Immortality, Religion & Morals
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The idea of immortality has been addressed by many different philosophers either testing the evidence or speculating on the meaning of immortality, with some determining that there is life after death, some deciding that there is not, and some finding the question itself to be meaningless. Interesting as many of the arguments may be, in the final analysis this is a question that is answered by faith rather than reason. It is something that is believed rather than proven one way or the other. It is also the subject of Ashley Montagu's book Immortality, Religion, and Morals. A portion of this book was delivered as a series of lectures before the Ebenezer Butterick Foundation at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences in New York in 1951. The subject of these lectures was "immortality," and they have been augmented with essays on religion and morals for this volume. Much of religion is concerned with the notion of the afterlife and with the behavior in this life that leads to a certain kind of afterlife. Many ancient peoples showed their belief in immortality through burial customs that sent the departed individual to the afterlife with many of his or her possessions, presumably so they could be used there as well. Immortality as a concept is seductive, since we do not want the short span of our lives on earth to be all that there is and since we also want to feel that our life on earth has some deeper meaning and purpose.
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support for those who must put up with the ups and downs of this life.
Montagu looks at the issue of religion as an anthropologist, noting first that religion is the system of formal rules by which man relates to the universe. Under such a broad definition, science could be described as religion, as could certain political movements. Montagu says that a belief in supernaturals could be the core of the religious state, and the core of religion for the state and the individual is a belief in powers outside oneself. Sir Francis Bacon stated that religion was the main bond of human society, one that was already breaking down in his time. The anthropologist looks at religion in a certain way. The anthropologist examines the individual in relationship to the whole, and studies show that the objective forms we give our religions are influenced by our experience as individuals. Our gods, goddesses, and devils may be projections of our parental figures. Montagu cites studies showing correlations between parental discipline and the forms of religious belief. The life of the gods is a projection of the life of man, writ large. Even people without gods may be religious. Nonliterate people draw supernatural power from their totemic
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Approximate Word count = 2300
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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