The Spiritual Basis of Fear
Fear is an interesting thing, when viewed from afar, when examined rhetorically and theoretically, when dissected, rather than felt. Fear can be a logical response, as in, you'd be a fool not to feel fear, in specific situations. Then again, as all you Dune fans know, Fear is the Mindkiller. You must transcend your fear and be moved to action rather than frozen in the crosshairs (or high beams). You can feel fear in very real situations: when there's a tractor-trailer bearing down on you, when the airplane has encountered some very *interesting* turbulence, when you walk into an exam room with too little direction and too much riding on the outcome, when you count the guys on your side versus those on the other and come up lacking. There is Fear of the 'what if?' variety, when it looks like something bad is about to happen, there is Fear of the Unknown, when you feel unprepared and then there's automatic Fear of the sort when someone is coming at you with a very sharp or very heavy object (which might be both of the above).
Fear is not just for immediate, physical situations; it is very much a psychological phenomenon, especially when the object of the Fear is an unknown. Perhaps spiritual traditions and religions sought to cope with Fear by offering explanations for what we do not understand. Think of how people in simpler times sought to explain natural phenomena: There is thunder and lightning because the Gods are warring in the heavens (or having a great game of bowling). There are tsunamis because the giants walked through the waves (or someone very large just got in the tub!). The earth shakes because the great Turtle of creation is shifting (or the Gods are trying to wake us up!). A basic religious model often seems to have a certain amount of we must appease the deities so the weather will be good and natural disasters don't kill us all.
Once people have the spare time to do more than scratch for groceries and try not to become something else's dinner perhaps they begin to wonder about why they exist and where they are going. Why are we born and where do we go when we die? Fear is used to keep us in line: be good or you won't go to Heaven is a an example. But we are also afraid in a more basic sense: what if we have no purpose? What if we just cease, at death, and then there is nothing? Spiritual traditions and religions answer these questions and, armed with this information, perhaps we are less fearful. So many of us are afraid of Death but not afraid of the Afterlife - we know all about that and we will be just fine once we get done with the passage.
I posit that most people do not cope with not knowing: they want a nice, neat explanation to allay their Fears so they can get on with Life. They have Meaning and Purpose given to them and need not construct their own. Think of how much Fear there is, looking at the blank page knowing that you need to write 2000 words on subject A; what if your Life was like that? Most would rather someone gave them a nice little essay about getting from Birth to Death rather than dealing with that blank slate. Why Fear the Unknown? Is the Fool really the one who stands on the edge of the cliff and ponders venturing off or is the Fool the one who has accepted a box with 'Belief' written on the front? Can we face Fear or have we just shut it out of the house?
Fear is not just for immediate, physical situations; it is very much a psychological phenomenon, especially when the object of the Fear is an unknown. Perhaps spiritual traditions and religions sought to cope with Fear by offering explanations for what we do not understand. Think of how people in simpler times sought to explain natural phenomena: There is thunder and lightning because the Gods are warring in the heavens (or having a great game of bowling). There are tsunamis because the giants walked through the waves (or someone very large just got in the tub!). The earth shakes because the great Turtle of creation is shifting (or the Gods are trying to wake us up!). A basic religious model often seems to have a certain amount of we must appease the deities so the weather will be good and natural disasters don't kill us all.
Once people have the spare time to do more than scratch for groceries and try not to become something else's dinner perhaps they begin to wonder about why they exist and where they are going. Why are we born and where do we go when we die? Fear is used to keep us in line: be good or you won't go to Heaven is a an example. But we are also afraid in a more basic sense: what if we have no purpose? What if we just cease, at death, and then there is nothing? Spiritual traditions and religions answer these questions and, armed with this information, perhaps we are less fearful. So many of us are afraid of Death but not afraid of the Afterlife - we know all about that and we will be just fine once we get done with the passage.
I posit that most people do not cope with not knowing: they want a nice, neat explanation to allay their Fears so they can get on with Life. They have Meaning and Purpose given to them and need not construct their own. Think of how much Fear there is, looking at the blank page knowing that you need to write 2000 words on subject A; what if your Life was like that? Most would rather someone gave them a nice little essay about getting from Birth to Death rather than dealing with that blank slate. Why Fear the Unknown? Is the Fool really the one who stands on the edge of the cliff and ponders venturing off or is the Fool the one who has accepted a box with 'Belief' written on the front? Can we face Fear or have we just shut it out of the house?