I wonder how this fits into "Terror Management Theory" which posits that our species' knowledge of the inevitability of our own deaths has driven us to either believe in an afterlife or to give our deaths or hardships "meaning"-which often involves being "remembered".
The concept of the inner self being isolated is something I've run into but have never really grasped in practical terms. One of my two therapists was a former Roman Catholic priest (he was forced to leave when he came out as gay), and he sometimes talked about how the "worst thing" was to feel "isolated from God"-something which never concerned me during MY bouts with depression. Perhaps the idea of a "universal" reason for religion is looking for something that doesn't exist. "Transcendence" is another motivation. but again I'm not sure that it's really universal.
Though I was raised in liberal versions of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches (and was even "born again" once or twice) Christianity never "took" with me, and a large part of the reason is its strong reliance on metaphor (the same reason I get impatient with poetry), but along with that there is the "ransom" theory of "atonement" ("Jesus died for our sins"), and "original sin".
I have never felt that "isolated from God" something, nor have I experienced transcendence. Completely alien to my consciousness. I do sometimes feel something might be missing. The thing that most reassures me in difficult times is that I've loved and been loved and trust I always will.
I wonder how this fits into "Terror Management Theory" which posits that our species' knowledge of the inevitability of our own deaths has driven us to either believe in an afterlife or to give our deaths or hardships "meaning"-which often involves being "remembered".
The concept of the inner self being isolated is something I've run into but have never really grasped in practical terms. One of my two therapists was a former Roman Catholic priest (he was forced to leave when he came out as gay), and he sometimes talked about how the "worst thing" was to feel "isolated from God"-something which never concerned me during MY bouts with depression. Perhaps the idea of a "universal" reason for religion is looking for something that doesn't exist. "Transcendence" is another motivation. but again I'm not sure that it's really universal.
Though I was raised in liberal versions of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches (and was even "born again" once or twice) Christianity never "took" with me, and a large part of the reason is its strong reliance on metaphor (the same reason I get impatient with poetry), but along with that there is the "ransom" theory of "atonement" ("Jesus died for our sins"), and "original sin".
I have never felt that "isolated from God" something, nor have I experienced transcendence. Completely alien to my consciousness. I do sometimes feel something might be missing. The thing that most reassures me in difficult times is that I've loved and been loved and trust I always will.