Religion both causes existential anxiety and soothes it
Evidence
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 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Existential worries intensify religious belief and their appeasement diminishes it; Existential security produces indifference to religion rather than opposition; Faith offers existential meaning that transcends suffering and death. — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 130 (+6 more)
Related
- Existential worries intensify religious belief and their appeasement diminishes it (similarity 0.89)
- Faith’s stillness is tranquillised fatalism, not depression or PTSD (similarity 0.83)
- Faith offers existential meaning that transcends suffering and death. (similarity 0.82)
- Existential anxiety increases religious conviction while appeased anxiety weakens it (similarity 0.79)
- Faith offers an understanding of life that contrasts with rational knowledge. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Existential worries intensify religious belief and their appeasement diminishes it
#expands(0.90) - Faith offers existential meaning that transcends suffering and death.
#corroborates(0.82) — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 130 - Existential security produces indifference to religion rather than opposition
#contradicts(0.80) - Religious conviction spikes during bereavement and reduces later grief
#exemplifies(0.80) - Faith can become a pain rather than a source of comfort.
#qualifies(0.80) — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 194 - Cold War anxiety drove religious revival as a substitute for lost secular securities
#exemplifies(0.80) - Faith has importance in providing meaning to life.
#corroborates(0.78) — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 184 - Trust in another’s return brackets absence and blocks existential anxiety.
#complicates(0.75) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 237