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Religion In Brave New World

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In the twentieth-century, Science and technology have had a significant impact on society, and their implications are continuing to grow. By drastically changing our means of communication, the way we work, clothes, and food, methods of transportation, and, even the length and quality of life itself, science has generated changes in the moral values and basic philosophies of humanity (James Burk, Jules Burgman, and Isaac Asimov, 1985). Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, presents the idea of what the twentieth-century society could become “if the values of order, profit, and power continue to prevail over spontaneous creativity, mutual respect, and pleasure, and cooperative idealism” (James Burk, Jules Burgman, and Isaac Asimov, 1985). The theme …show more content…

To emphasize, in Brave New World, John the Savage attends the death of Linda (a friend of his) and is repelled by the idea of religion being restrained. The World Controller, Mustapha Mond, who is responsible for conditioning the young, explains that “this new world takes the concept of religion and alters it in this [new] society in which God isn’t compatible with machinery, science, and happiness” (Huxley, 6). This quotation demonstrates how science, in this new society, replaced religious symbolism, to be ultimately replaced with technological symbolism. Consequently, Mustapha Mond is trying to create a Utopian society where the Solidarity Service and the communion of Soma—a drug that relaxes the mind—replaces religion. Additionally, the idea of religion has also been questioned and ridiculed by Mustapha Mond. His states that, “What follows? Evidently, that we can be independent of God. The religious sentiment will compensate us for all our losses. But there aren't any losses for us to compensate; religious sentiment is superfluous” (Huxley, 65). This quotation demonstrates his animosity towards religion and therefore shows that the society he designed, is trapped and made to make no mistakes and feel completely neutral about everything. Correspondingly, Individuals in Brave New World have no reason for self-denial. Henceforth, “God” in the brave new world is replaced by Henry Ford—head of the Ford Motor Company. Near the ending of the novel, a discussion happens about God, and this is when many of the flaws of Brave New World are exposed. To demonstrate, Mustapha Mond, when referring to the Holy Bible says that, “they’re old; they’re about God hundreds of years ago, not about God” (Huxley, 237). What he’s saying

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