They say that it is fear of death and of what comes after death that makes men turn to religion as they advance in years.
But my own experience has given me the conviction that, quite apart from any such terrors or imaginings, the religious sentiment tends to develop as we grow older; to develop because, as the passions grow calm, as the fancy and sensibilities are less excited and less excitable, our reason comes less troubles in it’s working, less obscured by the images, desires and distractions, in which it used to be absorbed;
whereupon God emerges as from behind a cloud; our soul feels, sees, turns towards the source of the light; turns naturally and inevitable;
for now that all that gave to the world of sensations it’s life and charm has begun to leak away from us, now that phenomenal existence is no more bolstered up by impressions from within or from without, we feel the need to lean on something that abides, something that will never play false - a reality, an absolute and everlasting truth.
- Cardinal Newman, as quoted in "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
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5 comments:
quite good. Perhaps I'll have to finally give Huxley his due - tell me, though, how does Huxley portray this Cardinal?
not badly. Huxley's not really critical of religion (esp Christianity) in "Brave New World" - it's mentioned as one of the good things that is given up for the shallow "utopia" of perfect social harmony.
the context is where an outsider to the dystopian society meets with the society's top controller, who turns out to be very knowledgeable about subjects such as God and Shakespeare and great literature (which are all absent from the dystopia). they discuss God, and this comes up.
After reading the quote, the controller then comments that they have abolished fear of death and kept youthful sensations alive even as people age - and concludes that they have thus rid people of thoughts that might turn to God.
Regardless of Huxley's specific views on Christianity, I'd recommend the book. The image of a dystopia in this is eerily like our own society in some ways.
True that, if our society has chosen one of the two dystopias, it is clear the choice is "Brave New World" rather than "1984."
YES! you did read brave new world!! such a good book.
im so happy you got around to reading it. I thought it was a bit like 1984, except instead of fear, superficial happiness is employed (with the aid of drugs)
it kinda reflects on today's society even though it was written pretty long ago
I think Huxley didn't have much of a view on Christianity itself- he focused more on the material satisfaction of the society through sex and soma, and classified all religions as a group and made a generic "god"
yeah, but you can tell kinda that Huxley doesn't consider it bad. He makes it sound almost sad that they're giving up religion for their "perfect world"
and yes - thanks for lending me the book =) I'm really glad you had it.
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