Theism Soothes the Existential Angst

[Veritas Aequitas]

The God of Christianity and Islam comprising the majority of theists is fundamentally claimed to be absolutely perfect [in power, morality and other features] so no other gods can do a one-up on them, thus such a God would have the ability to create the universe, grant eternal life and set the moral standard.

Where is your evidence?
Most people do not even think about god in detail. For most people it is a vague idea something so do with creation.
Mostly people are too busy to care.
And the main reason people are Christians is not because of angst, or worry or fear. It is because they are brought up that way. From the earliest age they have it stuffed into them, unquestioningly. That is why type of religion correlates directly to place of birth more than any other factor.
People just grow up with the assumptions and myth of their culture.
You can rationalise all you like but generally people grow up with a set of unexamined beliefs and exceptionalisms and when challenged usually go on the defensive rather than unpack their delusions.

Read again,
"The God of Christianity and Islam [comprising the majority of theists] is fundamentally claimed to be absolutely perfect [in power, morality and other features] .... "
So, it is in PRINCIPLE that the God for both Christianity and Islam are claimed to be Perfect, so this principle is imposed on all these believers by default.

I did not claim that all Christians and Muslims personally make the claim their God is perfect.

It is true many Christians and Muslims are born and did not choose their religion.
Many are Christians or Muslims by name only.
Since ALL humans are infected with the inherent Existential Crisis and Angst as a feature of being human, many they are inevitably drawn towards it due to the existential angst in a range of degrees.

When challenged, they will surely bring up the doctrinal point that their God is the greatest and perfect to justify how their God created the universe and that their God is not inferior to another.

Here are quotes from the Bible;
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).
As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him (Psalm 18:30).
Re Islam:

https://islamqa.info/en/answers/247961/ ... ortcomings

Question: Hello, does the Quran state that Allah is perfect? If not, do Muslims believe that Allah I perfect?
Answer:
The Muslims are unanimously agreed in their belief that Allah, may He be exalted, is possessed of the utmost perfection and that He is above all shortcomings, no matter how small or insignificant. All the Muslim scholars have ascribed absolute perfection to Allah, may He be exalted,

By examining the texts of the Holy Quran, we find that Allah, may He be exalted, has described Himself with attributes of perfection.

Most Christians do not know these quotes from the bible and so not care. Same is true for other religions.
It is your delusion that you think people care about the logical examination of god, they do not.

That is where you're ignorant and your thinking is narrow and shallow.

I agree a % of believers don't give a damn with the theology of their religion and merely based on faith to soothe the inherent existential angst in at least the minimal degree.

The main point of this OP is to address theistic religion-as-a-whole, not the individual theists. You are barking up the wrong tree.

Note just a day ago, Times Square 'terrorist'.
Throughout the history of theistic religions, believers driven by their doctrine had caused terrible terrors, violence and sufferings to non-believers and others.

When it is demonstrated that theistic religion is grounded on the unreal, i.e. illusion,
as demonstrated in the OP,
then we can progress to degrade the credibility of theistic religion such that theists will move on to adopt secular approaches [or non-theistic religions] to soothe the inevitable and unavoidable existential angst.

Do you have a better argument to counter theism?

You're a fucking idiotic ignorant bastard.

[Veritas Aequitas]

You have proved that you are an idiot when it comes to philosophy so why don't you sooooooothe your existential angst and FUCK OFF?

An idiot is one who do not justify his diarrhoea-of-the mouth with arguments.
Your angry response is merely a fight [not flight] impulse to soothe your existential angst.
If you were a Muslim you would likely kill me as sanctioned by Allah - that how dangerous is the existential crisis for theists.

As with most theists, you cannot handle the fact that you will die inevitably [that is very painful subliminally] so you resort to God based on faith as a crutch to soothe that existential crisis; this is activated subliminally.

Oh, ok.

So HOW does believing that after death I might burn in Hell forever for hiccuping too many times, somehow soooooooothe an existential fear of death for theists!!?

Isn't that very obvious??
If one believe that one might burn in Hell surely one will be triggered and trembled with terrible fears of humongous degrees, consciously and subconsciously.
The religious HELL is not merely associated with being burnt in Hell eternally but include all sort of terrible tortures and sufferings any normal person would definitely want to avoid.
Note Dante's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_(Dante)

Btw, the fear of Hell is not directly related [not primary] to the existential fear of death, i.e. the existential crisis or angst manifested consciously at times and subliminally at all times; this state generate terrible cognitive dissonances which are VERY painful mentally.

When Christians and Muslims [theists] enter into a contract with their God they are promised eternal life and that will provide consonance that contra the dissonances, thus soothing the existential angst. Note John 3:16 for example and it is similar with Islam.
It is SO EASY, just believe and viola! one's existential angst is soothed immediately!. This experience is so commonly expressed in testimonies by believers.

Not every theist believe in Hell.
Thus the primary reason of theism is the promised and assurances of an eternal life in heaven to soothe the existential angst.

For those who believe in Hell, the avoidance of going to eternal Hell is a bonus in addition to being assured of eternal life.

ALL humans are infected with the inherent unavoidable existential crisis or angst pulsating subliminally from the inner depths of their psyche.
For other theists who are not theological or religious based, their theistic beliefs will naturally and effectively soothe their existential angst at the subliminal levels.
It is a matter of just 'feel right' [or comfortable and soothing] with the consonances at work; when challenged they will feel uneasy because of the dissonances, thus the retorting and blasting from you when you are thrown with rational alternative views.

[Iwannaplato]

It is a matter of just 'feel right' [or comfortable and soothing] with the consonances at work; when challenged they will feel uneasy because of the dissonances, thus the retorting and blasting from you when you are thrown with rational alternative views.

Sort of like how VA reacts to Peter Holmes.

In the previous post VA fails to explain why something that is supposed to have the function of soothing so often has elements of terror inducing facets.

[attofishpi]

An idiot is one who do not justify his diarrhoea-of-the mouth with arguments.
Your angry response is merely a fight [not flight] impulse to soothe your existential angst.
If you were a Muslim you would likely kill me as sanctioned by Allah - that how dangerous is the existential crisis for theists.

As with most theists, you cannot handle the fact that you will die inevitably [that is very painful subliminally] so you resort to God based on faith as a crutch to soothe that existential crisis; this is activated subliminally.

Oh, ok.

So HOW does believing that after death I might burn in Hell forever for hiccuping too many times, somehow soooooooothe an existential fear of death for theists!!?

Isn't that very obvious??
If one believe that one might burn in Hell surely one will be triggered and trembled with terrible fears of humongous degrees, consciously and subconsciously.

So, how remind me again...how does a theist believing they may burn in hell for eternity sooooooooothe their existential angst?

[Veritas Aequitas]

Oh, ok.

So HOW does believing that after death I might burn in Hell forever for hiccuping too many times, somehow soooooooothe an existential fear of death for theists!!?

Isn't that very obvious??
If one believe that one might burn in Hell surely one will be triggered and trembled with terrible fears of humongous degrees, consciously and subconsciously.

So, how remind me again...how does a theist believing they may burn in hell for eternity sooooooooothe their existential angst?

You have that effrontery when your question is merely a strawman.
I did not mention hell in the OP.
Read the OP and ask the relevant question!

I have answered your question [strawman anyway] as I have read and understood it with the Principle of Charity.

1. A theist believing they may burn in hell for eternity will suffer terrible worries and mental anguish - as a secondary effect of their existential angst.
2. When a person becomes a theist he is assured he will not go to hell -thus the relief.
3. If a person is assured he will not go hell, his existential angst is soothed.

My main point is,
the self-awareness of one's inescapable inevitable death generate a cognitive dissonance which generate an existential crisis, angst or death anxieties.
Being a theist [implying a support of an all powerful God] earning a promise of eternal life soothe is an immediate consonance to contra the dissonance, thus soothing the existential angst.

[attofishpi]

Isn't that very obvious??
If one believe that one might burn in Hell surely one will be triggered and trembled with terrible fears of humongous degrees, consciously and subconsciously.

So, how remind me again...how does a theist believing they may burn in hell for eternity sooooooooothe their existential angst?

You have that effrontery when your question is merely a strawman.
I did not mention hell in the OP.
Read the OP and ask the relevant question!

I have answered your question [strawman anyway] as I have read and understood it with the Principle of Charity.

1. A theist believing they may burn in hell for eternity will suffer terrible worries and mental anguish - as a secondary effect of their existential angst.
2. When a person becomes a theist he is assured he will not go to hell -thus the relief.
3. If a person is assured he will not go hell, his existential angst is soothed.

My main point is,
the self-awareness of one's inescapable inevitable death generate a cognitive dissonance which generate an existential crisis, angst or death anxieties.
Being a theist [implying a support of an all powerful God] earning a promise of eternal life soothe is an immediate consonance to contra the dissonance, thus soothing the existential angst.

lol. And so to you THE reason that people decide to believe there is a God is this "sooooothing of an angst" - a fear of death!!

So all my relatives that passed on (as atheists) somehow, had NO fear of death OTHERWISE they would have become theists?

[vegetariantaxidermy]

So, how remind me again...how does a theist believing they may burn in hell for eternity sooooooooothe their existential angst?

You have that effrontery when your question is merely a strawman.
I did not mention hell in the OP.
Read the OP and ask the relevant question!

I have answered your question [strawman anyway] as I have read and understood it with the Principle of Charity.

1. A theist believing they may burn in hell for eternity will suffer terrible worries and mental anguish - as a secondary effect of their existential angst.
2. When a person becomes a theist he is assured he will not go to hell -thus the relief.
3. If a person is assured he will not go hell, his existential angst is soothed.

My main point is,
the self-awareness of one's inescapable inevitable death generate a cognitive dissonance which generate an existential crisis, angst or death anxieties.
Being a theist [implying a support of an all powerful God] earning a promise of eternal life soothe is an immediate consonance to contra the dissonance, thus soothing the existential angst.

lol. And so to you THE reason that people decide to believe there is a God is this "sooooothing of an angst" - a fear of death!!

So all my relatives that passed on (as atheists) somehow, had NO fear of death OTHERWISE they would have become theists?

Theists fear death as much as non-theists, probably more --especially if they believe in hell

[attofishpi]

Theists fear death as much as non-theists, probably more --especially if they believe in hell

Well this was my point to him. There ain't much soooooooooooothing of 'existential angst' in the fear of death when you ALSO believe you might burn in hell for the rest of eternity!!

The guys a duckin idiot.

I was about six after being told by a black kid that there was no God, when I stood at the side of our sports field and stared at the trees in the distance...and I had an epiphany - it was like I understood there was more to the makeup of reality (there is in light of atoms and the quantum world)....and I made my mind up there, that God exists..!!

VERITAS - IT HAD FUCK ALL TO DO WITH MY SIX YEAR OLD BRAIN FEARING DEATH!!!!

[vegetariantaxidermy]

You are so full of crap.

[attofishpi]

You are so full of crap.

Care to elaborate?

[Iwannaplato]

As Sculptor, hardly a theist, has pointed out, VA is overgeneralizing and is basically arguing in assertions. People are theists primarily because they are born into theism. It is what their families and people around them believe in. So, there are social motivations, tradition, habit, custom all rolled into a ball of motivations that these people have before they, at whatever age in their childhoods begin to realize they will die someday. The fallacy of generalization also denies that people often become theists, that is after not being theists, because of experiences. Perhaps they join a 12 step group and it works for them and they decide that God had a role in this. This kind of becoming theist is fairly common. They were afraid of death, presumably before this, but they decide that what helped them live (better) was religion or belief in God. It doesn't matter, for this topic, whether their epistemology is good or not. Only someone claiming to be a universal mindreader, can blithley claim to have overcome the problem of other minds and tell us what is going on 'really' in these other people.

I don't think any one would deny that facets of religion/theism can be soothing and probably are soothing for many people. But take a look at this post here....

viewtopic.php?p=617044#p617044

It's just a string of assertions, and the language itself is really rather mystical.

[Veritas Aequitas]

lol. And so to you THE reason that people decide to believe there is a God is this "sooooothing of an angst" - a fear of death!!

So all my relatives that passed on (as atheists) somehow, had NO fear of death OTHERWISE they would have become theists?

As I had claimed ALL humans by default of human nature are "infected" with the existential angst 'virus' as I have explained in detail above. [you did not read the relevant posts].

Another point which I have not highlighted is;
while the existential crisis and angst generate a cognitive dissonance thus terrible fears, ALL humans are also programmed with a set of inhibitors to suppress the impulses of the existential angst so that they do not manifest to the conscious levels which if so would paralyze a normal person with constant fear and thus cannot lead a normal life.

It is only at times [in certain conditions] when one is conscious and have some degree of the fear of death and at most it disappear quite immediately as suppressed by the inhibitors. So, how active one is being conscious of the fear of death will depend the strength of one's inhibitors.

If the specific inhibitors are weaken or damage for some reason [in rare cases] then we have a case of thanatophobia which is a mental condition of death anxieties where one is very conscious of one fear of deaths all the time; which would be hinder one to live normally. In this case, psychiatric medical treatment is necessary.

The cognitive dissonance that generate terrible fears of death in the normal person is merely suppressed to avoid it being manifested consciously but it nevertheless exists permanently at the subliminal level with subliminal impulses manifest as as existential angst.
The degree of existential angst varies with the strength of the inhibitors and it manifest as something like 'not knowing where is the source of the itch' and it generate is sort of mental discomfort that drive the person to seek consonance for it.

The easiest consonance to soothe the dissonances as experienced by the majority is surrender to a theistic belief and the relief is immediate. For others it will take some time and also not all will adopt the same type of theism.

As I had stated, whilst ALL humans are infected with the cognitive dissonances [existential angst or crisis], not all will surrender to a theistic belief. Some adopt secular various positive approaches, and negative ones like drugs, pain killers, various habits and addictions, alcohols, and other evil acts to deal with the existential angst.

As for your atheist-relatives, they as normal human beings will be 'infected' with the cognitive dissonance and the arising fear of death manifesting consciously at some time but at all the time subliminally. Thus there is no way they [normal people] are without any 'fear of death'

For some reason, they did not opt for theism.
If they have strong inhibitors and modulator they would be ok, but if their inhibitors are not strong, they would be alcoholic, drug addicts, involve in crimes, pain killer addicts and various crimes to cover for the cognitive dissonances of the existential angst.

[Veritas Aequitas]

Theists fear death as much as non-theists, probably more --especially if they believe in hell

I was about six after being told by a black kid that there was no God, when I stood at the side of our sports field and stared at the trees in the distance...and I had an epiphany - it was like I understood there was more to the makeup of reality (there is in light of atoms and the quantum world)....and I made my mind up there, that God exists..!!

VERITAS - IT HAD FUCK ALL TO DO WITH MY SIX YEAR OLD BRAIN FEARING DEATH!!!!

It is not likely at six you would have any thing equivalent to the following ideas, i.e.
"(there is in light of atoms and the quantum world)".

My claim is;
ALL humans are 'infected' with the potential for an existential angst via the DNA, i.e. even before 'you' are conceived.
It is not like that this potential would have been active when one is born as a baby or toddler.

How come you are so ignorant that a 6 years old do have the fear of death??
Even a new born and baby will fear death [instinctively], manifested as the ability to cry so effectively as to draw adults' attention to ensure the baby will survive and not die.
See how ignorant you are and you are arguing the rest of your points based on ignorance.

But if at 6 you have had that epiphany, then your existential angst would have been activated, albeit slightly.
However I believe you could only have considered the existence of God seriously as a consonance to your cognitive dissonance at much later age than 6.

[Dontaskme]

Really? You agree with him? So where am I soooothing some 'existential angst' from a 'FEAR or DEATH' - when I have REQUESTED to GOD that I be DEAD FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY..???

Idiots.

Yes I agree with him.

Humans know they are going to die. This can cause a feeling of 'existential angst'

Same can be said about knowing you are alive. This too can cause a feeling of 'existential angst'

Life is not for every one, some people fear living, as they fear dying.

What's most horrific here is that no one chooses to live or die...and that too can cause a feeling of 'existential angst'


So do dream on Atto for all it's worth, my dear fair-weather friend.... your request to be dead forever is a pipe-dream, it's just a fantasized ideal, that will NEVER be in your control, EVER.

And NO, your so called imagined God will not grant you your request, simply because you would never even know you were dead, even if that request was granted to you.

So, I think it's time for you to face the truth once and for all Atto, and stop pissing not only yourself off, but others too.

[Iwannaplato]

My claim is;
ALL humans are 'infected' with the potential for an existential angst via the DNA, i.e. even before 'you' are conceived.

Nope. Animals, including humans, will protect their bodies. They fear threats to the body. This is built in. But what, as far as we know, sets humans apart is that they can think about the future. They can learn about what happens to people (aging, death). Other animals as far as we know do not project into the future in this way. The kind of existential angst VA is talking about is something that we learn through becoming aware of death.
So, he's just making stuff up here.

It is not like that this potential would have been active when one is born as a baby or toddler.

How come you are so ignorant that a 6 years old do have the fear of death??
Even a new born and baby will fear death [instinctively], manifested as the ability to cry so effectively as to draw adults' attention to ensure the baby will survive and not die.
See how ignorant you are and you are arguing the rest of your points based on ignorance.

This is just silly. The baby is not fearing death. It is feeling fear, sometimes, yes, but it is not death. There is a separation anxiety. It is safer for the baby to be near a parent. So, they cry to draw the parent to them. But this is a confused notion of causation to attribute the function with a trait to the nature of the emotion/cognition. The baby is not thinking about death. The fear of death comes in later when the child can conceive of no longer being alive.

This is a very common misunderstanding. Traits that survive natural selection either have a benefit or lack of harm to the organism. Babies craving contact and closeness and fearing isolation is not a sign of the fear of death, even if it protects the baby (and also attracts closeness which the baby wants.)

But if at 6 you have had that epiphany, then your existential angst would have been activated, albeit slightly.
However I believe you could only have considered the existence of God seriously as a consonance to your cognitive dissonance at much later age than 6.

He's just making stuff up. There is no genetic existential angst activated later. This is hallucinated.