Quote Originally Posted by Peter View Post
I have told you before, jokingly, that all religion is a form of mental illness. Yes, believing some of that **** as literal makes one appear rather crazy. However, when the same book promises you things you like the sound of if you are willing to believe it, it starts to sound less mad. Chuck in the fact that your parents and everyone around you believes it and it begins to look inevitable.
The real 'sickness unto death', is not usual story of the individual who is caught between the acknowledgement that death is the end, that there is nothing Beyond this material reality, and his needing to believe that our own demise isn't the last thing -- i.e. that there is another life beyond death, with its promise of redemption and a blissful eternity. The 'sickness unto death', rather, is the condition of someone who knows well enough that our material demise isn't the end, i.e. that we have immortal souls, but cannot face the maddening demands of this fact (the necesseity of abandoning fleeting aesthetic pleasure and tirelessly work for our salvation), and as a result desperately wants to belive that death IS the end -- that there is no divine unconditional demand exerting pressure on us.

In short: Are you sure you're not the mentally ill won