OTWO, the conmen always seem to have their hand in somebody's pocket $$$ snakeoil and holy promises cost money
Faith in God and the fear of death
by Nickolas 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Cold Steel
You attacked the man rather than the idea, Cold Steel, and you didn't answer the question.
I thought I had. You wrote: " Sigmund Freud described belief in God as a collective neurosis. He wrote that the religious impulse is essentially ineradicable until or unless the human species can conquer its fear of death." You implied that until the fear of death could be eliminated, man could not render his religious tendancies "ineradicable." My point is that this is a silly idea typical of Freud. People don't turn to religion because they're afraid to die. Man's far more complicated than that.
A neurosis is an emotional or a mental disorder. Freud's view that religion is a "collective neurosis" is absurd given that religion also deals with 1) Justice, 2) Mercy, 3) Environment, 4) Purpose, and 5) Honor. Religion offers at least as many temporal aspects as eschatological. It establishes intellectual reasons -- creation, legal standards, existential. Eschatological reasons are actually base, and I mentioned some of the great minds. Certainly, Calvinistic protestantism fall into Freud's way of thinking, but again, it's primitive and base. Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, but I see more behind religion than just death.
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Nickolas
Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, but I see more behind religion than just death.
Didn't realise you'd answered, CS. Death, or more precisely the avoidance of it, is the key carrot used by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society to lure in new converts.
"Millions now living will never die!" .... remember that?