Dreams Quote by Ludwig Feuerbach
““Religion is a dream, in which our own conceptions and emotions appear to us as separate existences, beings out of ourselves. The religious mind does not distinguish between subjective and objective, - it has no doubts; it has the faculty of not discerning other things than itself, but of seeing its own conceptions out of itself as distinct beings. What is in itself merely a theory is to the religious mind a practical belief, a matter of conscience, - a fact. [A] fact is that which one cannot criticise or attack without being guilty of a crime; … a fact is a physical force, not an argument, - it makes no appeal to the reason. … [F]acts are just as relative, as various, as subjective, as the ideas of different religions[.] … A fact … is a conception about the truth of which there is no doubt, because it is no object of theory, but of feeling, which desires that what it wishes, what it believes, should be true. … A fact is … a … conception which, for the age wherein it is held to be a fact, expresses a want, and is for that reason an impassable limit of the mind. A fact is every wish that projects itself on reality[.]””
About This Quote
Source Philosophical Essay: The Essence of Religion, 1841
Religion is presented as a projection of human desires, not an objective truth.
In simple terms: Religion reflects human wishes, not facts.
Question personal beliefs critically.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- personal belief evaluation
- academic discussion
- interfaith dialogue
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- What role does emotion play in belief?
- Can facts be purely objective?
Religious experiences can be meaningful beyond rational analysis.