Religion S Function
Freud had many views on the function on why we, as humans, make a big part of our lives connected to religion. One reason he gives is because humans need a defense for the nature for which we cannot control. Freud believes that nature is cruel. Since we have absolutely no power over it, he believes we need protection, which would be the higher power. An example of this would be a natural disaster. This would include Hurricane Strain. Since people came together to help the victims of this uncontrollable event, one might say that there must be an explanation to why this horrible event happened.
The explanation would be that God (or another higher power) has caused it so people would band together to help one another. I believe Freud is right when he says that religion defends against the cruel aspects of nature. People do come together when bad things happen and I believe that they think there must be an explanation for it and that’s why they re there to help. Without religion, they may not see the benefit in helping others. On the other had, do not believe that nature is entirely cruel. Nature also provides us with things that are essential to our survival.
These things would include rain for our crops, sunlight for our bodies, and even the trees that provide us with oxygen. If nature were entirely cruel, it wouldn’t have done this. Another view that Freud had on the purpose of religion is to abject humans to live in a civilization. He believes that individual humans are a direct threat to civilizations, but humans as a whole consider it to be a benefit. To make a civilization work, there must be a leader recognized by the mass part of it. This leader pressures people to follow the rules, laws and other institutions.
This leader would be the higher power. The rest, thus keeping the custom of the civilization going, adopted this coercion to the things civilians must follow. An example of this would be baptisms. Basically everyone in the Christian church has gotten baptized, but why? This rite of passage into any Christian church has been used since the beginning of its existence. The reason is because people have a learned feeling that if they don’t or don’t have their child baptized, salvation cannot be achieved. Of course, people were not born with this idea, but rather coerced into believing it.
The function of baptisms are to give people the feeling of safety and also that they are involved in civilization. This “rule” of Christian civilization is the reason that millions of people are baptized and will continue to be. Freud is definitely right with this belief. Believe this because my family is a perfect example of this. I was baptized in the Catholic Church when I was a baby, yet I never go to church. My parents fell into the civilization rule made by the leader that is religion. They were brought up to believe the same belief that millions around the world believe-that it would bring salvation.
I will probably do the same to my kids one day, since I now deem it as important A very important function of religion to Freud was that it made a moral code for humans to live by. This would include religious codes such as the Ten Commandments, the Noble Path of Buddha, the Five Pillars of Islam, or others. All of these represent a code that people should live by if they want to live a good life and be worthy enough for their higher power in the after life. Because of these codes, people don’t kill one another, or other bad things for the civilization, but instead try to live a good life.
This good life would include, according to these codes, giving to others, believing in their God, or praying. These rules that religion forces people to live by make for a better civilization, according to Freud. These rules apply directly to human civilization n the way hat they connect to the government laws in which people live by. An example of the application of the rules into the real world is that in most countries, it is illegal to kill someone. There are serious consequences for murder. The connection between the law of a country and the law of a religion show how much religion has influenced outside civilization.
The moral code that was used for religious purposed which were followed by most, had been converted into the law used by many governments today. I believe Freud was right In saying that a large part of the function of religion is to provide a moral code for people. Without it, there could be the possibility that people would be allowed to run around killing left and right. Civilization wouldn’t exist if this were true, because everyone would be dead. Although this is true, I also believe that even without the code, people would still find a way to maintain order. Onto think that chaos is only averted because of the moral codes, but because humans long for an orderly lifestyle. The drive for stable, maintained life styles is an evident characteristic of all humans. No one wants to be confused with his or her place in life all the time. It would cause psychological instability. One way or another, I believe that we would still have laws and regulations without religion. Peter Berger is another major thinker that had his own beliefs about the functions that religion has. One belief he had was that society shapes people.
Babies are born as a blank slate of a person. With no beliefs, thoughts, or feelings on any subject in the world, they learn the things that surround them. The society that they are born into has already existed for years and it shapes the way the new person can live. This creates conformity. Berger also says that a process called objectification happens; this is when people grow up in a society where they take it for granted as the right way for living compared to other societies. A great example of this would be the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
As Americans, we were stricken with fear and hostility towards the people who we believed to be evil and criminal. Our society we live in does not, under any circumstance, stand for such horrible attack against our beloved country. The terrorists didn’t see it that way. The A-Qaeda found it to be the right thing to do. This directly shows objectification. Americans believed this act was of terror and were hurt deeply by it, while the terrorists didn’t. The efferent backgrounds that we grew up in compared to what they grew up in explain the differences in behavior.
Berger was correct with his belief on objectification, because it is clear that people from different societies act different then others. Everyone is born the same way with no knowledge of anything but to eat and sleep. The society in which we grow up in makes the person. Adding to this, I also believe that societies change with new generations. New generations don’t only follow what their parents and grandparents did, but try to improve their life. This is shown by all the new technology We now live with. We always try to advance ourselves, but don’t stray too far away from what we know.
Another important belief that Berger had about the purpose of religion was that it helped humans give meanings to things. People can perceive of their own experiences in a meaningful way. This is very important because it makes chaotic things have its own significance. Without religion, in Burger’s eyes, people would live with madness everywhere death, natural disasters and other tragedies. Berger uses the term cosmos, a notion of stability that links human experience to a divine order, offering a sense that our lives are tot mere combinations of random events but instead that our experiences are linked to some larger sacred plan.
If a woman were to lose her sister to breast cancer, and then devote her life to raising money for research, she may vow that the death “meant something. ” People give tragic accidents, like this one, a meaning. They reject the chaos nature of death by giving it a meaning that a divine power created it for a reason. Susan G. Someone was the dying sister of Nancy G. Brinier, who then went on to create the Susan G. Someone for the Cure. It has since risen more then $2 billion in a fight against areas cancer. The terrible death of her sister made Brinier help decrease breast cancer mortality in the U. S. Stories like this are heard all over the world because religion helps them find meaning in horrible events such as death. I most definitely believe this is the case in humanity. Without religion, life would be depressing. People die every day. Without the thought that it was “all in God’s plan”, I don’t think people would have a reason to live. Why would anyone want to if everyone just died them with them themselves eventually joining them? There are many things that we give meaning to, that we need o give meaning to, in order to survive this hard life.
