At the conclusion of Elaine Pagels’ lecture on the Book of Revelation, the first question someone asked her was why does religion persist? Pagels answered: “I think because this is about emotion. This isn’t conceptual. People who talk about it as if it matters whether you believe in God or not, have got [...]
Tags:attachment·Elaine Pagels·emotions·fear·Future of An Illusion·Revelation·Robert Fuller·separation anxiety·Sigmund Freud·Spirituality in the Flesh
In The Devil’s Dictionary (online), great American cynic and writer Ambrose Bierce offers definitions that disrupts common understandings and received wisdoms. Every few years or so, I find it salutary to do a letter a month.
In “R” we find: “RELIGION, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the [...]
Tags:Ambrose Bierce·Benjamin Schwarz·fear·hope·ignorance·Library of America·The Devil's Dictionary·unknowable
Over at The Atlantic, Andrew Bacevich has penned an incisive piece on the American military-industrial complex and the metaphysic required to sustain it. As is true of the metaphysics that sustain most “world religions,” this one is grounded in fear:
This national-security state derived its raison d’être from — and vigorously promoted a belief in — [...]
Tags:amygdala·Andrew Bacevich·avoidance·C. Wright Mills·control·false consciousness·fear·habit·hegemony·invisible·Jean Comaroff·John Comaroff·metaphysics·military metaphysics·military-industrial complex·nationalism·Of Revelation and Revolution·phobia·The Power Elite·vertebrate evolution·world religions
We have an extraordinary person living amongst us; she goes by the initials SM and suffers from a rare condition that has severely damaged her amygdala. She has been working with a group of neuroscientists who have just published a fascinating paper on her fear responses, or lack thereof.
The amygdala is an evolutionarily ancient brain [...]
Tags:amygdala·Antonio Damasio·brain·brain damage·Current Biology·damnation·Daniel Tranel·demons·devils·emotions·fear·fear response·Justin Feinstein·Ralph Adolphs·retribution·SM
While reading Lisa Miller’s alarming (and depressing) article “One Nation Under God,” I was cheered because it triggered memories of one of all my all-time favorite films, Fear of a Black Hat — a cult classic comedy that chronicles the rise and fall of the mythical rap group “N.W.H.”
I am not sure what triggered this [...]
Tags:American exceptionalism·fear·Fear of a Black Hat·hip hop·Lisa Miller·mockumentary·nationalism·NWH·One Nation Under God·rap·religious right·siege mentality
Frank Schaeffer, son of famed evangelical theologian Francis Schaeffer, connects the religious, cultural, and political knots in this spooky assessment of end times lunacy. As a former insider, his knowledge of such beliefs is considerable. There are few emotions more powerful — or easily played — than fear.
Tags:end times·evangelicals·fear·Francis Schaeffer·Frank Schaeffer·Hal Lindsey·Jerry Jenkins·Left Behind·paranoia·Pentecostals·Revelations·Tim LaHaye·victimization
Over at the Atlantic, my former classmate Garrett Epps reports on one of those “constitutional” and “patriotic” meetings that we typically, and wrongly, associate with militant white “minorities” living in the Idaho wilderness. This gathering takes place in the basement of a Lutheran Church in Virginia and those who attend are staid — having not [...]
Tags:American history·Anglo-Saxons·anti-semitism·British Israel theory·celts·Cleon Skousen·Constitution·constitutional·fear·Garrett Epps·Hengist·Horsa·Howard Rand·Idaho·Israelites·Lester Pearce·Lost Tribes of Israel·Moses·nationalism·Northern Tribes of Israel·paranoia·patriotic·racist·The Making of America·Thomas Jefferson·white supremacy·Yinglings
Anyone studying religion will sooner or later read Sigmund Freud’s classic, The Future of an Illusion (1927). I was engaged in my fifth reading today and came across this passage:
Thus I must contradict you when you go on to argue that men are completely unable to do without the consolation of the religious illusion, that [...]
Tags:atheism·fear·helplessness·lack of telos·loss of parents·loss of protection·meaninglessness·neurosis·religious delusion·religious illusion·replacement with god·secular·secularization·separation anxiety·Sigmund Freud·The Future of an Illusion
While I wish it were true that Newt Gingrich were a comedian and his shtick was harmless fun, his high-profile pronouncements are so bizarre and paranoid that it truly is dangerous to national discourse. Here is the latest from the fear monger, discussing his favorite incendiary issue — the Islamic Center to be built in [...]
Tags:Cordoba Center·demagogue·fear·Ground Zero Mosque·irrationality·Monty Python·newt·Newt Gingrich·paranoia·political fantasy·religious liberty·right wing·sharia·Sharia law·Sir Bedevere·The Holy Grail·witch hunts
“Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the [...]
Tags:afterlife beliefs·Alexa Tullett·angst·anxiety·burials·Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right·distress·Do Hominid Burials Indicate a Belief in Spirits or Souls·effect of religiosity·Epiphenom·error reactions·fear·Future of An Illusion·grave goods·Homo neanderthalensis·Homo sapiens·Karl Marx·life after death·Michael Inzlicht·mortuary practices·Neanderthals·opiate·opium·proto-religion·received wisdom·Reflecting on God·Rhawn Joseph·Sigmund Freud·theism·Transmitter to God
