Existential worries intensify religious belief and their appeasement diminishes it
Evidence
It is, therefore, not those who enjoy instinctive happiness who invent the kinds of metaphysical optimism that depend upon belief in the reality of a super-sensible world. — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1141 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Whatever answers any kind of faith ever gives to anyone, every one of these answers clothes with infinity the finite existence of man, gives a meaning to life which triumphs over suffering, privation, and death. … In faith, therefore, alone is found a possibility of living and a meaning in life. — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 130 (
#exemplifies, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Priming analytical thinking via a statue causes an immediate religious belief dip.; Religion both causes existential anxiety and soothes it; Existential security produces indifference to religion rather than opposition (+6 more)
Related
- Religion both causes existential anxiety and soothes it (similarity 0.89)
- Immediate unhappiness combined with reflection generates metaphysical optimism about super-sensible worlds (similarity 0.81)
- Existential anxiety increases religious conviction while appeased anxiety weakens it (similarity 0.81)
- Faith offers existential meaning that transcends suffering and death. (similarity 0.79)
- The demand for concreteness in philosophy stems from primordial anxiety (similarity 0.79)
- Mental frontiers between faiths proved harder to cross than physical ones. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Existential security produces indifference to religion rather than opposition
#corroborates(0.88) - Immediate unhappiness combined with reflection generates metaphysical optimism about super-sensible worlds
#expands(0.78) — Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1141 - Faith offers existential meaning that transcends suffering and death.
#exemplifies(0.75) — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 130 - Analytic thinking style independently predicts lower religious belief.
#complicates(0.72) - Faith can become a pain rather than a source of comfort.
#complicates(0.72) — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 194