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Single Idea 19576
[filed under theme 29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 1. Religious Commitment / a. Religious Belief
]
Full Idea
Nothing is more indispensable for true religious feeling than an intermediary - which connects us to the godhead. The human being is absolutely incapable of sustaining an immediate relation with this.
Gist of Idea
Religion needs an intermediary, because none of us can connect directly to a godhead
Source
Novalis (Miscellaneous Observations [1798], 073)
Book Ref
Novalis: 'Philosophical Writings', ed/tr. Stoljar,M.M. [SUNY 1997], p.35
A Reaction
I take this to be a defence of priests and organised religion, and an implied attack on protestants who give centrality to private prayer and conscience.
Related Idea
Idea 9257
The complexities of life make it almost impossible to assess morality from a universal viewpoint [Prichard]
The
30 ideas
with the same theme
[nature of belief in a conscious supernatural reality]:
8149
|
Charity and ritual observance distract from the highest good of religion
[Anon (Upan)]
|
1501
|
In their ignorance people pray to statues, which is like talking to a house
[Heraclitus]
|
14527
|
If god answered prayers we would be destroyed, because we pray for others to suffer
[Epicurus]
|
5955
|
No one will ever find a city that lacks religious practices
[Plutarch]
|
8139
|
If you love the world, then you do not love the Father
[John]
|
2365
|
Religion is built on ignorance and misinterpretation of what is unknown or frightening
[Hobbes]
|
19437
|
Prayers are useful, because God foresaw them in his great plan
[Leibniz]
|
19576
|
Religion needs an intermediary, because none of us can connect directly to a godhead
[Novalis]
|
22782
|
To have pagan beliefs and be a pagan are quite different
[Hegel]
|
22793
|
Some religions lead to harsh servitude and the debasement of human beings
[Hegel]
|
21472
|
Only religion introduces serious issues to uneducated people
[Schopenhauer]
|
4180
|
Religion is the mythical clothing of the truth which is inaccessible to the crude human intellect
[Schopenhauer]
|
19449
|
Religion is the consciousness of the infinite
[Feuerbach]
|
19455
|
Today's atheism will tomorrow become a religion
[Feuerbach]
|
6905
|
Absolute idealism is the realized divine mind of Leibnizian theism
[Feuerbach]
|
7128
|
Religion is the opium of the people, and real happiness requires its abolition
[Marx]
|
5299
|
Religious feeling is social in origin
[Marx]
|
4410
|
The truly great haters in world history have always been priests
[Nietzsche]
|
14828
|
Religion is tempting if your life is boring, but you can't therefore impose it on the busy people
[Nietzsche]
|
22877
|
We should try attaching the intensity of religious devotion to intelligent social action
[Dewey]
|
22878
|
Religions are so shockingly diverse that they have no common element
[Dewey]
|
23930
|
Religion sees infinite value in some things, and irrelevance in the rest
[Bell,C]
|
23849
|
Religion should quietly suffuse all human life with its light
[Weil]
|
19600
|
When man abandons religion, he then follows new fake gods and mythologies
[Cioran]
|
19643
|
A religion needs to motivate killings, and cannot tolerate rivals
[Cioran]
|
5320
|
It is estimated that mankind has produced 100,000 religions
[Wilson,EO]
|
12317
|
The God of religion results from an encounter, not from a proof
[Badiou]
|
6706
|
The great religions are much more concerned with the religious life than with ethics
[Graham]
|
7819
|
Religion gives answers, comforts, creates social order, and panders to superstition
[Grayling]
|
7463
|
The three basic ingredients of religion are: the soul, seers or priests, and ritual
[Watson]
|