CATTELL’S VIEWS ON RELIGION

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The scapegoat

One common theme that occurs widely and has developed in a similar manner across a wide range of groups is that of the scapegoat. From Stonehenge to Patagonia the solution of sacrifice served to propitiate or win the friendly approval of the supernatural powers. The very primitive Ibo of Southern Nigeria would dissolve a mood of guilt and depression by the device of finding a scapegoat, “a young man, strong and vigorous and well able to bear the sins of those on whose behalf he is to die” (Cattell 1938:24).
This moved into sacrifice not only for avoiding displeasure but also for persuasion whenever a routine favour such as a successful harvest was desired. Cattell mentions the widespread sacrificial killing of the god or divine king, also occurring widely in Africa and Polynesia, citing from Frazer’s comparative study of mythology and religion, published as the Golden Bough in 1890: This illogical arrangement may well have gained ground because of the condensed expression given in a single act to a strong complex of warring psychological impulses, namely, the sense of guilt for transgressions, the desire to project the punishment upon another person, repressed hatred of the god, and the desire to posses his power (Cattell 1938:25). (See also Chapter 5.1.1 on page 116.) The notion of sacrificing is elaborated on when the god is formally resurrected after his death. This widespread ceremony of the dying god could be interpreted to be symbolical of the death and resurrection of the year to have its main purpose as a fertility rite. Consider the Greek myth of Persephone6 in this regard.

Soul and immortality

Anthropological survey makes possible a systematisation with regard to belief in the soul and in immortality. Inconsistent and fragmentary primitive ideas about the human soul are mainly derived from dreaming, hallucination and a little loose logic. Cattell deduces from comparative religion that primitives may be divided into two large groups according to whether they have a belief in an afterlife or not. Those believing in human immortality, being the larger group, can be again subdivided into those who anticipate a heavenly life on a higher plane and those who expect a continuation of the mode of life known on earth. 33 Compensation for injustices, sacrifices and the evaluation of the good and evil deeds of the individual’s life on earth are still features of certain existing systems of belief (Cattell 1938:27).
We find dim and poorly defined ideas on an afterlife in the myth of Hades of the Greeks and the ancient Sheol of the Jews. Uncompensated and unmodified immortality is illustrated in the Happy Hunting Ground of the American Indian or the Valhalla of the Norsemen, in which the souls of men may continue the hunting, fighting, and feasting which comprised happiness for them here. “Compensated immortality appears in a somewhat anomalous form in Buddhism, and in more fully realised perfection in Islam and Christianity” (1938:27).

Evolution of the idea of God

The earliest historical religions have reflected the primitive mind hosting ideas of agile spirits and a legion of variegated devils. The rich pantheon of gods varied from less respectable specialists in intoxication and venery, deities of war and guardians of agriculture. Cattell notes it could be possible to read the ideals and temperaments as well as the character and occupations of the ancient people in the faces of their gods: Zeus, Mars and Janus, Vishnu and Siva, and Pallas Athene. Simplifying religious mythology by condensing all the evil demons into one evil spirit and all the nobler and well-disposed spirits into 34 one benevolent Providence, was “the especial feat” (Cattell 1938:28) of the people who established the first civilisations in and around Persia and the Euphrates. So, for the Mithraic cult, a dual between a God of Light and a Prince of Darkness created the lively and dramatic terms to explain life. Moving closer to the present and familiar frame of reference: Islam and Christianity emphasised God and tended more and more to regard evil only as His absence. For the spadework in this last simplification towards monotheism we have to thank the philosophical genius of the Jews, or as some think, the stern and sterile monotony of the desert landscape.

The importance of the early years of childhood

In the search for methods of curing the neurotic, the perverted and the delinquent, the critical importance of the early years of childhood, both for normal and abnormal development, became evident. It was also discovered that human motivation roots in powerful primitive instincts or propensities towards certain kinds of satisfaction that we share with the higher mammals. Thus Darwin’s proof of the physical continuity of man with the animal world may have found the corollary of an equally definite mental continuity. 37 Early childhood experiences, and the general type of dynamic balance or integration achieved, are likely to persist in adult life, shaping the course of all later development of personality. The most powerful emotions of childhood are lived out in relation to parents, and Cattell (1938:33) traces the father/God correlation as expanded by Freud in the well-known Oedipus theory. He draws the conclusion that the frustrated drive that is seeking expression in this illusion is the desire for security and companionship. In humanity’s conflict with Nature, from an emotional need and through an old animistic or anthropomorphic way of thinking, God emerges. Girard, as previously mentioned, insists that “the myth of Oedipus is not just a literary text, or a psychoanalytic text, but a persecution text and should be interpreted as such” (1986:27).

Prayer

Cattell (1938:37) mentions two aspects of prayer. Belief in the potency of special prayers and the efficacy of magic incantations is greatly aided by a relapse into those early, uncorrected ways of regarding the real world, which the psychoanalysts refer to as the “omnipotence of thought” mentality. Prayer is a religiously suspect procedure, for example, to entreat success in business, while the modern-day advances in agricultural science and meteorology narrow the scope for special intervention on the part of the deity. Cattell admits that psychology cannot deny the efficacy of prayer concerning the improvement of personality and the maintenance of personal or group morale, but it may nevertheless ascribe to it the harmful tendency of suggestive practices to increase the less informed or vulnerable individuals’ general suggestibility.

Sudden religious conversion

As far as the spectacular phenomenon of sudden religious conversion is concerned, Cattell’s psychological observation is that such experiences are comparatively rare, associated with some degree of temperamental abnormality, confined almost entirely to the age of adolescence, and prone to occur only in certain types of religious culture (1938:37). The natural upsurge of sexual emotion at adolescence is met with the powerful inhibitions of a culture that attaches a strong sense of guilt to sexual expression. At the cost of sublimation – converting sexuality into love of his fellows, and self-assertion into vicarious self-assertion through God – he thereby obtains peace of mind. To explain the process in terms of psychological forces is not to belittle its importance to society, for whether the process is sudden or gradual; it constitutes in moderation a desirable adjustment in civilisation. It would be better still if brought about without recourse to illusory ideas (Cattell 1938:38).

CONTENTS :

• 1. INTRODUCTION
  • 1.1. Research question
  • 1.2. Methodology
  • 1.2.1 Literature study
    • 1.2.1.1 Primary sources
    • 1.2.1.2 Secondary sources
  • 1.2.2 Correspondence with a family member
  • 1.2.3 Application of Beyondism
  • 1.2.4 Theoretical orientation
  • 1.3 Structure of the dissertation
  • 1.4 Biography
    • 1.4.1 Cattell’s early years
    • 1.4.2 The change to a career in psychology
    • 1.4.3 Cattell the person
  • 1.5 Cattell’s reception and influence
  • 1.6 Beyondism – background to the focus of this study
  • 1.7 Historical perspective
• 2. CATTELL’S VIEWS ON RELIGION
  • 2.1 Animism, taboo and morality
  • 2.2 The evolutionary path of religion
  • 2.2.1 The scapegoat
  • 2.2.2 Soul and immortality
  • 2.2.3 Evolution of the idea of God
  • 2.3 Psychoanalysis and the religious illusion
    • 2.3.1 The importance of the early years of childhood
    • 2.3.2 Prayer
    • 2.3.3 Immortality
    • 2.3.4 Sudden religious conversion
  • 2.4 Emotional meaning of religion
  • 2.5 A new functional religion?
• 3. EPISTEMOLOGY
  • 3.1 Revealed religion, the “moral morass” and science
  • 3.2 The cognitive and emotional qualities of intuition and truth
  • 3.3 Wilber’s argument for the integration of truth and meaning
  • 3.4 Scientism?
  • 3.5 Paradigm shift or wild goose chase?
  • 3.6 Intellectual censorship and new high-water marks
• 4. ONTOLOGY
  • 4.1 Cosmology
  • 4.2 Evolution
  • 4.2.1 Freedom/Forced choice
  • 4.2.2 Evolutionary Goal/Purpose
  • 4.2.3 Views in relation to other systems of thought
  • 4.3 Humanity
  • 4.3.1 Individual within the group
  • 4.3.2 Natural selection
  • 4.3.3 Cooperative competition
  • 4.3.4 Evolutionary advance
  • 4.4 Theopsyche
  • 4.4.1 Group mind towards Theopsyche
• 5. ETHICS AND MORALITY
• 6. BEYONDISM: WHY AND HOW CAN SCIENCE BE RELIGION AS WELL?
• 7. EVALUATION IN CONTEMPORARY CONTEXT AND CONCLUSION
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
  • APPENDIX A: The Four Quadrants
  • APPENDIX B: Integrated Great Nest and Four Quadrants
  • APPENDIX C: The Rose Diagram – Ethical rule subsystems developing
  • from a Beyondist principle

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BEYONDISM: THE THINKING OF RAYMOND BERNARD CATTELL (1905–1998) ON RELIGION, AND HIS RELIGIOUS THOUGHT