Religious Function

one of the consequences of postmodernism seems to be the rise of religious fundamentalism, as a form of resistance to the questioning of the "grand narratives" of religious truth



Power and Creation of Perspectives
taken from TEN QUESTIONS by Joel Charon
...
What I have not empasized is that perspectives are often shaped to some extent by the powerful in society. Marx and Mannheim note how the powerful create ideologies, exaggerated and even outmoded perspectives on reality used for the purpose of defending the status quo, that is, their own power, privilege, and prestige in society. Dictators teach people to obey, arguing that order is necessary now and that obedience will someday bring prosperity for all. The upper class teaches people that what it has it deserves and has worked hard for. Slave owners teach slaves and others the justification of slavery, especially the religious justification, and racists inevitably have a whole set of ideas they try to teach others to justify inequality.


Man's Ontological Interest
taken from CRITIQUE OF RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY by Walter Kaufmann
...
From men's submission to totalitarian governments it has often been inferred that men, far from feeling any deep need to create or love, have a profound need to submit. But totalitarianism has never yet succeeded where creative freedom was the alternative.


The Social Function of Dictatorship
taken from THE DEMOCRATIC AND AUTHORITARIAN STATE by Franz Neumann
...
Large scale technology on the one hand may imply the total dependance of the industrial population upon a complex, integrated mechanism, which can be operated only in a highly organized, stratified, and hierarchic system. This system must instill the virtues of discipline, obedience, and subordination- no matter who owns the means of production. Thus, modern industrialism preaches the very virtues which every authoritarian political system seeks to cultivate. These virtues are repressive because they are opposed to man's self determination.