo, and Zeus, or the Judeo-Christian God, believed by Christians in modern day society. The belief of God has always existed among humans, however, assuming God does not exist, what explains the cultural evolution of such a false belief, namely religion? I shall argue that the reason this false belief is successful is because it manipulates human nature better than any other belief by these three points: an avoidance of death (the soul), a sense of worth (knowledge), and a sense, or need of belief (faith). This question is inherent in clarifying the undoubtedly success this false belief has had through human’s existence. However, …show more content…
Finally, the third section will dwell on the controversial topic of faith, and human’s need for belief. Religion has done an excellent job in manipulating human’s need for trust. Therefore, the combination of these three sections should compel the reader to better understand why such a false belief, such as religion has had such success throughout history. The first section of this paper should properly be named: “The Happy Ending,” as it seems fitting for this point of success for religion. It is not unfair to assert that one of humans greatest fears is death, the thought of become nothingness. Honestly, is there ever a point in ones own life that they can think, or even experience nothingness? Evidently the answer should be no, as we are always something, always being. For a human this is an overwhelming, and at times frightening thought. Especially when science and many atheist comes to the conclusion that when a human dies nothing happens, there is no happy ending -- sadly, nothingness seems to be the answer. With that being said, however, religion has offered an alternative answer, one which most definitely appeals to many humans; and more importantly gives humans a way out of death. Before moving forward it maybe important to clarify the term death and what its meaning is for the purposes of this essay. Obviously not even religion can save an individual from dying, humans are biological beings, thus time is never on
Meaning and significance of death in the light of the Christian narrative is addressed including adequate detail.
In his book Future of an Illusion, Sigmund Freud utilizes his method of psychoanalysis on religion by comparing the relationship between human and religion to that of a child and his parents. Freud effectively demonstrates that religion is a product of the human mind. After exposing religion as a an illusion, Freud concludes that humanity will be better off when it has forgone religion. This paper will argue that Freud's assertion that religion is an illusion is correct because of it's blatantly traceable evolution through the history of the human civilization and psyche.
Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once said, “The real question of life after death isn 't whether or not it exists, but even if it does what problem this really solves.” The idea that death is inevitable is well known by everyone, yet no one is certain as to what happens afterwards. Even though the subject of life after death has been argued for centuries by many philosophers and theologians. In the article Sign Here If You Exist, Jill Sisson Quinn adequately employs figurative language, rhetoric questionings, and personal anecdotes to demonstrate a controversial argument on the topic of life after death.
Most of the human ‘Homo sapiens’ is born into a religion. That religion could be Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Christian or Atheism, etc, a set of beliefs which someone inherits from his family, and till the death, that man will likely stay with his or her religion because almost every human has tendency to be religious. On the other hand, the reality of the religion does not matter to him unless someone conducts any investigation to get to the religious truth. In the essay ‘Homo religiosus,’ Karen Armstrong says that, today’s religious followers accept the religion into which they were born, without doing the hard work required. This means that someone follows his ancestor’s religion from the beginning for his life and he or she is not able to prove his ancestors were wrong because he or she has faith in his own religion. Faith is the main concept of the religion because people have deep faith in their own religion. In addition, faith is nothing but mere fantasy and faith has no basis in reality. Therefore, people have no ability to conduct investigations to find out the religious truth. In addition, elements and places of religion vary from religion to religion. Religion is one of the most prehistoric institutions which have been noticed to practice in any society past and present even in the ancient world where cave paintings were popular. Institutions, like politics and entertainments, have been greatly influenced by the religious faith. The truth of religion might give
In Why People Believe Weird Things, Michael Shermer’s ultimate goal is to explain, in great detail, to his readers his opinion of certain topics. The book is a collection of sections about different subjects that are controversial in the minds of many people today, and in the past. In each section, Shermer presents the arguments of the believers, and presents his own opposing view. Along with just his own opinions and support, he also includes the facts and opinions of many other well known opposers as well. While he may be aiming to disprove a certain subject, Shermer does so with delicacy, and remains civil for most of his arguments. The topics of the arguments range from alien abductions and ghosts to the very delicate topics of the Holocaust and religion. Along with trying to explain to his readers the truths and fallacies of his topics, unavoidably, he is also trying to persuade his readers into believing as he does, from an arguably more enlightened and educated point of view.
The arguments trying to “prove” the existence of God are by far some of the most controversial philosophical arguments out there. When some of the people who created these philosophies it was illegal or even punishable by death to even question his existence, let alone try to come up with a logical explanation to “prove” he is real. The two main arguments used today are the ontological argument and the cosmological argument. Neither one of these arguments are correct nor incorrect; moreover, the argument of God is extremely controversial and will continue on long after our lifetimes.
224). These symbolic solutions may also create a sense of mortality for the individual by contributing to a culture that will continue after their death, i.e., they are immortal (Popham, Kennison & Bradley, 2011, 752). Research shows that putting faith in religion makes individuals less vulnerable to mortality salience and death-thoughts (Wojtkowiak, Rutjens, 2011). Therefore, the solution of immortality creates a resolution for death-thoughts but in turn is a coping mechanism to avoid thoughts of our mortality as well.
Does God Exist? If God so desired, He could merely appear and attest to the whole of humankind that He exists. But if He did that, there would be no need for faith. “Then Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed '” (John 20:29). I’m sure an abundance of people would love for someone to simply show them the evidence for God 's existence. Enough of those statements of, "You just have to believe” or “Just have some faith” such statements that leave many people with no comfort or acceptance. I would like to attempt to point out some of the reasons that lead me undoubtedly believe that God exists. First of all, consider the following. When it comes to the prospect of God 's existence, the Bible says that there are individuals who have seen sufficient evidence, but they have concealed the truth they have seen. On the other hand, for those who continue to wonder if God is there, he says, "You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you." Before one looks at the facts surrounding God 's existence, one must ask themselves, if God does exist, would I want to know him? To follow are some reasons to consider.
First, we must contemplate on the full extent and origin of religious desire and religious experience. From the very beginning of time, man have been extraordinarily religious. Proof of that extensive belief of religion is man’s creation of other deity’s such as gods and goddesses, who are in form of animals and women. Man has an unquenchable thirst to fully understand and to be able to walk in the light of the divine which is why they create these deity’s that they can touch and “communicate with”.
Religion Explained has a bold title for a bold claim. Pascal Boyer believes he has solved why religion is what it is, and why it came into existence. He faces challenges by leaving gaps in his argument. Rituals and belief are left unexplainable, leaving room for the criticism of an insider v. outsider situation. Yet, even with these gaps, he states that religion is simply a byproduct of mental inference system. In the first paper, I proposed how I believe one should classify what religion is, and in this essay, I will break down and examine Boyer’s claims as it relates to religious theory and describing v. explaining – in order to further understand my suggestion and see if his scientific theories have changed my ideas at all.
The question that motivates the article would be why do religious actors believe in the doctrines that comprise the religious system of their culture? In order to answer the question the author looks at how the psychological processes of cognitive, affective and motivational underline any type of complex behavior. Religious systems serve as cognitive systems, continuing to exist because of the powerful motivational dispositions and affective needs of the social actors to which they are responsive. The main argument for the reading would be in order to explain why social actors believe in their doctrines of their culture, we must examine the motivational and affective, as well as the cognitive properties of the mind, while still being concerned
Religions are said to hold answers for all of the important questions posed to the human race. One question that appears, not only in today’s time, but as far back as the dawn of man, is the curious question of ‘what happens after death?’ Some religions state that the soul can ascend to a heavenly body and eternal paradise, or descend to a fiery pit and eternal damnation. Some say
Perhaps the most important question in life someone can ask there self’s is, whether or not god exists. From the video “Does god exist” Quentin Smith, a graduate of Western Michigan University says, “All the galaxies were once compacted together, and the big bang theory is when all the matter in the galaxies just blew apart. And the mystery, according to science laws, is there can be no cause of this initial explosion.” Although there can be countless allegations someone can make to refute this known fact, I believe, through my experiences, that this is true. Thus, leading me to believe there is an unimaginable force that contains space that must have been able to expand our universe into what we see today. “God is at liberty to create, whatever state of the
The belief in religion is a shared trait among much of humanity’s existence. Since the inception of religion, humans have debated and even waged wars over which of their faith’s to be true throughout history. Religion had been often used to explicate natural processes which, at the time, were unexplainable to humans, and to establish moral boundaries for followers to abide by, as well as unifying people under one common belief. With the progression of science and philosophy, though, a new side of the debate has arisen recently—the questioning a god’s conceptual coherence, thus if religion in general is true.
Since the days of Socrates and the birth of philosophy, religion has set a very crucial role in determining the morality and outlook of humanity among the general population. The idea of the existence of a higher, omnipresent being has been continuously debated since humans first started recording time. Throughout history, people have used religion to both liberate and oppress which has had a major role in forming who we are as a species today. In today’s contemporary society, people still use religion to restrict others of their personal freedom by policing their views.