5.1 critiques to religious belief

Question 1

What is meant by atheism?

Answer 1

• the lack of belief in any God or gods, not neccessarily the denial/rejection of their existence

Question 2

What is strong atheism?

Answer 2

• antitheism = a conscious and deliberate opposition to theism is harmful to the believer

Question 3

What is weak atheism?

Answer 3

• scepticism = doubting knowledge claims set forth in various areas, sceptics have challenged the adequacy of belief

Question 4

What is meant by humanists and what do they believe in?

Answer 4

• they reject the belief in God and trust in scientific explanations
• morality is based on reason
• there is no afterlife and no ultimate purpose

Question 5

What do rationalists believe in?

Answer 5

• reason, logic and truth

Question 6

What do natutralists believe in?

Answer 6

• human life is natural
• belief in scientific enquiry

Question 7

What are some reasons for atheism?

Answer 7

• existence of evil
• loss of faith
• contradictory teachings
• distrust of organised religion

Question 8

What 5 crucial factors did Durkheim argue were the reasins why suicide rates were high?

Answer 8

1. individualism
2. excessive hope
3. too much freedom
4. atheism
5. weakening of the nation and the family

Question 9

How do functionalists view religion?

Answer 9

• the social glue that holds a community together
• God is the projected social cohesion of the group
• the clan and God are one

Question 10

What are some criticisms of the functionalist view of religion?

Answer 10

• the beliver makes a distinction between community and God
• the willingness of believers to challenge the norms of society
• society may change and evolve but God doesn’t

Question 11

What does Marxism argue about religion?

Answer 11

• it is an ideology, designed to pacify the workers
• used by the ruling class to dominate and oppress the masses

Question 12

How did Marx refer to religion?

Answer 12

it is the opium of the masses

Question 13

What are some criticisms of the Marxist view of religion?

Answer 13

• assumes close ties between the church and the state but this isn’t necessarily the case and the church has criticised the state e.g. the Joseph Rowntree foundation
• the faceless corporation has no need to pacify the workforce, they either conform or they’re gone
• liberation theology showed that Christianity can change society to improve inequality and poverty

Question 14

What is Freud’s perspective on religion?

Answer 14

• religion is a projective system that is an universal neurosis
• the aim of the institution is to repress anti-social activities by inducing fear and guilt
• God is a substitute father and a projection of the super ego

Question 15

According to Carl Jung, what are the 2 aspects of the unconscious mind?

Answer 15

1. the personal
2. the collective

Question 16

What is the role of the collective aspect of the mind?

Answer 16

• holds the building blocks of more complex ideas

Question 17

What is Jung’s perspective on religion?

Answer 17

• God and religion have a psychic reality, for those who experience the effects of these archetypes
• rejecting religion is the rejection of a part of the process of individuation and is more likely to result in neurosis

Question 18

What are some critiques of the psychological view on religion?

Answer 18

• all religious behavior was based in the psychosexual relaionship to the father
• Freud’s need to make everything about sex says more about his own obssessional neurosis
• many people are atheist, so the existence of archetypes is questionable, but he refuses to allow the idea to be falsified

Question 19

What is the postmodern perspective of religion?

Answer 19

• Christianity can no longer be trusted to be the truth
• it’s just one narrative amongst many that we are free to choose from
• reject the truth claim of all religions

Question 20

What does David Lyon argue?

Answer 20

• religion is no longer embedded in cultures, countries or institutions
• religion is now a matter of personal choice and is not a duty

Question 21

What does Merold Westphal argue?

Answer 21

• Christian theologiand should appropriate the methodology of postmodernism and reject the atheist project of some of its proponents
• the conflicts caused by religion could be unified under the ‘universality of reason’
• no religion has the monopoly on truth = anticlericalism