RE: Does religion produce unique sensations?
July 8, 2015 at 7:11 pm
(This post was last modified: July 8, 2015 at 7:12 pm by Metis.)
I voted other. There are ways to reproduce the certainty and elated feeling many true believers experience, but no other institution but devotion to a deity can bring it out and nurture it so effectively.
There are examples of Quasi-Religious Movements (I say Quasi because they of course never professed to be religions but they retain many similar features like core beliefs, goal, strongly hierarchical leadership and absolute certainty only they have the right way/truth) like the Nazi's or early twentieth century Communism that have managed to produce emotional experiences like religious activities; attendees at Hitler's speeches often remarked how even though they strongly disagreed with what he said he had a gift to send crowds into a frenzy similar to what we see today at Pentecostal Faith Healing conventions.
There is only one thing I have seen faith in a deity able to produce that I have not encountered a secular institution capable of doing, and that is ecstasy. I'm not talking about Hitler making people go wild flailing at his rally, I mean genuine absolute conviction, contentment and occasionally even non-stop orgasmic bliss such as the experience several mystics like Teresa of Avila experienced.
I suspect this is because no secular institution has ever made as grandiose a claim as Christianity, so there is a far less tempting reward on offer for most Communists to devout themselves so fully. Even still the works and speeches of the likes of Julian of Norwich, John of the Cross and the two Fatima seers who died as kids are of something I have never seen elsewhere. Could be just hot-house environments leading to their productions, I have noted mystics do not appear outside of convents, monasteries or ultra devout locales but I've never seen a school or a philosophical academy produce something like that.
There are examples of Quasi-Religious Movements (I say Quasi because they of course never professed to be religions but they retain many similar features like core beliefs, goal, strongly hierarchical leadership and absolute certainty only they have the right way/truth) like the Nazi's or early twentieth century Communism that have managed to produce emotional experiences like religious activities; attendees at Hitler's speeches often remarked how even though they strongly disagreed with what he said he had a gift to send crowds into a frenzy similar to what we see today at Pentecostal Faith Healing conventions.
There is only one thing I have seen faith in a deity able to produce that I have not encountered a secular institution capable of doing, and that is ecstasy. I'm not talking about Hitler making people go wild flailing at his rally, I mean genuine absolute conviction, contentment and occasionally even non-stop orgasmic bliss such as the experience several mystics like Teresa of Avila experienced.
I suspect this is because no secular institution has ever made as grandiose a claim as Christianity, so there is a far less tempting reward on offer for most Communists to devout themselves so fully. Even still the works and speeches of the likes of Julian of Norwich, John of the Cross and the two Fatima seers who died as kids are of something I have never seen elsewhere. Could be just hot-house environments leading to their productions, I have noted mystics do not appear outside of convents, monasteries or ultra devout locales but I've never seen a school or a philosophical academy produce something like that.
