I've been reading a book and it described it very well.
It explains the 'religious experiences' people have using Freudian psychology. The idea is that religion is nothing but an illusion and derives it's strength because it falls in with our instinctual desires.
"Voices in the head, spectral lights, and all the other elements that go to make up the religious experience are all felt through the senses which are, in essence, the outward manifestations of the brain as it experiences and attempts to make sense of the outside world".
No one is experiencing god or anything supernatural after all. As the brain interprets information provided by the senses, it makes judgements about it and "attempts to make sense of the outside world". So religious experience is simply misinterpreted information, misconstrued due to emotional immaturity at best, insanity at worst. Belief in god is a response to human helplessness. In childhood, we are are made to feel helpless, arousing the need for protection; protection provided in love by a father. Along with that was the recognition that this helplessness lasts throughout life, forcing a person to cling to the existence of the father, but this time, the big daddy of fathers
Romain Rolland, a French author and musicologist who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1915 coined the term 'oceanic feeling' in a letter to Freud. He used it to describe the mystical, cosmic emotion that is the true source of religious experience. Freud's view however was that religious emotions are regressive; that is, they lend their feeling to the stage when an infant is feeding at the breast, unable to distinguish its ego from the natural world.
Interesting stuff and a much more reasonable explanation of these 'religious experiences'.
It explains the 'religious experiences' people have using Freudian psychology. The idea is that religion is nothing but an illusion and derives it's strength because it falls in with our instinctual desires.
"Voices in the head, spectral lights, and all the other elements that go to make up the religious experience are all felt through the senses which are, in essence, the outward manifestations of the brain as it experiences and attempts to make sense of the outside world".
No one is experiencing god or anything supernatural after all. As the brain interprets information provided by the senses, it makes judgements about it and "attempts to make sense of the outside world". So religious experience is simply misinterpreted information, misconstrued due to emotional immaturity at best, insanity at worst. Belief in god is a response to human helplessness. In childhood, we are are made to feel helpless, arousing the need for protection; protection provided in love by a father. Along with that was the recognition that this helplessness lasts throughout life, forcing a person to cling to the existence of the father, but this time, the big daddy of fathers
Romain Rolland, a French author and musicologist who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1915 coined the term 'oceanic feeling' in a letter to Freud. He used it to describe the mystical, cosmic emotion that is the true source of religious experience. Freud's view however was that religious emotions are regressive; that is, they lend their feeling to the stage when an infant is feeding at the breast, unable to distinguish its ego from the natural world.
Interesting stuff and a much more reasonable explanation of these 'religious experiences'.
"I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability." Oscar Wilde
My Blog | Why I Don't Believe in God
My Blog | Why I Don't Believe in God
