Re:Life is not a story: why narrative thinking holds you back
by RandomLensman on Friday October 18, 2024 @05:08AM
(#41877597)
Not all religions/belief systems have/had the world (just) designed for humans. People can "cope" with other views.
Re:Life is not a story: why narrative thinking holds you back
by keiferski on Friday October 18, 2024 @05:12AM
(#41877621)
Definitely true, but:
- I'm talking primarily about the Western world and its legacy of Christianity. The situation is different in India, China, etc.
- Even then, in practice, most successful religions tend to have a human-like personal figure in an important place, even if the religion itself is technically non-personal.
Re:Life is not a story: why narrative thinking holds you back
by soco on Friday October 18, 2024 @07:12AM
(#41878296)
If the point is about "humanity" and how the world cannot have non-human goals, then rejecting the inconvenient religions (oriental, animistic, whatever) is definitely not a convincing argument. Those are just as humans, and don't explain the world in the convenient western way. So yes, we can very well live in a world not designed for humans.
Re:Life is not a story: why narrative thinking holds you back
by keiferski on Friday October 18, 2024 @09:01AM
(#41879041)
The point is about Western society and its progression, not “humans” in general. So yes, one route may to be create a belief system more similar to animist or other religions. But that is itself a tall order.
A lot of this has to do with the Enlightenment project and disenchantment so it’s already largely focused on the Western world to begin with. Other places have less a history with this.
Re:Life is not a story: why narrative thinking holds you back
by FearNotDaniel on Saturday October 19, 2024 @08:06AM
(#41887351)
All I can suggest is, if you really want to take a scientific approach to all this, you may want to start by finding out what Christianity actually teaches, rather than the garbled third-hand nonsense you've quoted above, which bears no resemblance to anything taught by a mainstream Christian denomination at least since the Council of Nicaea. I'll admit it's not easy to figure out, especially when some churches like to continue arguing with others about some of the details, and also when "just read the Bible" really doesn't help because it's hard to make sense of on its own (sorry, Luther, but sola scriptura never really stood up, otherwise all the preachers would be out of a job). It takes time and patience to really understand what claims Christianity makes on your life and on the world. Welcome to theology, it's not science, but it still requires critical thinking, intelligence and a sensitivity to nuance.
That's really not an accurate description of the role religion has played in human psychology, and is only accurate for a very specific subset of beliefs in a specific time and place.
My argument was more that humans thought of themselves as inhabiting a world designed for them, but then learned that this was (likely) not true, and that for many people this is a pessimistic, nihilistic conclusion.