Religion and Reality

The inherent violence of Earthly life requires us to take from our environment to survive.  
This contradiction between a known and loving God[s] and a reality of violence gives rise to religion, which attempts to guide and explain reality to people in way that can be sustained throughout the generations.

Freud spoke of the Gods as reflections of what we experienced with our psyche.  This ruled out more mystic views of our innate capacity for hallucination and coincidence.   Jung spoke of them as archetypes, concepts within the soul along with demons and angels and spirits that represent codes of what we really know.   Mystically the archetype calls us to some kind of indirect or direct experience of unusual coincidence. A Jungian might argue that we don't know for sure whether the coincidence is because of our choice of called on archetype or because of some other variety of event.   The world over mystics of all religions including the mystic atheist Buddhist claim the mystery event.  Modern thinkers like Ouspensky spoke of musical harmony created by the body and mind, leading to periods and moments of great harmony, referred to rather with ill ease as cosmic octaves.  Modern atheists speak of a deception, perhaps they should speak of a deception implied by nature.

 We call on these archetypes, hoping to glimpse some coincidence that proves we do not die eternally, but have some chance to continue.   This is supported by nature to some extent.   The animal is free to roam in what might be a delusion, but seems to be too much a coincidence to be ignored.  If the animal applies too much however to the "mystery" he can become sick.  We fear people who seem sick with religion, because we fear their ferocious violence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIzUTgtZ9_Q
Iron Maiden