Social Archetypes and Religious Experience

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One of the theories I have developed regarding religion.

True religious experience in my opinion is transcendental. It lifts us out of ourselves, and our human institutions.

A large part of man's problems comes from his entanglement with heirarchical social stuggles.
The never ending drive for more power, or just to "fit in", these things stifle the religious experience.

These social archetypes, are all pervasive, and have a firm hold on humanity.
Observe our society's obsession with celebrity. Hero worship.

Most interesting to me is the way social archetypes pervade western religion, particularly the vocal protestants who I hear on the radio.

They claim, Jesus is lord and that he should be praised or worshiped.

There are often references to him sitting on his throne.
He is said to be sovereign. He reigns supreme.
Some even call him king of the universe.
I could quote many examples, they are incessant.

These concepts are human, applying them to the divine may have begun as an analogy, but now seems to comprise an entire religion. I feel confident in my assesment that Jesus never wanted to be anyones king. He wanted to show us something greater than all of that.

Opinions ? Rants ?

Last edited by spacemonkey on 02 Jun 2006, 11:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

The Christianity that is practiced by many Christians today is based on the Western constructs of hierachy and unceasing progress. But this belief system is not universal. It just seems to be universal because these concepts permeate our society.

According to Freud the worship of a god has its origins in primal behavior. According to Freud the primal horde killed the father because the sons wanted the women who belonged to the father. When the primal horde killed the father the group felt guilt. This guilt was the result of the group's fear because with the father gone social structures were destroyed. The sons began to fight with each other for the women. So, in order to survive, the primal horde internalized their guilt and began to worship the father as a spiritual figure. Freud believed that the Alpha Male became god. According to Freud this worship of the Alpha Male was passed down through generations and became part of our genetic code.

Freud was full of crap. He was a misogynist. His interpretation of why people worship god was based on his own cultural beliefs. Those same cultural constructs permeate our Western beliefs in god. The Christian god is based on Western cultural beliefs of hierarchy, and, in the case of many so-called Christians, a belief in divine right and unceasing progress toward some transcendent state. These beliefs are integral to a belief in capitalism and every expanding markets.

Many researchers have pointed out that Freud's analysis completely disregards the role of women, and that his views were based on Western constructs that are not universal.

I agree.

Not entirely.