Terror Management Theory Quotes

“The way of the world was to force you into unacceptable choices. Accept evil in exchange for safety. Decry it and become a target.”
― O.E. Tearmann

“The human must show maturity and find meaning in life, knowing that he can no longer count on eternal life other than by the legacy he leaves to future generations.”
― Romain Gagnon, SO MAN CREATED GOD IN HIS OWN IMAGE: The Science of Happiness

“...a mature understanding of death appears to be one of the last milestones in the cognitive development and evolution of the human brain.”
― E. Fuller Torrey, Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods: Early Humans and the Origins of Religion

“Prior to about 40,000 years ago, hominins had been observing other hominins die for more than six million years. They were intimately acquainted with death as something that happened to others. They observed people die within their living group - children from disease, women from childbirth, men from hunting accidents, and older adults from starvation. They also occasionally encountered deceased hominins as they foraged for food or followed herds of deer. Unlike today, when the biological realities of death are relegated to the offices of medical examiners and morticians, early hominins saw corpses in all stages of decomposition, since even the occasional burial of bodies was apparently not practiced until the last 100,000 years.”
― E. Fuller Torrey, Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods: Early Humans and the Origins of Religion