From: mtf@vipunen.hut.fi (Matti Franssila)
Newsgroups: alt.atheism
Subject: A little food for thought (was: iq<->religion: connection?)
Date: 27 Dec 92 12:48:03 GMT
Distribution: world,public
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland

I haven't followed the discussion closely, but I'd like to present a new 
perspective to the thread. Mind you, I'm *not* christian and I'm not trying 
to convert anybody; I just find the idea that religion or religious ideas
would automatically denote a lower intelligence quite stupid really.

The following excerpts are from the book "Man and his symbols" by C.G.Jung
(translation from finnish mine. Sorry for the clumsy language & possible
mistakes):

 "... There is, however, a strong empirical reason why we should cultivate 
  [?] thoughts that can never be proved. The reason is, that they are known 
  to be profitable. Man has a need for general ideas and convictions, that
  give meaning to his life and help him to find his place in the universe.
  He can bear most unbelievable trials if he is convinced that they have
  some meaning. But he will break down if he, in addition to the trials, has 
  to admit that his life is just a "story told by an idiot".
   The function of religious symbols is to give meaning to life. The pueblo-
  indians believe that they are sons of Father Sun, and this belief gives
  their life a dimension (and a goal), that reaches far beyond their limi-
  ted lives. It gives a lot of space for their personality to develop and
  grants them a full life as whole persons. Their fate is infinitely more
  satisfying than that of a human of our age, who knows that he is (and
  never will be anything but) a miserable being, whose life has no inner
  meaning.
   The feeling of a larger significance of ones life rises a person above 
  just collecting money and consuming things. If he does not have this 
  feeling, he is lost and miserable.  ..."

 "Modern man does not realize, in how much his "rationalism" (which has 
  destroyed his ability to react to numinose symbols and ideas) has placed 
  him at the mercy of the psychic "underworld". He has freed himself from 
  "superstition" (or so he thinks), but in that process he has in a dan-
  gerously large scale lost his spiritual values. His moral and spiritual
  tradition has fallen apart, and now he is paying the price of this in
  the confusion and division [this was written during the cold war --A.L]
  that has spread throghout the world. ..."

 "Nowadays we, for example, speak of "matter". We describe it's physical
  characteristics. We make laboratory experiments to display certain as-
  pects of it. But the word "matter" remains an image, an inhuman and
  purely intellectual concept, which has no psychic importance to us. How
  different was the previous image of matter - of the Great Mother - that
  could comprise and express the deep emotional significance of Mother
  Earth. Also, that which was conceived as spirit has now been equalled
  with intellect and thus has ceased to be the Father of Everything. ..."

 "At the same time as scientific knowledge has increased, our world has
  become more inhuman. Man feels separated from cosmos, because he no longer
  is in contact with nature and has lost the emotional "subconscious iden-
  tity" with natural phenomena. They have gradually lost their symbolic
  meaning. Thunder is no longer the voice of an angry god, and lightning
  is not his revenging arrow. No river is any longer inhabited by a spirit,
  a tree is no longer the lifeprinciple (?) of man, the snake is not an
  embodiment of wisdom, no mountain cave is a home of a great demon. No
  voices speak to man from stones or plants or animals, and he does not
  speak to them, believing that they could hear him. The deep unity bet-
  ween man and nature has disappeared, and with it the deep emotional
  energy given by this symbolic connection. ..."

     (C.G.Jung, "Man and His Symbols" 1964.)

Comments?


P.S I won't be able to read news for the next week or so...

--
Antti Lahelma		GNOTHI SEAUTON
mtf@saha.hut.fi		 TUNNE ITSESI    "Jumalat ovat pakanoille suosiollisia"
Newsgroups: alt.atheism