Pals Essay

Did you know that almost all African Americans were homeless during the Great Depression? Well, they were, and so was Bud Caldwell! Bud Caldwell is a ten-year-old African American boy. He is the main character in the book, Bud, Not Buddy, written by Christopher Paul Curtis. After Bud's mother died when he was six, Bud went to an orphanage. Then, Bud went to a foster family, but the Amoses were very mean to him. So, Bud ran away. Bud started trying to find his father in the hopes that he may not be an orphan anymore, and so that he wouldn't be treated so awful. Bud, Not Buddy would be a different book if it were written in a white person's perspective because white people got things that African Americans didn't, white people thought that they were better than African Americans, Bud would have been treated better, and he would not have been surprised when he found out that the Amoses had hot water running into their house.

...illusions, fulfillments of the oldest, strongest and most urgent wishes of mankind . . . As

Freud illuminates with slight sarcasm how convenient religion is in it's ability to rectify all the trials and tribulations of life for us. "Everything that happens in this world is an expression of the intentions of an intelligence superior to us, which in the end, though its ways and byways are difficult to follow, orders everything for the best." (Freud, 23) The existence of this divine creature who creates justice for us ensures that the masses will not stray from the laws and beliefs of religion and society for fear of being judged by this entity. Religion is also valuable to civilization for it's ability to explain death. Thanks to religion, death became something other than simply the termination of a life. Death stopped being the end and was recasted into the role of a doorway to another existence. As though knowing that the continuation of life were not enough, religion furthers it's own appeal by promising that the afterlife will be better than life on Earth. The afterlife itself also serves a function as well. A desire to gain entry into this afterlife will cause many of the masses to renounce their instincts.

Of all the forms of literature, the most interesting might be the fairytales, or the science fiction thriller about robots. However, there lacks the sense of truth, in a way blocking the reader from true connection with the story. Memoir is real, memoir is true, and memoir can range from any end of the ocean in structure and theme.

In the study of religion, one can quickly discern that there are two major differentiations between the anthropological definition of religion, and that of religion in the context of belief systems. Religion, in the context of anthropology, can often be related to social institutions. On the other hand, religion in the context of belief systems indicate faith in something or someone...such as oneself, a god, or object. As identified by scholar Clifford Geertz, the anthropological definition of religion is “a system of symbols which acts to (1) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (2) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (3) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality

Clifford Geertz, in his essay “Religion as a Cultural System”, presents what he considers to be the definition of religion. According to him, religion is about symbols and people use these symbols as a guide for their view of the world and how they should behave in that world. Religion, states Geertz is “a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic” (Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, page 90). What he is trying to do in this essay is provide the reader with a way of understanding religion by

Freud mainly focuses on human nature and questions the desire, ideas ,and beliefs that shape a human, he then further analyses them. We see in his literature, Civilization and its Disconnect, that he questions religion and the belief in God. He himself does not believe in God, but wants to know why many people follow and trust something that they cannot see. He also questions the concept of human relationships. Knowing that a two person relationship and interaction is inevitable and that it is a part of life, but he does not know if a third relationship, and further on, is necessary. Regardless, human relationships are a part of society, and one of causes of civilizations, which Freud defines as “the whole some of achievement and the regulations which distinguish our lives” (Freud). With one of the achievements

They both see the values of society as being a result of and necessary for civilization, rather than natural phenomena. Both theorists see guilt as stemming from a restriction of humanity’s natural urges, Nietzsche believing that it was a tool used by the priests to control the masses. Freud on the other hand thought it developed from a repression of humanity’s aggression towards one another. Equally, Freud and Nietzsche show a similar disdain for religion, the former seeing it as a delusional, infantile way to limit the pain and suffering that existence brings with it and the latter, due to what he sees as the transvaluation of values that the Judeo-Christian religions have brought about and the perceived cultural inaction that stems from this. As well as this, Nietzsche disliked the apparent inherited debt that comes with Christianity and the obligated guilt from Christ’s

Freud examined much of psychoanalysis and trends that were affected by it. Freud disagreed with religion to full extent. He believed that there needed to different tasks accomplished by the individuals that made up the society but in difference will lead to capitalism and the destruction of the social structure.

Although Freud argues that these religious values should not be accepted due to the absence of proof; people find interest in the information, connection to ones beliefs and answers to otherwise indefinable questions through religion. The three claims made to support religious foundation are: beliefs practiced and shared by ancestors, possession of proofs and it is socially forbidden to raise questions regarding evidence supporting religious ideas (p. 33). Freud is quick to rebut these claims with three reasons to be suspicious. He begins by denouncing the ancestors who passed down these religious doctrines as being too ignorant to trust. He then condemns the proofs as impossible to judge for any truth as a result of being “full of contradictions, revisions and falsifications” (p. 33). He finally stated that the third claim was the most suspicious of all, pronouncing that openly reproaching the question of authenticity was a clear declaration of society’s insecurity with the religious doctrines. Freud fails to understand how religion has the ability to assume such great influence over civilization without any unequivocal evidence supporting its ideas. His rebuttal successfully casts a sense of foolishness and absurdity on the inadequate and irrational claims. The claims themselves seem to be grasping for any semi-valid idea or at least an idea which proves difficult to question. Although society thinks they are showing respect and good

An example of this is in his other book, Moses and Monotheism, Freud tries to apply his theory to Judaism and Christianity. According to Freud, Moses was an Egyptian who forced his religion upon the Jews. The Jews, in a manic state, kill Moses on the mountain just outside of the Promised Land. This created a large-scale sense of guilt, which created the need for salvation expressed by these religions: ‘Remorse for the murder of Moses provided the stimulus for the wishful fantasy of the Messiah, who was to return and lead his people to redemption.’ Freud also goes on to say in The Future of an Illusion that ‘religion is the collective neurosis of humanity’. He notes that there are similarities to obsessive compulsions in religion. For example, prayers/worship is to be performed exactly, repeated, anxiety if omitted and a sense of relief once ritualised. The sense of guilt if these criteria are not met is parallel to the guilt held from killing the dominant male as primal hordes. Freud claims that religion protects us from developing individual neuroses which may not be accepted by society. Because religion is a part of our culture and therefore accepted, it is not seen as a defect. There is a need for protection from a father figure (infantilism), and in this respect Freud rebrands Feuerbach’s theories of ‘projection’ of the perfect being to ‘wish-fulfilment’, and of desired infantile protection. Freud says that the female counterpart to this

3) Clifford Geertz’s definition of religion is an accurate reflection of the basic tenet of religion. Geertz argues that religion is based solely on the concepts of symbols and the impacts that symbols have on the practitioners of the religion. Geertz demonstrates that symbols give a meaning to life. The symbols give practitioners something to hold onto at all times. Geertz’s definition of symbols and their impacts fits the use of symbols in many religious practices including the religions of the Huichol Indians and the Amish sect of the Protestant Christian church.

Weber was concerned to demonstrate, contrary to Marx's thought, that culture was not reducible to the economic aspect of a society. Weber insisted that culture was to be considered as an autonomous value-sphere of any society. We might define such a value-sphere as; "..a distinct realm of activity which has its own inherent dignity and in which certain values, norms, obligations are inherent." (Brubaker:1983) Not only is this value-sphere of culture autonomous but, for Weber, it has the ability to construct forms of economic activity! For Weber, culture is seen as an agent in the production and maintenance of social relations. For

Max Weber believed the religion is a deeply rooted institution that has shaped people’s image of the world, which in turn can impact their beliefs and motives. For instance, religion is used different amongst people of various class and statues. Individuals with high class and statues will use religion legitimate their circumstances and their situation in the world. On the other end of the spectrum, underprivileged individuals will lean toward religion that promise rewards for hard work and good morals (CSP). In addition, Weber believed that religion had supplied the framework that aided the development of various social institution, in particular the economy (PA).

When considering religion, various theories by Sigmund Freud can be quite controversial yet interesting. Some of Freud’s theories and views with regards to religion involve; the origin of religion, the basis of guilt or sin for obedience, and God as a heavenly father a mere projection made by humans based on their needs. Before going into depth on some of the theories of Freud, we can gather from his book Totem and Taboo, that he was in fact of Jewish background and ultimately an atheist as he describes himself as “in his eternal nature a jew with no desire to alter that nature” but also “completely estranged from the religion of his father and any other religion” (Freud 1930). We can also gather that Freud had a reductionist approach, which argues “objects or beliefs, including super human entities, are nothing more than human constructions that can be ‘reduced’ to human basics”. (Nye 2009) Within this approach it continues to also reduce God to “merely what humans want him/her/it to be, a projection of one of more aspects of human behavior.” (Nye