PROJECTION THEORYLudwig Feuerbach

(1804 – 1872)

“Religion is the dream of the human mind but even in dreams we do not find ourselves in emptiness or in heaven, but on Earth, in the realm of reality.”

- Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach

LUDWIG ANDREAS FEUERBACH

German Philosopher and Anthropologist

Known as the Father of Modern Atheism

Member of the “left-wing Hegilianist” or “Left Hegelian” circles

Born on 28 July 1804 at Landshut, Bavaria

Died on 13 Sept 1872 at Rechenberg, Germany

Famous Work: “Das Weses des Christentums” (which was translated into English by George Eliot: “The Essence of Religion”)

Feuerbach came from a family of “Lutherans”.

He was the fourth son of a liberal-minded Protestant lawyer and professor, the famous Anselm Feuerbach.

His father was the first Protestant to be elected to a chair at the University of Bavaria which was then dominated by Catholics.

He showed enthusiasm for religious studies early in his lifetime by learning Hebrew during highschool.

He advanced his education by studying Theology at the University of Heidelberg.

He then transferred to Berlin and became a student of Georg Hegel whose teachings interested him greatly.

He accepted the Hegelian philosophy but eventually parted ways with his teacher’s doctrines.

He have come to reject Hegel’s notion of religion where it was placed as a grand part of the dialectic movement of history.

He saw the passing away of religion as a key to the progress of the scientific society.

GOD is a PROJECTION of the HUMAN MIND.

“…The object of any subject is nothing else than the subject's own nature taken objectively. Such as are a man's thoughts and dispositions, such is his God.”

-an Excerpt from the Essence of Christianity,

Ludwig Feuerbach

The idea of God stems from man’s (outward) projection of his own (inward) nature.

Man is turning his subjective nature into an object which is independent from him.

This is caused by man’s desire for COMFORT, SECURITY and MEANING.

The melancholic feeling of a void, of discontent, of loneliness, needed a God in whom there is society, a union of beings fervently loving each other.

Humans have these desires because they are “displaced” and they are coping with the realities of the physical world around them, the emotional drives within them and searching for their place in the world.

The physical world can be HOSTILE so humans seek SHELTER.

The emotional life can be CHAOTIC so humans seek STABILITY and FULFILLMENT.

The search for MEANING can be DISCOURAGING so humans seek HOPE.

Humans project the fulfillment of their desires,

thus, they create a God who answers them.

According to Paul Schilling…

[The Given]MAN’S EXISTENCE / LIFE = pain,

frustration, failure, anxiety, heart-breaking injustice, awareness of finitude and approaching death

[The Problem]MAN LONGS FOR unlimited fulfillment,

perfect happiness and everlasting life

[The Solution]MAN’S SOLUTION = He posits a God who

will realize for him in another world the wishes which are thwarted here on Earth as well as the evils which are devastating here.

[The Answer] = But this God is nothing else than the illusory externalization of human hopes.

THE REAL QUESTIONS NOW ARE…

Are humans truly displaced? Is God only a projection? Does the concept of God stems from

deep-seated wishes? Is RELIGION ‘confused anthropology’? Must we, as Feuerbach did, end up as

Atheists?

HUMAN DISPLACEMENT

Starting point of Feuerbach’s theory: human nature

Humans are needy and searching, intelligent and learning, and able to be both a subject and an object (through meta-cognition)

“Man is nothing without REASON, WILL AND AFFECTION”.

Likewise, man is also nothing without an (external) object.

External objects (e.g. physical world, other human beings): Humans discover themselves and becomes conscious of their own nature – “species-beings”

In the process, humans reason, will and love (in relation to external objects) and becomes SELF-CONSCIOUS.

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS [as described by Feuerbach] is: a being that is becoming objective to itself

Self-consciousness enables an individual to be a subject and an object at the same time and makes him/her confused

They mistake their own objective nature for something distinct from themselves (e.g. God, spirits) and displaces their own.

GOD AS PROJECTION

The core of Feuerbach’s philosophy of religion

It follows from human displacement God is only a projection of perfected

human nature:“Man—this is the mystery of religion—

projects his being into objectivity, and then again makes himself an object to this projected image of himself thus converted into an object.”

Religious persons see the positive elements of their nature and through wish and imagination extend them to perfections.

Nature becomes supernatural, power becomes omnipotence, and knowledge becomes omniscience.

Individuals are the ones projecting but what they project is the consummation of all human qualities; the potentialities of all the human species.

Self-conscious individuals view their human nature abstracted from finitude and place upon it the title “God”.

This leads humans to project and attribute to “God” all perfected human qualities.

DEEP-SEATED WISHES

“God is only a projection of positive attributes of human nature because that is what humans want.”

“God springs out of a feeling of want.” – God is nothing but the fulfillment of our inner and most central desires.

Sigmund Freud: “…religious ideas, which are given out as teachings, are illusions, fulfillments of the oldest, strongest, and most urgent wishes of mankind.”

RELIGION AS CONFUSED ANTHROPOLOGY

Human displacement, projection and wishes = Religion as ‘confused anthropology’

When we understand religion, we are not learning about God but rather of ourselves.

Anthropology (the science of human beings): God is reducible to humankind.

ATHEISM

If God is man himself then there is no God.

Man: unique, universal and highest object of philosophy

Atheistic Humanism: revolution from God-centeredness to human-centeredness

SUMMARY

God is a projection on the part of man. Man is the ultimate reality. God is merely “man writ large.”

All the things we think God is are not descriptions of God but what we would like to think God is like. In fact we are only describing ourselves (e.g. spirit, perfect love = human qualities).

God is the imaginary focus of all our human desires and longing for excellence or perfection.

CONCLUSION

Feuerbach contributed to the rise of inquiry into religious epistemology by posing the great questions regarding human conceptions of God.

Feuerbach challenges the religious experientialists to take a further look and question whether they have made God in their own image, whether things seem to be too good to be true, and whether they can provide any warrant for their theology.

Feuerbach reminds scholastic theologians that humans are psychological beings attempting to cope with the world around them and that many run to religion for these very reasons.

Feuerbach wanted man to center upon his own earthly progress by getting rid of the other-worldliness which has for so long characterized religion and let him realize his true potentials in the world.

Feuerbach wanted to implement a universal humanism that would better society.

Feuerbach believed that religion as traditionally understood was a hindrance to man’s proper development in the world.

FEUERBACH SAID…

“Consciousness of God is self-consciousness, knowledge of God is

self-knowledge.  By his God thou knowest man, and by the man his God;

the two are identical.”

“If therefore my work is negative, irreligious, atheistic, let it be

remembered that atheism—at least in the sense of this work—is the secret of

religion itself.”

“The present age... prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the

original, fancy to reality, the appearance to the essence... for in

these days illusion only is sacred, truth profane.”

“I would rather be a devil in alliance with truth, than an angel in alliance with

falsehood.”

- THE END -

SOURCES:

http://www.nndb.com/people/964/000094682/

http://meta-religion.com/Philosophy/Articles/Philosophy_of_religion/critique_of_ludwig.htm

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ludwig_Andreas_Feuerbach