The first thing brought forth by the study of any religion, ancient or modern, is that it is based upon Fear.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Sinclair claims that fear is the foundational element behind the study of any religion.
- In plain terms
- He says studying any religion shows it is built on fear.
- What can you take from it?
- Fear often underlies religious beliefs and practices across cultures.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is fear the only source of religious belief?
- How do other motivations like love or curiosity factor in?
Another view
It reduces complex spiritual experiences to a single emotional motive.
More from Upton Sinclair
Man is an evasive beast, given to cultivating strange notions about himself. He is humiliated by his simian ancestry, and tries to deny his animal nature, to p…
Permalink to quote #19 Journalism is one of the devices whereby industrial autocracy keeps its control over political democracy; it is the day-by-day, between-elections propaganda, w…
Permalink to quote #21 I discover that hardly a week passes that some one does not start a new cult, or revive an old one;
Permalink to quote #18
Related quotes
And this Feare of things invisible, is the naturall Seed of that, which every one in himself calleth Religion; and in them that worship, or feare that Power ot…
Thomas HobbesThomas Hobbes quote #20 It was good of Friedrich Nietzsche to declare God dead - I declare that he has never been born. It is a created fiction, an invention, not a discovery. Do you …
OshoOsho quote #1 Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's th…
Richard DawkinsRichard Dawkins quote #2