Yesterday in my analysis of the book I discussed the ontological arguments for faith. In this argument, we discussed the idea that the idea of god is simply too great to be just an idea. This idea of ideas made me think of Carl Jung's "Collective Unconscious" which has probably been discussed when talking about religion. Jung's theory (part of the psychoanalytic field of psychology) proposes that all humans have a shared consciousness that developed over thousands of years of evolution and societal development. It is because of these shared, subconscious values that many cultures have some similar traits, values, and traditions- such as belief in a higher power, or the schema that a mother should be nurturing, or maintaining traditionally patriarchal society, and other innate behaviors. Jung believes that all humans share these deep-seeded, traditional ideologies at birth and are exhibited through our behavior and our dreams. Anyways, the major emphasis with making the connection is the trend that in every ancient civilization, and even today, religion is a major influence in society. The argument here is that since its belief is so overwhelming and held by so many people, there must be some validity in the belief. Then again, this is an illogical fallacy as this appeals to the majority. Just because the majority of people share a similar opinion, and those opinions have lasted for thousands of years, doesn't make their opinion valid.
Take some of the biblical beliefs that have been proven wrong throughout history. For instance, Genesis claims that the earth was made 6,000 years ago. Though through carbon-dating and other undeniable evidence, we know that the earth is at least 4 billion years old; sorry, but we were still in the neolithic age 6,000 years ago. Or note the conflict with the geocentric belief that was held by the church for so long. Once Renaissance and Baroque scientist such as Galileo and Copernicus proposed the Heliocentric Theory, the church did everything in its power to attempt to expunge these blasphemous views; they jailed Galileo for refusing to retract his evidence. Though as we know today, we revolve around the sun. The list goes on of the more contemporary discoveries and beliefs that contradict the bible (Darwin's theory of evolution being another) that all go to show the point that the bible is not an infallible doctrine.
Good job.
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