Hello everyone, I'm Stephen West. This is Philosophized This.

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Today's episode is on Guy de Boer and is called Action to Western Society called the Society of

the Spectacle. I hope you love the show today.

So what if somebody told you that you remember of a religion that you didn't even

know that you were a member of? And what if somebody told you that even if you were made aware of

that fact that you were a part of this religion that you're probably so deeply embedded into the

religion that it wouldn't even really bother you that much that you were a part of it.

Because to you the illusion of this religion has become so fundamental to your everyday social life

that whatever the truth is about the world around you just matters less to you than being able to

keep going with the illusion that constitutes most of your life. Well, this wouldn't be the first time

somebody said this to someone they saw as being hopelessly embedded within a religious worldview.

The epigraph of the book we're talking about today is a quote from the philosopher Ludwig

Firebach from his book The Essence of Christianity. He's talking in part here about the Christians of

his time and the relationship that they have with the truth versus illusion. He says quote,

but certainly for the present age which prefers the sign to the things signified the copy to the

original representation to reality the appearance to the essence illusion only is sacred truth

profane. May sacredness is held to be enhanced in proportion as truth decreases and illusion

increases so that the highest degree of illusion comes to be the highest degree of sacredness.

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