Joe

There is a really interesting discussion happening in parallel on the french forum as to why and wherefore the belief

They are French, and of course the philosophical discussion is marvellous, JM and someone called Cedivin are discussing the Freudian and Jungian slant on belief systems (I've been exposed to French speaking culture for about a year now, and I am having a wonderful time being exposed to the freshness that acquiring a new language can give, although I learnt to read it at school many years ago)

To paraphrase, here is a response by Jean Michel that I'm sure you will enjoy. Please pardon if I have patronisingly assumed you can't read French, or cannot put the posts into world.altavista.com.

"Ï suppose (along with the materialists) that God is only a hypothesis. That does not validate all the charlatans in the universe.

This perfectly allows that there is another point of view.

You quote  "Jung writes very precisely, without being afraid of the risk of saying so, "the soul naturally posesses a religious function''

JM continues to write that he prefers the view of the materialists, and that Jung's view is simplistic. (Correct me if I have misinterpreted you JM)

Now it seems to me that probably both views are correct. We do have a basic religious impulse, but the materialists are right in suggesting that God is a hypothesis we choose to satisfy this impulse. We could choose anything we like to worship. Indeed many people worship money and power, but they are fickle gods.

So perhaps to cut a long story short, the obsessive compulsive disorder is a result of a secular society trying to tell us to suppress our native impulse to 'possess a religious function' - and I'm sure you'll agree it is the act of suppression that does the damage.

I am still faffing around trying to find exactly what to do with my worshipful nature - positivism, the self, good causes, humanity, all of the above? What do you think"?

Because when I think about it, it does seem to be the crux of the problem when exiting the cult. Before, one satisfied, if deluded, impulse to worship. After? duh, errrr, uuuuuhh.

PS All the French posts are delightfully intelligent, insightful, philosophical, and well you guessed it - very French.