Trying To Discuss Feuerbach's Humanistic View Of Religion And It's Inherent Tension

Feuerbach's humanistic thoughts of religion not only was the result of the social environment but also took shape on the basis of former philosophers. German thinkers since Kant formed a tradition of studying and criticizing religion from the standpoint of reason and making theology reasonable. In this respect there were such representative figures as Kant, Hegel, Strauss, Bauer and so on. In order to find theoretic basis of criticizing religion and theology, Feuerbach concentrated on studying recent history of philosophy. And such philosophers as Bacon, Spinoza had important influence on him.Feuerbach view religion from the standpoint of the human. That god is the projection of human essence is the basic content of his religious theory. Once the problem of god is explained, some religious problems of other respects are easily solved: illusion or imagination is a theoretic method of religion; The world of god namely Paradise is the projection of the world; religion is people's initial indirect self-consciousness; Enlightenment is people's self-enlightenment, self-regulation; that the projection of human essence namely god becomes conversely dissident strength enslaving people is Feuerbach's theory of religious alienation. Man leads a central role in religion, and man is the god of god. In religion man's existence and essence are split, which will bring religion to an end. There will be re the new religion of love replacing the old religion.Though a sense of reliance is the foundation of religion, a sense of ego is the aim of religion. On one hand a sense of reliance and a sense of ego are paradoxical, on the other hand the two reach unity on the basis of Feuerbach's thoughts of human nature.Feuerbach's religious criticism gained very important historical achievements: he surpassed the France Atheism, because he gave more reasonable explanation of religion; He finished the criticism to religion in Germany and played an important role in the formation of Marxist scientific world outlook. But his humanistic view of religion also has very obvious shortcomings and the most serious shortcoming is to study religion in terms of purely natural man.