The Challenge of Secularism Flashcards
(9 cards)
What does Feurbach say?
What yesterday was still religion is no longer such today; and what today is atheism, tomorrow is religion
What does Freud say about religion?
the process of unconscious wish fulfillment … (for those) unable to cope with the idea of a godless, purposeless life
What did Freud believe?
It is a delusion to protect us from nature and fate
Provides information about what humans crave which cannot be discovered through the study of reality
What does Freud say in ‘Civilisation and its Discontents’
The religions of mankind must be classed as amongst the mass delusions
What was Freud concerned with and how did this shape his beliefs about religion?
The psychological impacts that religious ideas have on the mind
He observed that religion was produced by anxiety about things we are unable to control- so people create this divine force to replace this uncertainty (as we can control our perception of God)
Religion represses (destructive) desires- people don’t rape due to religion, and religious people still rape
How can William James criticise Freud?
Religion often leads to ‘healthy minded souls’, rather than ‘sick souls’- even if it isnt real, religionc annot be classed as bad as it helps
it is certainly bettet than drugs
What does Richard Dawkins say in ‘The God Delusion’?
Somebody else must be reponsible… similar infantilism that really lies behind the “need” for a God
What does Dawkins believe about religion, in relation to children?
Children are ‘hijacked by religious faith’
