A Lost Word :: essays research papers

A Lost WordOne backchat in the face language above all others throughout the history has caused more controversy, two in terms of human fatalities and backchats written about it than godliness. devotion has been a subject of major controversy long before in that location was an English language, long before there was a word for the concept. What follows however, is non a discussion of the controversy, or history for that matter. What follows is a discussion of the word and its meaning. Religion since its first minting has come to be an immensely broad term. So broad in fact that It defies a funny comprehensive definition. The word has come to refer to a loose and chaotically organized system of aspects and ideas, topics of you will. Many philosophers have attempted to define piety but only succeed in identifying a new topic. circuit is always the case but this continual attempt to define the word has only resulted in the continuation broadening process.One such philosophe r who sought-after(a) a comprehensive analysis of religion was Karl Marx. Marx explained religion is economical, social and mental terms. For his purposes Marx succeeded admirably. Marx held that man creates religion for himself and that when he looks into religion he sees his take tos and desires that have realized themselves through fantasy. Key in Marxs conception is that religion is a construct. Without man there is no religion, that is to say there is nothing goat religion except a reflection of ourselves. The go for that man puts in religion, god, and an afterlife are simple fantasy. This hope is a resignation of the hope that satisfaction can be gained in the immediate world. We believe in a happy afterlife because we have given up hope in this life. The hope is a total illusion. It is the opinion of Karl Marx that due to the temperament of religion, specifically its dependence on the fantasized and projected hopes of oppressed people, that when oppression ended, that religion would cease to be a compelling issue to man.Far from the stalk and political atheism of Marx stands Rudolf Otto. Rudolf, rather than examining religion from a secular and economic perspective, Otto focuses on the mystical and personal experience of religion. In fact Otto defines religion as the experience of awe and mystery. Otto describes a feeling of awe in the grasp of what is not so some(prenominal) perceived so much as it is felt.