2022-03-03
29 分钟Hello,
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So last time, we ended by talking about a key point in Becker's work.
He draws our attention to what seems to be several striking resemblances that exist between the functions of religion and culture within society.
And it's interesting because it's not uncommon to think of these two things as completely distinct from one another.
You know, it's not uncommon to find on the one hand someone who believes that religion is the truth.
Religion is the bedrock of this reality.
And that anything created by culture is just the best us mere mortals have managed to cobble together so far.
Culture is subservient to religion in this worldview.
On the other hand, not uncommon to find someone who believes that culture,
culture is all that we have, culture is all that we'll ever have,
and that religion is a mere outpouring of culture, one single cultural relic of thousands,
that the function of religion in many ways has been to help keep culture together.
In other words, religion is subservient to culture in this worldview.
But as we heard, Becker's going to say that both these viewpoints are illusions,
that both religion and culture serve as an elaborate mechanism purposefully constructed to help people quell this otherwise constant state of terror that comes along with the fact that we are a type of creature that carries with it a conscious awareness of its death.
Now, there are a lot of different ways that we do this.
But if you want to break it down into two primary classes that the majority of these death denials fall into,