In chapter 17 of Brave
New World, Mustapha Mond elucidates to John how an older adult reaching the
age in which they will cease to exist is more inclined to be religious than a
ten-year-old child. He explains that the desires and lusts of material and emotional
aspects when we are young tempts us because they are all so new and exciting,
but as we grow older, all these feelings and commodities begin to dwindle in
the way they affect our emotions. Elders are used to having them around and
these yearnings no longer affect them as they once did, and because of this,
elders succumb to the fear of the afterlife and search for a savior, which in
this case is religion.
I find Mond’s explanation shockingly true. As a teen, I find
myself overcome with desires and wishes and it is these yearnings that cause me
to break the ten commandments of my religion. My father consistently reminds me
to put God above all else, for he knows that after you have lived your youthful
life, as Mond has said, death is inevitable. With death, nobody knows what to
expect since no one has come back to tell us what has happened to him or her. The
unknown scares us and the fear makes us look for an answer to those unknowns.
Is religion really there just for us to be comforted by us
about our unanswered questions?
I believe that, in some ways, religion is a way for people to try to explain the world around us- for example in “Noah’s Ark,” how the rainbow came to be in Christianity, or old native folk tales like how the elephant stretched out its trunk, which was once not as long, apparently. Religion also reminds us to try to be wise, virtuous, and as “good” as we could.
ReplyDeleteIt’s true that the youth don’t always strive to be the way we should, even though we know what is expected and asked for, but all we really want to do is have fun and carry on in our own ways. Our grandparents seem to be more devoted to our religions to save themselves from an unimaginable afterlife. Like you said, what we don’t know makes us imagine the worse that could happen.
Because of this fear, some people take devotion to the next level and become terrorists or believe that “Holy Wars” made be fought to remove any opposing views that they think threaten their religion and values. I believe this is why religions have been “eliminated” in Brave New World’s dystopia.