Refutation in Thelogical Religion - Essay Example

28 May Refutation in Theological Religion Evolutionary and theological theories have examined religions on various patterns. Modern day cognitive patterns had suggested some considerable ideas regarding the methodology of religion over human consciousness. Historically, there had been proposed solutions from various philosophies and some considerable additions are made by Dostoevsky, Freud and Sartre who had been most important individuals in leading numerous theories to examine how religions always come out with a shield against refutation.

In Dostoevsky (1880), for example it appears that a refutation of religion does not involve only a refutation of theories regarding God and his kingdom but it necessarily involves a refutation to all possible authorities at once. Dostoevsky finds Nihilism to be the only alternative of religion and thus he supports a religious anarchy as a system which may allow human beings to dwell on earth with a piece that he compares to heavenly kingdom. However, on the other hand, handing over complete political authority to church had already shows threatening result which Dostoevsky himself had seen and considered as a result of political and economical lust in theological authorities which must choose to refute all worldly facilities and charms in order to sit on an authoritative position in religion.

Compared to religious view of Dostoevsky, Freud and Sartre- who had borrowed a large part of their theories from Dostoevsky- proposed two analytical alternatives to understand the theory of religion. In his Origin of religion, Freud examines the idea for why men must find out a God whatever his situations are. In Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky mentions there things that are necessary to mankind other than the Heavenly Bread of Bible, those are: Mystery, Miracle and Authority. Freud chooses authority as the reason why men always look for a superior creature that must be controlling at least some of his fate, if not all at once.

Parallel to this idea, (Sartre) describes his theory of ‘bad faith’ to explain for how human being is infinitely free to choose just anything that he is afraid of his freedom and he seeks for a surrender to anything that provide him an alternative of facing his infinite freedom. As most of the empirical theories, including science, necessarily fails to describe about the nature of consciousness (or soul, spirit), the necessity of laws in nature and secret of life, people find out religion as providing them a shelter from their naked responsibility to find out a meaning in their existence.

Resultantly, religion works as self evident system. It claims to provide a certain meaning of life, but reversibly anything that provides a certain meaning of life, becomes a religion. Therefore, their remains no other alternatives but either to accept the religion or to go towards nihilism like Dostoevsky suggested. (Nietzsche) and Albert Camus had claimed for the opportunities that allow living between those two options. However, options of Zarathustra or The Stranger are always significant to consider the shape of lives in a complete refutation of religion.

It is quite evident over those theories that refutation to religion often requires support of an alternative theory, such as science, but there are only two entities that offer an option one is religion and the other is pure philosophy because all other theories find out insolvable and absurd paradoxes at the end of their inquiries. Hens, it appears that ‘being of religion’ provides a non-refutable idea for most of men because it promises a meaning of life and, in most cases, it offers a release from sincerity of worldly affaires which cause immense guilt, pain and sufferings to the individuals trying to live in complete refutation as attempted Camus’s ‘Meursault’ in The Stranger and Dostoevsky’s ‘Raskolnikov’ in Crime and punishment.

Works Cited Camus, Albert. The Stranger. Trans. Stuart Gilbert. New York: VINTAGE BOOKS: Random House, 1946. Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. Trans. Constance Garnett. Random House, 1956. Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov. St. Petersberg: The Russian Messenger, 1880. Freud, Sigmund. Origin of Religion. Penguin Group (UK), n.d. Nietzsche, Friedrich. Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch fur Alle und Keinen. 1883. Sartre, Jean Pal. Being and Nothingness. Washington: Washington Square Press , 1943.