and friendship. The feeling of affliction is base, that of gratitude noble, the former worships only in adversity, the latter also in happiness.” [198F-LER: p. 29-30]
[199F-LER: p. 31]
“ … only that being is an object of religious worship, only that being is a god, who can curse and bless, harm and help, kill and restore to life, bring joy and terrify. Thus the feeling of dependency is the only truly universal name and concept by which to designate and explain the psychological or subjective ground of religion.” [199F-LER: p. 31]
[200F-LER: p. 36]
“The original elements of the ancient religions are merely projections of the sensations, the impressions which physical and astronomical phenomena arouse in man so long as he does not see them as objects of science. Later, of course, even among the ancient peoples, notably in the priestly caste who alone had access to science and learning, observations – the rudiments of science – took their place side by side with the religious view of nature … .” [200F-LER: p. 36]
[201F-LER: p. 37]
“Just as I can honor and love a human individual without deifying him, without even overlooking his faults and failings, I can also recognize that without nature I am nothing, and yet not for that reason forget its lack of heart, reason, and consciousness, which it first acquires in man; I can recognize nature for what it is without falling into the error of nature religion and of philosophical pantheism, namely, of making nature into a god. Man’s true culture and true task is to take things as they are, to make no more, but also no less of them than they are.” [201F-LER: p. 37]
[202F-LER: p. 47]
“The object of religion … is not the thauma, the wonder, but the oneiar, the blessing, i.e., the god as an object not of astonishment, but of fear and hope; he is worshiped, he is the object of a cult, not because of those attributes that arouse astonishment and admiration, but because of those that establish and preserve human existence, that appeal to man’s sense of dependency.” [202F-LER: p. 47]
[203F-LER: p. 49-50]
[P. 49] “ … to the horror of hypocritical theologians and philosophical fantasts, I use the word egoism to designate the ground and essence of religion. (…) [P. 50] By egoism I mean the necessary, indispensable egoism – not moral but metaphysical, i.e., grounded in man’s essence without his knowledge or will – the egoism without which man cannot live, for in order to live I must continuously acquire what is useful to me and avoid what is harmful; the egoism that is inherent in the very organism, which appropriates those substances that are assimilable and excretes those that are not.” [203F-LER: p. 49-50]
