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Recommended: What is Religion
Defining “Religion” Writing Assignment 1
In attempts to define religion, one will quickly realize that religion is not something that can be easily defined. The most apparent reason that religion is hard to define is that the term “religion” can mean something entirely different to each person. For some, religion is thought to be “imagined by humans”; those who believe this theory feel that “only the material world exists” (Fisher, pg. 3). Religion can also be viewed as a way to manipulate others or as a way to hold society together (Fisher, pg. 4). This creates a problem in defining religion because almost everyone on Earth has already been influenced in some way by at least one religion, even if they are not an active participant in said
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Freud and Tylor both believed that dreams were significant (Pals, pg. 56). While Tylor stated that dreams caused primitive souls to believe in spirits, Freud expanded upon this theory by stating that these dreams occurred within an unconscious mind. He explained that this unconscious mind contains basic biological drives as well as images and emotions that “sink down into [the unconscious mind] from the conscious mind up” (Pals, pg. 57). These emotions can either drift down naturally or be forced down based on a complex sequence of events. Although Freud agreed with Tylor that dreams can influence religious beliefs, Freud did not believe in a God himself (Pals, pg. 64). Also unlike Tylor, Freud took interest in questioning why people hold these beliefs despite them being “so obviously false” (Pals, pg. 64). In his quest to answer these questions, Freud noticed similarities between those who participated in religious activities and his neurotic patients, such as an obsession with repeated actions or rituals and guilt that, in both cases, stem from “the repression of basic instincts” (Pals, pg. 64). Freud calls this behavior “a universal obsessional neurosis” (Pals, pg. 65). Despite their differing viewpoints on what religion is, both Freud and Tylor believe that “mature people . . . allow their lives to be guided by reason and by science, not by superstition and faith.” (Pals, pg. 71) Tylor and Freud’s theories are just two examples of the complexity of studying religions and their
Religion is considered as a pervasive force in this world. It shapes people as to how they behave and interact with almost everything present in the society. Influencing behavior, character formations, ideals, policies, standards are just among the dimensions and societal perspectives affected and impacted by religion. Because of these applications and implications in human lives and existence, religion should be understood deeply, particularly, on how it affects the world. Looking at the American perspective of the term "religion," it could be simply
Similar to Marx, Freud believes humans simply make up the idea of God in explanation to things science could not disprove. Humans take relationships from our Earthly fathers and compare it to our Heavenly father. According to Freud, “Religion is an attempt to master the sensory world in which we are situated by means of the wishful world which we have developed within us as a result of biological and psychological necessities.” (H/R,p.26) Science can neither prove or disprove religion. Freud chooses to believe science and claims religion is only comforting and hopeful thinking to our purpose after
...othing more than repressed contents, these contents being constellated around the figure of the father. (Palmer, 1997, 164). It would seem that Freud went above and beyond to dispel religion as a healthy essential practice for the growth of society but rather saw it as a weakness. That many of Freud’s theories have stood the test of time is tantamount to his title as the ‘Father of Psychoanalysis’ although many have been tweaked or adjusted to suit today’s conditions. It would be unwise to completely ignore Freud’s views on religion but I think we can conclude that they are somewhat flawed.
Religion has a great influence on people, providing faith and direction to each individual while controlling a co...
Religion is a symbolic representation of society. The sociological approach to religious belief looks at how society behaves on a whole, to answer the question, “Why are people religious?” We express our participation in religious events through plays, acts of confession, religious dances, etc. To begin to understand why we have such term, let’s understand the common elements of religion. There are different types in which people believe in or follow and that is: animatism, animism, ancestral spirits, god and goddesses, and minor supernatural beings. Beyond these different elements, such one is to have religious leaders to follow.
In the first two chapter of the book, Freud explores a possible source of religious feeling. He describes an “oceanic feeling of wholeness, limitlessness, and eternity.” Freud himself is unable to experience such a feeling, but notes that there do indeed...
In the midst of his already successful career, Sigmund Freud decided to finally dedicate a book of his to religion, referring to the subject as a phenomena faced by the scientific community. This new work, Totem and Taboo, blew society off its feet, ultimately expanding the reaches of debates and intellectual studies. From the beginning, Freud argues that there exists a parallel between the archaic man and the contemporary compulsive. Both these types of people, he argues, exhibit neurotic behavior, and so the parallel between the two is sound. Freud argues that we should be able to determine the cause of religion the same way we determine the cause of neurosis. He believes, since all neuroses stem from childhood experiences, that the origins of this compulsive behavior we call religion should also be attributed to some childhood experiences of the human race, too. Freudian thought has been dominant since he became well known. In Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, religion becomes entirely evident as a major part of the novel, but the role it specifically plays is what we should question. Therefore, I argue that Freud’s approach to an inborn sense of religion and the role it plays exists in The Last of the Mohicans, in that the role religion plays in the wilderness manifests itself in the form of an untouchable truth, an innate sense of being, and most importantly, something that cannot and should not be tampered with.
Religion, “part of the human experience that has to do with a god or gods, a higher power, or the ultimate values of life” (Cason & Tillman 6-7), is one of the most controversial and interesting subjects for humanity. It has been around for as long as anyone can recall and they have difference and similarities in their founders, beliefs, and history. Religion has served to give some sort of a meaning to life and everything around it. In modern society, some religions have grown and expanded significantly. These larger religions have been classified as world religions. In addition, these world religions have been split into two categories known as Eastern and Western religion.
Religion is an ever-growing idea that has no set date of origin. Throughout history religion has served as an answer to the questions that man could not resolve. The word religion is derived from the Latin word “religio” meaning restraint in collaboration with the Greek word “relegere” which means to repeat or to read again. Religion is currently defined as an organized system of beliefs and practices revolving around, or leading to, a transcendent spiritual experience. Throughout time, there has yet to be a culture that lacks a religion of some form, whether it is a branch of paganism, a mythological based religion or mono/polytheistic religion. Many religions have been forgotten due to the fact that they were ethnic religions and globalizing religions were fighting to be recognized, annihilating these ancient and ethnic religions. Some of these faiths include: Finnish Paganism, Atenism, Minoan Religion, Mithraism, Manichaeism, Vedism, Zoroastrianism, Asatru, and the Olmec Religion. Religion is an imperative part of our contemporary world but mod...
The primary goal of Sigmund Freud’s deliberations is to reveal where our unidentified psychological inclinations come from. In his book “Civilization and its Discontents,” Freud discusses a category of psychological themes regarding how internal influences developed by people’s psyches motivate people to act in certain ways. He focuses on complexes of the mind such as aggression, the super-ego, and the relationship between guilt and remorse. An essential argument that Freud makes is that the human psyche is structured and is largely developed based on surrounding forces, such as other people. Freud attempts to convey a message that a person’s mentality is not only primordial, but is also created in a process potentially known as the struggle
Erich Fromm in his psychoanalytical approach to religion is distinct from the earlier works of Sigmund Freud. Fromm defines religion as “any system of thought and action shared by a group which gives the individual a frame of orientation and an object of devotion.” Fromm argues that irreligious systems including all the different kinds of idealism and “private” religions deserve being defined as a “religion.” Based on Fromm’s theory, it is explained that there is no human being who does not have a “religious need,” almost every part of human life reflects religious need and its fulfillment, in fact he states it to be “inherent” in man.
During the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, a psychologist named Sigmund Freud welcomed the new age with his socially unacceptable yet undoubtedly intriguing ideologies; one of many was his Psychoanalytic Theory of Dreams. Freud believed that dreams are the gateway into a person’s unconscious mind and repressed desires. He was also determined to prove his theory and the structure, mechanism, and symbolism behind it through a study of his patients’ as well as his own dreams. He contended that all dreams had meaning and were the representation of a person’s repressed wish. While the weaknesses of his theory allowed many people to deem it as merely wishful thinking, he was a brilliant man, and his theory on dreams also had many strengths. Freud’s theories of the unconscious mind enabled him to go down in history as the prominent creator of Psychoanalysis.
In Introducing Philosophy of Religion, Chad Meister asserts “there are several components (that) seem to be central to the world religion: a system of beliefs, the breaking in of a transcendent reality, and human attitudes of ultimate concern, meaning and purpose” (Meister 6). Throughout my life, I feel that religion is one of the core social belief systems that people use to maintain what they feel is a good way to live. Giving them a sense of purpose or fulfillment during their earthly life, most hoping whatever beliefs that have will help them after death. Even though there are many different religions or religious value systems, everyone has most likely been exposed to one or more. There is only 15% of the world’s population that do not believe in one type of religion or another (Meister, 7).
Because of the colossal impact of religion in the countries surveyed the only accurate way to peek at how these people understanding themselves and their place in the world is to first have an understanding of the major religion or religions that are at work within a given society. But that statement demands the question, how is it that through religion we define ourselves? My research relies heavily on the inte...
Psychology, neuroscience try to explain them, 2012). He studied dreams to better understand aspects of personality as they relate to pathology. Freud believed that every action is motivated by the unconscious at a certain level. In order to be successful in a civilized society, the urges and desires of the unconscious mind must be repressed. Freud believed that dreams are manifestations of urges and desires that are suppressed in the unconscious. Freud categorized the mind into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. When one is awake, the impulses if the id are suppressed by the superego, but during dreams, one may get a glimpse into the unconscious mind, or the id. The unconscious has the opportunity to express hidden desires of the id during dreaming. Freud believed that the id can be so disturbing at times that the id’s content can be translated into a more acceptable form. This censor leads to a sometimes confusing and strange dream image. According to Freud, the reason one may struggle to remember a dream is because the superego protects the conscious mind from the disturbance of the unconscious mind (Dream Theories,