“Love should not be a command nor faith a dictate. I am my God. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, the state and our educational system. We're here to drink beer. We are here to kill the war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.” Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay~ Charles BukowskiIntroduction Although the above quote seems quixotic in the way it deals with what it means to live life without religion, or even overly pessimistic about what it means to live life with religion, it nevertheless makes an important point. That is, Bukowski emphasizes that atheism (or total disbelief in any god or form of deity) does not exclude goodness, ethics, and value from the world. Instead, atheism could actually free humanity from dogma and doctrine. This allows men and women to instead pursue good in this life, rather than focusing on the afterlife. The amount of philosophical and sociological work dealing with atheism is unfathomable, but this brief discussion evaluates the writings of Ludwig Feuerbach, a German philosopher, atheist, and materialist, and that of Fyodor Dostoevsky in the classic The Brothers Karamazov. Both of these texts essentially argue that religion is an intimate and psychological experience rather than a social, empirical, or objective one. In this way, both texts make the case for atheism by emphasizing that atheism presents freedom from humanity's self-knowledge tied to a deity. Neither text vehemently defends any particular form of religion, but simply emphasizes that religion is, at best, a psychological or social construction. sociological discussion on the functioning of humanity. Feuerbach's main point throughout the book is that the essence of Christianity is essentially social and psychological, rather than divine or theological. As the philosopher states: “Object consciousness can be distinguished from self-consciousness; but in the case of the religious object consciousness and self-consciousness coincide directly” (Feuerbach 109). In other words, the philosopher argues that when humans discuss religious objects or beliefs, it is impossible to separate personal beliefs, experiences, and faith from what individuals see as divine according to these positions. In this way, the philosopher holds to atheism because religious beliefs inherently cannot be objective due to their foundation in human experience, human self-consciousness, and human psychology. Feuerbach goes on to state that, since religion is based on discrimination between the divine and the profane, “Man's object is nothing other than his own objective being…As man thinks, as is his understanding of things, so is his God; as much as a man has is worth as much and no more than his God has. The consciousness of God is the self-consciousness of man; God's knowledge is man's self-knowledge. Man's notion of himself is his notion of God, just as his notion of God is his notion of himself – the two are identical” (Feuerbach 109). This quote, although long, clearly shows the philosopher's point of view on the social construction of religion. As the philosopher then states: «This is why religion precedes philosophy everywhere, in the history of humanity as well as in the history of the individual. Man transposes his essential being outside himself before finding it within himself” (Feuerbach 110). In other words, religion is not only socially constructed, but simply an extension of humanity's self-awareness..