Religion in The Brave New Worl
At the turn of the century, great minds like Carl Marx and Sigmund Freud wereregarding religion as an unnecessary nuisance to humanity. Marx called it "the opiate ofthe masses", and Freud : "the neurosis of mankind". They were making the view thatreligion is not of divine nature, but a conception of the human mind, a very popular andacceptable belief. They believed that a religion should reflect the needs of the people and Aldus Huxley subscribed to these views of religion, but nonetheless realized that itis a part of human nature. He saw it as something that can't just be thrown awayaltogether, but can be changed and manipulated to suit the cultures needs. This comesthrough strongly in Brave New World. He anticipates how the people in this world wouldno longer need to celebrate religion the way we do today, but would still practice rituals oftheir own right. He portrays contemporary religion as largely superstitious, and believesthat future civilizations will regard it as being savage. Nonetheless, their religion may bedifferent, but it's in no way better. It takes it's shape from the culture in which it wasconceived, and reflects how ridiculous
Throughout this ceremony, they stand up and make the sing ofthe T, just as we would make the sing of the cross. The"gramme" that the little rhyming proverb is referring to, is a gramme of soma. There are twelve people, justlike there were twelve apostles; and they're sitting around a circular table, which signifieseternity in many religions. This way he is able to criticize and ridicule more aspects of our religious natures. A culture that drinks the blood and eats the body of another human being should beconsidered savage, but yet doesn't this sound familiar? If a culture's religion makes it looksavage or immature, it's because the culture is just that. Huxley is saying that religion does exactly thesame thing. They use many techniques that work to maintain this stability and keep thepeople happily ignorant, like hypnopaedia and soma for example. This is to pay homage to their lordFord, who invented the model T. Through the world of the savage at the reservation, we can see what the people ofthe Brave New World think of our religion and how they would react to it. The mass continues and finishes witha climactic orgy. They may have anegative opinion of our religions, but so do we of theirs. These people can't sit through anything unless there's sex and drugs in itfor them. Here the assistant predestinator,Henry Foster, is telling Bernard that he looks glum and that soma is the answer to hisproblems.
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Acceptance Essays
