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The Spirituality of Fear

In the same sense that arrogance is a mistake in the future, as Edward de Bono put it, I would argue so too is fear.

In general, fear constricts our perceptual field, and colors what we see and hear and think.  It can in some cases facilitate perception, as Gavin de Becker argues in “The Gift of Fear”, but ambient, decontextualized, non-threat specific fear does the opposite.  It makes you stupider.

And I was pondering that I was raised to equate religion with fear: good Christians fear Hell.  It is eternal, and once there, you can’t get out.  This is self evidently something to be concerned about.  I am a theist, obviously, but I can understand Ricky Gervais, I think it was, when he quipped that God loved us so much he created heaven for us, and that he created hell just in case we didn’t love him back enough.  This is roughly the ideology of this version of religion, one which is even worse in Islam.

I think it possible to stipulate that no authentic spirituality can be built on persisting fear.  If fear is everywhere, you are dealing with a sociopsychological illness that has nothing to do with God.