chapter 21

The most interesting part of chapter 21 to me, was the quote: “seemingly common matters, as William James reminds us, have important meaning for the religious mind.” This says a lot because when it talks about how before the days where we could or at least tried to explain everything, anything we did not understand was connected to God. Religion was the explanation that didn’t need explanation. This is probably why I’m atheist, because I have something in my genes that just wants an explanation for everything, I can’t help it. It’s interesting to think about because people still use symbols to connect them to a divine being, but it says that for people like me symbols are still important. This seemed obvious to me when I read it, however, I didn’t think of them as being important because they connect to an “unconscious part of my psyche.” I actually first thought of symbols being important to me for the use of communication on a broad level including advertising and even things like facebook. The idea of there being hidden meanings common things is interesting because we previously discussed how the things may only have meaning by the meanings we assign to them or associate with them. This could cause many common things to have a very different meaning for each individual person. I believe this is true. I somewhat think that Freud and others underestimate our ability to recognize the unconscious significance of our actions. I think now, I at least often over analyze what I do and say and what others do and say and what it might mean aside from the obvious meaning. I do agree though, that everything we do and common things we see everywhere are “loaded with symbolic significance.”


when you can't decide what to do...flip a coin. not because of where it will land, but because in that brief moment when it's in the air you realize what you're really wising for.
-manifest vs. latent functions of something