Psychology: Religion for the New World
When one thinks about religion and science, it’s easy to point to the tense differences in method and philosophy and see the two realms as distinctly separate. Science is born of structured analysis of fact, religion is arguably based on emotion and simple faith, and so on. Some might even say that advances in science are restructuring societies in general, and that scientific endeavors are largely aimed at debunking long-held misunderstandings about human life once monopolized by religion.
Enter psychology: the science of dissecting human consciousness in an effort to understand the mechanisms behind things like emotion, intuition, faith, hope, love, etc. Back in the day, religion held the reins in these areas, providing explanations about and direction regarding social mores at the core of human behavior: i.e., good and evil. In modern cultures, we tend to look toward psychologists to understand the inner workings that drive people to do what they do, and let our religion stand as simply a personal choice for emotional and social support.
Psychology has, in effect, taken the place of religion for answering the questions of everyday life: coping with grief, conflict resolution, crime and punishment, war and peace. While many still look to religion for philosophical principles, the growing trend of turning to science for life-support through things like medicine, education and social policy is apparent and bucks the trend of the last several millenniums.
No longer do we adhere to “spare the rod and spoil the child,” but rather criminalize the rod and stick junior in “time out.” Gone are the days of swift justice: now, the “justice system” makes every effort to rationalize, minimize or excuse gross misconduct. We train ourselves and others to marginalize Personal Convictions in favor of Political Correctness. We like to believe our New World, enlightened thinking is an advancement in the course of evolution and not just simple brainwashing and reconditioning by this New World “religion.”
Psychology, in effect, is not a new science, but the merging and meshing of science and religion.
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2009/11/11 15:34 -0700Z
I find much of what you say unarguable. A little frustrated, wishing to argue, I ask “What do you think about this? Is it a good trend or not?”
2009/11/12 10:38 -0700Z
@Vincent: It has the potential to be “good.” I’ve suggested before, that our separation from the higher power is largely based in our belief that we have the ability to make the determination of what “should” or “should not” be — we Ate from the Tree of Knowledge between Good and Evil. I believe this is true and creates in us the quandary of trying to determine “good” and “bad.” Our pride and social norms dictate that we must know the difference between right or wrong, which is why we have a propensity to look to external sources (i.e. science, religion, and society [and especially "marketing"]) when our own resources for making judgments are inadequate.
But, this reminds me of what a good friend once said, when I was working IT support: “Everyone’s an expert.” This is especially true in modern cultures, when “knowledge” is available to just about anyone with a few clicks.
However, dismantling religious mystery just for the sake of inserting a “new” scientific mystery to take its place… seems like a gamble, like hedge funds in the stock market. No one has the answers to the universal questions like, “Why are we here, and what are we doing?” So, if the goal is just to supplant one power monger for another, then I think it will not end up “good,” or at least any better than what we’ve been doing all along with religion.