Feuerbach, Ludwig (1804–1872)

Experience, Identity, and the Infinite

Feuerbach presented a unique interpretation of time conditioned by human experience. The combination of emerging consciousness tempered with external experiences allows for a shift in the personal beliefs expressed within the historical context of individual and social integration. In these terms, personal and social identity become transformation events that alter perception, morality, and anthropomorphic qualities of deities. The changing qualities of deities, as with the concept of immortality, denote the distinction of these temporal shifts in thought. from the lost perspective on mortality of the ancient Greeks and Romans to the independent governing factors in individual immortality, the concept of God(s) becomes both a temporal and superficial essence. Ultimately, this essence is humanity's finite projection of the infinite that is, God. During this projection, humankind surrenders its inner being to a self-created nonexistent entity.

In Feuerbachian terms, the concept of time, when finite and infinite are juxtaposed, creates a sense of temporal eternity by which finitude is expressed in personal mortality. This awareness of death, a complete termination and dissolution of life and spirit, is a precondition of human life limited by human reason. The human spirit, which is equated with consciousness and reason, is limited within these parameters of a material existence. Although individual existence and individuality are temporal, human thought is considered by some to be beyond time; albeit solely dependent on the temporally finite material body. This in itself raises a perceived paradox. For Feuerbach, temporal experience (finite) and thought (finite yet infinite within finite consciousness) foster a sense of infinity that is in itself a finite spatiotemporal existence. Personal immortality becomes an illusion that is less illustrious than an infinite and personal God.

As Feuerbach pointed out, God and religion mirror human nature. The concept of God, a created and projected illusion subjected to shifts in definitions within time, is unique in human thought. God has become the archetype for the simultaneous existence of both the material/nonmaterial and finite/infinite. Consequently, the expressions of anthropomorphic qualities of Godlife, emotion, infinite consciousnessand nature are steeped in mystical interpretations of the human quest for immortality. The greatest manifestation of this quest is seen in the basic and contradictory principles of Christianity. Concepts of the Trinity, Christology, and the Resurrection combine the supreme idealnonmaterial, infinite, loving, and omnipotentwith the antithetical states of human life, the limitations and frailties of human existence. When compared in this manner, sin becomes a self-imposed conceptual prison from which humankind seeks to free itself, via prayer, and reaffirm itself in value and unifying identity. However, rational and critical thought expose several contradictions within religious thought as presented by Feuerbach; among them God (essence), doctrine, and revelation being the greatest of all contradictions.

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