Man As a Passive Agent Essay

This meant that people were no longer creating mythos, but taking the myths that had been developed earlier, with the understanding that religious myths were meant to be symbolic, as truth, rather than defining their own religious truths. Armstrong describes a very active process in prior religions. For example, she describes shamans seeing the world behind the one they see with their eyes, and spirit quests or journeys are part of the religious traditions in many prehistoric cultures. This is something far different from modern religious practices which largely discourage even individual interpretation of mythos.

While Carr and Armstrong focus on different aspects of modern society, they both make it clear that they believe there has been a transition from activeness to passivity in the thought process of modern people. They indicate three changes in modern culture that reflect a transition from active agents to passive agents: changes in art, a decrease in the level of engagement, and information being provided in a dictated format rather than inviting human interaction.In addition, they are critical of these changes. They both suggest that humans are meant to be active agents in their creation of self and that these changes somehow subvert that process, leaving the reader to wonder what the consequences will be of these two trends continuing and combining.

Works Cited

Armstrong, Karen. "Homo religiosus" the New Humanities Reader. By Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. 4th ed. Boston: Wadsworth Pub., 2011. 22-38. Print.

Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid" the New Humanities Reader. By Richard E.

Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. 4th ed. Boston: Wadsworth Pub.,….....