This topic contains 4 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by 
CeciliaDavidson 1 year ago.
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(this is being cross-posted)
Leave it to Jung to remind me of the life-changing remarks:
Man is unable to define a “divine” being. When, with all of our intellectual limitations, we call something “divine,” we have merely given it a name, which may be based on a creed, but never on factual evidence. (from “Man and His Symbols”)What i can take from this, outside of our nature to create symbolism unconsciously and not explain it, is that, even with the idea that divine and secular can be one and the same realm (or so overlapping that they might as well be one), we cannot begin to grasp anything outside of our mortality and limited view. We are terrified and so seek resolution, an answer, a “no, there’s something EVEN BETTER than this life.” Something to keep us from being entirely pessimistic about our natures and lives(even though Blaise Pascal and his Pensées with their own, rather extreme, pessimistic remarks would like to remind us of a need for some kind of correction).
We need something to keep us from going mad, right?
The reason i argue this as a religious atheist (an oxymoron if ever there was one) is that we try to find meaning in chaos. That’s not a bad goal. We get confused. We get lost easily. We scare easy, both as children and adults. We absolutely need some stability, so we unconsciously create it. We create symbols and give them totemic abilities. i’m not going to argue one way or another against the need or whether it’s right – so long as it helps us to get through life and gives us calm without bringing harm to others, who cares? We try to understand, but what i’m still trying to get to is the understanding that i will never quite understand.
Much as this terrifies me, this not knowing, this oddly calms, because it means i’m not alone in not knowing.
I like Jung and I also like looking at things (including religion) from a “meta” view. I think it is healthy to understand why we do certain things (like believe things). It helps put good times and bad times in perspective.
It’s healthy to want to know, but i worry that some go too far and say that certain, incomplete answers are THE answers and that it can all be so easily explained. The truth is so far from that – that it cannot be readily or easily explained. Even symbols take ages to explain.
AnonymousCecelia – You bring up an interesting point I hadn’t thought of – that we subconsciously create “answers” to things to decrease our fears or give us some kind of hope (like believing in heaven). I have sought the “answers” most of my life and I am finally in a place where not only do I not need answers, I don’t really want them – because I don’t want to live in a box anymore. It boggles my mind how accepting the mystery and the not knowing actually brings me peace now. I lived in “religious fear” most of my life and lately I have been challenging a lot of those fears and it feels really good!
It’s an odd thing that so many find religious fear to be a better answer than an unaided fear of the unknown. Not saying you do, Jo, but it’s a common enough situation. We’d rather be in a comfortable box where we have some answers, but, at some point, a part of that box is going to tear. What exactly can we do outside of tearing out parts of the box to patch up the hole, only to realize the damage?
Even if we step out of our small box into a bigger box, at least it’s a start. To understand that there’s more out there than what we know is probably a better granter of peace than supposedly having all the answers.
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