negativism

• often trained into children

103:2.5The psy­chol­ogy of a child is nat­u­rally pos­i­tive, not neg­a­tive. So many mor­tals are neg­a­tive be­cause they were so trained. When it is said that the child is pos­i­tive, ref­er­ence is made to his moral im­pulses, those pow­ers of mind whose emer­gence sig­nals the ar­rival of the Thought Ad­juster.

103:2.6In the ab­sence of wrong teach­ing, the mind of the nor­mal child moves pos­i­tively, in the emer­gence of re­li­gious con­scious­ness, to­ward moral righ­teous­ness and so­cial min­istry, rather than neg­a­tively, away from sin and guilt. There may or may not be con­flict in the de­vel­op­ment of re­li­gious ex­pe­ri­ence, but there are al­ways pres­ent the in­ev­i­ta­ble de­ci­sions, ef­fort, and func­tion of the hu­man will.

• major error of modern religions

140:4.7“By their fruits you shall know them.” Per­son­al­ity is ba­si­cally change­less; that which changes—grows—is the moral char­ac­ter. The ma­jor er­ror of mod­ern re­li­gions is neg­a­tivism. The tree which bears no fruit is “hewn down and cast into the fire.” Moral worth can­not be de­rived from mere re­pres­sion—obey­ing the in­junc­tion “Thou shalt not.” Fear and shame are un­wor­thy mo­ti­va­tions for re­li­gious liv­ing. Re­li­gion is valid only when it re­veals the fa­ther­hood of God and en­hances the broth­er­hood of men.