VALIS, a science fiction novel by Phillip K. Dick, describes the religious experiences of Horselover Fat – who is Phillip K. Dick talking about himself in the third person to gain objectivity. It starts with his history of drug use and mental illness, which allowed him to meet new people that eventually lead to his sudden desire, or hunger as it’s described, for God and religion. It’s an extremely strange – and at times very confusing – novel, however there are many ideals that are similar to the theories that we talked about in class. While all three of the theories could be applied to VALIS, the two theories that are most prevalent throughout are those of James, the phenomenological approach relating to the personal experience, and Geertz,
One of the best, most valuable aspects of reading multiple works by the same author is getting to know the author as a person. People don't identify with Gregor Samsa; they identify with Kafka. Witness the love exhibited by the many fans of Hemingway, a love for both the texts and the drama of the man. It's like that for me with Kurt Vonnegut, but it strikes me that he pulls it off in an entirely different way.
What is reality? This is the question Philip K. Dick poses in his book, Time Out of Joint. Dick strategically uses literary devices such as narrative structure and symbolism in order to comment on one’s perception of what is real, and what is fiction. By making “time out of joint” and allowing a shift in moral power within his novel, Dick exposes the feelings of paranoia and insecurity that were experienced during the fifties, when Dick wrote this novel, but implies that there is hope that peace can still be attained.
Phil Jackson is a well-known man in the basketball world, as a championship coach and leader. Not only was his knowledge of basketball considered great, it was also for his use of alternative spiritual methods to assist his coaching. Through his Naturalist and Pantheist worldview, he left a legacy of a role model. Phil Jackson’s views about the nature of God, career, and family are ultimately shaped by his worldview of Naturalism and Pantheism. Comparing my worldview of Christianity to Phil Jackson’s nature of God, career, and family, we will determine whether the role model status is relevant to how I perceived a role model.
Just because a person reads a lot of books doesn 't technically make that person a good reader. Richard Rodriguez clearly emphasizes this in his article The Lonely, Good Company of Books published in 1982 from The Hunger Of Memory: The Education Of Richard Rodriguez. As a child Richard did not like reading he saw "reading at best, as only a chore".(Rodriguez pg.227) Not truly understanding the pleasures and education he could gain from reading books.
One of H.P. Lovecraft’s many short stories, “The Outsider” has been praised since its publication as his most profound and meaningful. This story has been interpreted many different ways, varying from an autobiography of Lovecraft himself to several different philosophical analyses. One such interpretation, by Dirk Mosig compares the plot and settings of “The Outsider” to Lovecraft’s own doubtful views of religion and an afterlife. Mosig supports his interpretation with many facts from the story, I believe he pinpoints one very possible meaning of the story. His argument successfully uses the plot and details to convince the reader that his hypothesis is correct.
Throughout this essay I will demonstrate how religion has played a role in the lives of humans as well as explicate the reasoning behind the true nature of the creation of religion by a psychopath.
For Carl Jung, his view on religious experience was based on all experiences being a psychological phenomenon. He differed from James in his view that a personal or individual experience with a God was indistinguishable from a communication with one’s unconscious mind. He ...
Marcus Brown and Eddie Russo are best friends and stars of the basketball team at Long Island City High School. Marcus is black and Eddie is white, and everyone call them Black and White. They’ve found strength to break through the racial barrier, or at least they believe so themselves. They are inseparable, always having each other’s backs, both on and off the basketball court. With the ability to get whatever scholarship they want, their future is looking good. Their plan is to get sports scholarship to a prestigious university and go on to play professional basketball. When the boys turn to crime, their friendship is put on the line along with the bright future they had planned for. Will their mistake cost them the things they value the most?
Religion has an important impact on our everyday life. Society uses religion to express themselves through faith, God and worshiping. Sports is also a type of religion in today’s society. People worship their teams at games and pray before every game. Sports and religion ties directly into people’s lives every day, take for instance Herman Winston, a golfer in Roland Merullo’s Golfing with God. He is approached by God’s lieutenant and is asked to help God with the yips. Herman later learns he’s on a spiritual journey that evolves from saving his father’s soul through a golf match with the devil and later being reincarnated on earth for a second life to reach his spiritual destiny. Sports and religion relate directly to Herman Winston’s experiences
and experience: the study of God and God’s relation to the world: a system of religious beliefs or
...ies in the seeming dichotomy between mind and body. This dichotomy however remains a created one for the benefit of our own understanding. Yet, in the case of Conversion Disorder, delineated scientific thinking seems to have prevented our understanding rather than facilitating it; by inspecting the trees, we are missing the forest.
As I have studied Lionel Corbett’s Psychology and the Sacred: Spirituality beyond Religion (2007) throughout the quarter, I have been intrigued by his messages, as well as the language he uses to convey them. It has been quite clear that Corbett’s intentions are good ones, and his words are very inspiring, whether or not I agree with him on all matters. However, as I have examined linguistics throughout the last few months, specifically the ways in which we talk about spirituality and emotion, my focus in reading Corbett has shifted from just his message, to the way he talks about that message as well. As grand as his ideas may be, they are still confined to language we all understand; he is subjected to borrow the tools and context from ideas
Otto, Rudolf. The Idea of the Holy. Trans. John W. Harvey. New York: Oxford UP, 1958. Print.
Goodwin, A. (1998). Freud and Erikson: Their Contributions to the Psychology of God-Image Formation. Pastoral Psychology, 47(2), 97-117. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
In Sigmund Freud’s, The Future of an Illusion, he studies religious foundations and the influence of religion on civilization and social principles. As he explores the psychological depths relating to religion, he also portrays a scientific and rational civilization. In turn, he reveals his hope for an ideal world where humans surpass their feelings of helplessness and insignificance to live in an improved civilization based on reason and the increase of knowledge. Through his analysis and ideas, Freud is able to incite feelings of doubt surrounding religious beliefs and their validity.