Just a quickie!
I wonder if the 'crisis in identity', - which seems to more of a westernized issue I think - has anything to do with the 'taking of religion' in peoples lives...?
When people had some omnipotent being to look over them , both to be benevolent, and cast judgement - and these were instilled throughout society to everyone from a very young age - then an identity was created with your relationship with your maker. (by default, I suppose).
You 'knew' who you were in the grand scheme of things.
Without a 'god' of some description, you're left with an identity that's totally reliant on other people, rather than some omniscient presence, with which you create your own identity with him/her/it as being the reference point.
Take away that spiritual framework, and people are left with a vacuum with no reference point. And nature hates a vacuum.
it's not too good an explanation of what I'm trying to say - but I'm sure you can join the dots, and get my point.
I'm waffling, I'm tired, but you know me...can't keep quiet. lol
(I might get back to ya on this one.lol)
I hope everything is all well with you, and Mr. a-d, over there.
Hey @lucylin :D
Good point! Not rambling at all. Religion indeed brings a sense of identity to people. Not only that, it also has the ability to gift people with purpose. It gives people a role not only in this life, but also in "the afterlife". This is true particularly for those who have been robbed of their social identities (e.g. the single woman whose children have been taken by the social services , the unemployed man who 'finds strength in God to stop drinking').
This is precisely my explanation for why people end up turning to ideologies, conspiracy theories, or whatever offers them some sort of path. In the scientific world there is a crude misconception of what religion entails, but whenever I have the chance I try to convey to my peers that religion goes beyond the blind belief in a superior being. For it is also a sense of community and therefore, of identity and meaning.
In the absence of it. That vacuum, as you appropriately put it, must be filled up with something else. And sadly, oftentimes, it is with anything but reason.
We are all right over here! Thank you :)
I trust the same is true over there. I see you back on the war artwork. It's so beautiful! I love this house! <3 Say hi to Lucy & kisses to Sophia!
Any purpose, is better than no purpose. (at the individual level).
When 'faulty' individual purposes go on to then become group think, we then get insanity! lol.
Yup, my figures are coming along very slowly...(I'm not sure they will ever work, tbh - after 20 of them are now in the bin).
I'm determined to give them a go, however, for reasons I said in my post - but I keep looking at the cheap, and very well molded figures, readily available, and for $60 or so, I can have my army here in 10 days.
I'm resisting the temptation so far, and will crack on with my DIY soldiers..
I never quite realized just how difficult it was to get the anatomical proportions close enough to real people, so that they don't look like deformed skeletal zombies with severe birth defects! lol
My house you love is now redundant.
(I'm fairly sure that southern colonial style abodes, were not too common in the dark ages! lol)
I'll send you my house !!!!
(and throw in two other- now redundant-buildings, and you send me some Viking and Saxon warriors! lol)
Good to hear everything's peachy - same here.
I'm not kissing Sophia for you....
She's just been running in the fields and partaking of her favorite pastime- which is to see if she can roll around and cover every square inch of her body, in cow shit!
I must say, she takes her hobby very seriously - and I'm confident that she'll achieve her goal at some point in the near future...
(I might give her a kiss for you, after I've thrown her in the shower...)
What about the alternative, the absence of religion, and what does that do to society? The answer is that things are worse outside of Judeo-Christianity.
...it leaves 'forming your identity ', solely dependent on others - and not a perceived higher authority.
I would argue that things are different outside of judeo-christianity, not necessarily worse.
You've lived in Vietnam, right?
The eastern 'religions' offer much as well.
I think the relevant bit is the fact of a deity outside of humans, is a solid base with which to help construct your own identity.
And when people - just people - on there own- are trying to find there own identity...(without a higher authority to help them, you get the stronger willed in society deciding for them, almost.
My theory is that most people want to be led,(not consciously admitted to themselves, much of the time)
Without a higher authority, it's left to power hungry to lead....and in turn 'create' the identity in people that they want to see, to further their own agenda's.
Blaaaaa - You get fucking marxism!
In Vietnam, I saw Judeo-Christianity influence the place, especially in Saigon as opposed to Hanoi. Vietnam is divided still between two states. The influence of America is still felt in southern Vietnam.
Safety
You're right that most people prefer security. That's why they tend to seek after slavery. Well, it can be tougher to be your own boss in life. It's easier to be told what to do. People can do better when they seek after some objectivity, morality, in the way they make choices in life. I prefer the freedoms of America.