Otto On Religion

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It is in our human nature to have a one sided interpretation of religion. This is our rational view on religion. Otto believes there should be a balance between the rational and nonrational aspects of religion. For example in Christianity the rational aspect would be the bible which is used to understand god through explanations and interpretations. The non-rational aspect would be found within god. “So far from keeping the non-rational element in religion alive in the heart of the religious experience, orthodox Christianity manifestly failed to recognize its value, and by this failure gave to the idea of God a one-sidedly intellectualistic and rationalistic interpretation”(Otto,3). By this Otto means christianity has failed to see the importance …show more content…
It is the ineffable core of religion. For example the experience of it cannot be described in terms of other experiences. The numinous state of mind constitutes the core of all religious beliefs. Otto states the experience of the numinous requires one to feel creaturely and dependent on some kind of overpowering might that must be experienced to be understood. Creature feeling is us being aware of how small we are in the world. To know we are all equal and no different from one another. This can go back to Castaneda when he he witnesses the death of the beetle. This is a religious experience for Castaneda when he realizes him and the beetle are equal. Death is always watching you but it just chose the beetle in that situation. Creature consciousness is the awareness of ourselves as having existence but experiencing the self as nothing. Otto argues the importance of knowing we are just part of the universe and the universe does not revolve around …show more content…
This was a non rational experience Castaneda has with the coyette. When the coyette talks to Castaneda he is amazed and cannot believe what he is experiencing. The next day when he goes to tell Don Juan what he has experienced Don Juan states he has successfully stopped the world. Castaneda has a non rational experience where his body was capable of understanding it because the world had collapsed. Like Otto argues we have a rational view of the world. We have a rational view of the world from what other people have been telling us the world is like. In this experience Castaneda has a direct experience with the world. The numinous is a mystery that is terrifying and fascinating at the same time. The numinous is the sense of coming into contact with someone “wholly other” than oneself. What Castaneda experiences with the coyote is the wholly
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