Seeking ever-larger worldviews is a defense against death anxiety, not a search for truth
Evidence
The scheme of things is a system of order…. It is self-evidently true, is accepted so naturally and automatically that one is not aware of an act of acceptance having taken place…. We seek the largest possible scheme of things, not in a reaching out for truth, but because the more comprehensive the scheme the greater its promise of banishing dread. If we can make our lives mean something in a cosmic scheme we will live in the certainty of immortality. — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 94
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: A compact, counterintuitive reframe: the motive behind cosmic worldview-building is dread-banishment, not truth-seeking. Dense enough to sit with.
- XREF: Connects to Becker’s and later terror management theory claims about cultural worldviews as immortality projects.
Related
- Cultural worldviews evolved to buffer humans against death terror. (similarity 0.82)
- Death-awareness drives humans to cling to cultural worldviews and self-esteem (similarity 0.80)
- Cultural worldviews structure conscious experience to mask death’s inevitability (similarity 0.79)
- Threatening cherished beliefs brings thoughts of death closer to awareness (similarity 0.79)