Religon and Insecurity

Fire Fly · Post by **Fire Fly** » 2006-03-06 12:46pm

In my anthropology class that I have to take to satisfy my social science credits, this topic came up briefly:

Are people who are religious insecure about the world and themselves?

This question is applicable to many other situations other than religion. For example, in baseball, the supposed Red Sox curse; some fans will go to great lengths to perform certain daily rituals in the hopes of breaking or averting the curse. While these rituals have no direct affect on the performances of the players, these rituals give the fans a certain sense of security, an outlet for their anxieties.

The Azande people of Sudan have a very strong belief in witchcraft. If the ordinary is disrupted in some fashion, there exists a possibility that the person in question is being cursed by witchcraft, intentionally or unintentionally. To remedy the situation, the person then must go through a series of rituals to confirm and then to remove the witchcraft.

People who are superstitious will perform their own rituals. For people who fear death, they may hold their breath when passing a grave yard. For people who fear bad luck, they may avoid walking under ladders and opening umbrellas in houses.

I look at myself and see that as I was growing up as a kid, I used to be afraid of so many things which I consider to be scary. But now, mature and rational, I'm capable of coping with those former past frights: the dark, grave yards, death, water.

All of these situations are tied together by a feeling of insecurity of the world around them and their inability to control it. Our mechanism in dealing with this uncontrollable force: rituals. If we apply this logic to religious people of any degree and any background, does that mean that much of the world is composed of people are insecure?

Superman · Post by **Superman** » 2006-03-06 01:06pm

Are people who are religious insecure about the world and themselves?

Short answer: I believe so.

In an earlier thread, I went into how I believe trauma survival is a key component to being a fundie, and I tried to compare it with the alcoholics and addicts I work with.

CarsonPalmer · Post by **CarsonPalmer** » 2006-03-06 05:51pm

Being religious, I would disagree. I think some people are insecure, and these are the people who expect God to solve everything for them. If you've heard the story of the man in the flood, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

CaptJodan · Post by **CaptJodan** » 2006-03-06 07:00pm

I think there's some truth to it. While people can still dispair and be insecure and still not believe in an afterlife or God or something else, I think that the vast majority of people are probably insecure.

Death is the ultimate unknown. No one has ever or can ever come back and say what it's like, so humans invented life after death. It snowballed from there. I'd say yes. They're insecure about the world, they're insecure about themselves, and when they stop to think about it, the idea that they will become nothing once they die scares the shit out of them.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2006-03-06 07:19pm

Fundies are almost always insecure. This is because any glancing at things outside 'approved, Christian works' tends to challenge their worldview. They recoil at this, as it's 'doubt' which is sinful.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2006-03-06 07:33pm

While admittedly it was only a high school class, in my world history classes we examined religion and its development, and how it coincides with the advancement of civilization. The teacher showed we, as a species, started off with the most primal of deities, nature spirits and such, and how it related to our insecurity and vulnerability to the environment. As we became more at ease and more developed and therefore able to cope with environmental problems, we moved to anthropomorphic polytheism, to humanoid polytheism, then to monotheism as we became increasingly secure. Finally, we are starting to move toward vague monotheim (deism) and agnosticism, until finally we are developed to the point were superstition is no longer a driving force in our lives: Atheism.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2006-03-06 07:58pm

CarsonPalmer wrote:Being religious, I would disagree. I think some people are insecure, and these are the people who expect God to solve everything for them. If you've heard the story of the man in the flood, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

What if for some reason, someone revealed to you that there was no god, and they planted the belief firmly in your mind. Remember, this is not you coming to the conclusion yourself: it's someone else convincing you so. Would you feel at all depressed because you'd think there was no meaning in life, or that life is too short? If so, it means you rely on the concept of god for some sense of security.

CarsonPalmer · Post by **CarsonPalmer** » 2006-03-06 08:44pm

Well, I would be somewhat shaken up, but a large part of that would havve to do with the fact that my worldview for my entire life was changed. For context, the story of the man in the flood about a man who is caught in a flood. The water reaches the first floor. A car comes by. The man in the car offers to drive him away. The man says, "No, God will take care of me." So he waits. The water reaches the second floor. A boat comes by. The man offers to take him away. "No, God will protect me." The water reaches the roof. A helicopter comes by, offering to take him away. "No, God will protect me." The man drowns and gets to heaven. He immediately says to God "I thought you said you'd protect me. Why'd I drown?" God answered "I sent you a car, a boat, and a helicopter. What more did you want?"

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2006-03-06 09:21pm

So? Most people aren't shaken by a loss of worldview unless they derived comfort from it. That's what you're doing with the god idea.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2006-03-06 09:44pm

Come to think of it, any loss of familiarity can cause depression or at least anxiety. Insecurity isn't true of the religious only: it's true of anyone who didn't come to their view of life through their own logical deliberation. Such people recognize that they may be incorrect, since they took the time to throw out and be skeptical of themselves and their creed.

Ariphaos · Post by **Ariphaos** » 2006-03-06 11:22pm

Suppose it depends on the definition of religious and insecure.

Insecure meaning 'more doubts than is reasonably healthy for a person to have', and religious meaning 'more so than say, someone who does not entirely trust their own opinion so tends to look to others and in many cases the Bible may suffice'...

Fundamentalists in particular often have some rather telltale signs of schitzophrenia, finding absurd connections between things and thinking them relevant, and so on. Actually there was a story recently about a germ that seemed to actually cause it, and was fairly widespread, though for the life of me I can't remember what.

CarsonPalmer · Post by **CarsonPalmer** » 2006-03-08 06:14pm

Wolveraptor, if a person is satisfied with their life, wouldn't they naturally be opposed to change, thus such a change would be rather disturbing?

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2006-03-08 08:17pm

Only if such change alterred the thing/things that brought them satisfaction. You'd have to care about it deeply for it to be significant if it changes.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2006-03-08 08:47pm

I think it's pretty much a given, frankly. It's no coincidence that religions all have some sort of happy ending after death for their followers. People are afraid of death, so they want to believe in something afterward. The more vindictive types are attracted to the religions with some sort of horrible fate for people they don't like in the afterlife.

Really, religion is just marketing to people's fantasies. No different from pornography at the base level.