5.1 Work of scholars: context to critiques of religious belief and points for discussion Flashcards
What is negative atheism?
Lack/ absence of belief in God
What is positive atheism?
In addition to refuting arguments for the existence of God, PA must provide further arguments against God
What is agnosticism?
Neither believe/ disbelieve in the existence of God, insufficient evidence to prove either way
What is a key difference between athiesm and agnosticism?
- Agnosticism is incompatible with positive athiesm
- Agnosticism has a closer relationship with negative atheism
Why does science support atheism and agnosticism?
- Atheism: development of science provides natural explanations for things once unknown
- Agnosticism: scientific theories aren’t entirely incompatible with belief in God e.g design theory or cosmological argument
Why does Empricism support atheism and agnosticism?
- Atheism: all that can be known is what can be known through the 5 senses- God is not empirical
- Empricism: physical existence of earth itself and RE are empirical evidence of a creator and designer
Why does the problem of evil and suffering support atheism and agnosticism?
- Atheism: no theodicy can rescue the belief in an all loving AND all powerful God
- Agnosticism: Augustinian theodicy, Irenaean theodicy, ideas from Hick offer alternative explanations to problem of evil
only opposes the GOCT
Why do rebellions against moral absolutes support atheism and agnosticism?
- Atheism: e.g do not steal
- Agnosticism: Joseph Fletcher- God’s only absolute command it to ‘love thy neighbour’ (SYNOPTIC link- situation ethics)
Why does an awareness of other faiths support atheism and agnosticism?
- Atheism: Hume- ‘each religion makes conflicting claims about the objective nature of God in the world’
- Agnosticism: Rumi- ‘the lamps are different but the light is the same, it comes from beyond’
What are the strengths of religious belief?
- answers existential questions humans pose- Why are we here?
- Played a role in setting the standards of moral behaviour .eg Quaker’s role in abolition
- Benefits our spiritual/ moral development
What are the weaknesses of religious belief?
- Moral teachings are outdated and have no relevance today
- Relgious arguments contain many inconsistencies and illogical statements
- Religious arguments for God’s existence don’t prove enough evidence and the world is better explained by science
Is religious experience convincing in proving the existence in God?
- Evil and suffering is incompatible with religious belief- most damaging weakness
- Prayers are not answered
- God invented by people
- People do terrible things in the name of God
What did Emile Durkheim believe?
God does not exist, product of human society
French sociologist
What were the key ideas of Karl Marx?
- Religion was used as a tool by the ruling classes to dominate and oppress the masses
- ‘opiate of the masses’
How did Emile Durkheim perceive religion?
Religion’s purpose is to hold society together
How did Karl Marx perceive religion?
Religion’s function is to oppress the masses
What are the criticisms of Emile Durkheim?
- Difference between membership of religious community and individual faith in God
- believers sometimes go against moral laws of society and even reject it e.g MLK
- Society constantly changes but beliefs about the nature of God are timeless and unchanging
What are the criticisms of Karl Marx?
- Separation of church and state
- Many christian teachings about caring for poor and loving one’s neighbour
- Religion no longer necessary in capitalist society yet still exists
Does sociology provide a convincing alternative explanantion for religious belief?
- Support for Durkheim- Church has great influence over society still
- Support of Marx- Max Weber- ‘The Protestant ethic and spirit of capitalism’: happy, healthy, holy, wealthy blub- 80s +90s
- Against Marx- many oppressed by communist system and turned to religion for support
Key ideas of Sigmund Freud
- religion is an illusion- we project the idea of God onto the capitalist world as a way of coping with feelings of helplessness and fears of death
Human Psyche:
1. Id- set of uncoordinated instinctual desires
2. ego- organised realistic agent that mediates between is and super ego
3. Super ego- critical and moralizing tone
Key ideas of Carl Jung
- Freud’s student, but treats religion with a p**ositive light
- communication between our conscious and our subconscious mind; religion essential for a balanced psyche
German psychiatrist
What are the criticisms of Freud?
- Nelson and Jones: Freud says relationship with father determines relationship with God, but many feel their relationship with mother has a greater effect
- Kate Lowenthal: intrinsic religion (reflective)
- Freud’s influence has declined, Peter Moore says Freud’s need to talk about sex says more about him than religion
What are the criticisms of Jung?
- Brought up in a very religious home- could be rejecting it
- Non-western perspective
- Little empirical evidence
Does psychology provide a convincing alternative explanation for religious belief?
- Support Jung: depsite strict upbringing, he is still positive about religion
- Support for Freud: does religion bring comfort when facing death?
- Against Freud: only applies to the Goct
What are the aims of Populists?
- Identify the most negative and alarming features of religion past and present
- Persuade people that RB is dangerous and ridiculous
What is Dawkins background?
- Brought up anglican
- Gave up belief
- Then reconverted
- Then became an evolutionist in light of evolution
What is the issue of probability?
‘I cannot know for certain, but i think God is improbable, and i live my life on the asumption that he is not there’- Dawkins
- Uses Occam’s Razor, more probable than not that God does not exist
What is postmodernism?
- During modernism- single truth derived from reason and experience
- Post modernism- reject truth placed in reason and experience, no single truth
What are postmodern interpretations?
- Rejects any meta narrative
- Argues for religious pluralism- personal belief
metanarrative- tries to give unifying account of history based on one truth
What are the populist criticisms of religious belief?
- Religion and morality are opposed- RB can condone immoral acts
- There is no/ not enough evidence for RB
- Religion often leads to violence
How does populism attempt to explain religion belief?
- Dawkins- RB is dangerous
- Postmodernism- RB was created by society, personal belief, no right or wrong way, living religion rather than intellectual faith
What are the key ideas of Richard Dawkins criticising religious belief?
- RB isn’t necessary- alt explanations
- Faith claims (retreat from evidence based claims)
- Issue of purpose lies in humanity itself
- virus of religion
What are the critiques of Richard Dawkins?
- criticisms of extremism
- Fundamentalist- narrow minded
- ontological reductionism- uses science only to explain stuff
Who is Merold Westphal?
Post modern thinker
Writes about different scholars’ accounts of religion
What are the key ideas of Merold Westphal?
- identify the history of thought regarding religion and show how the philosophy of religion has shifted from critical analysis of the truth of religious belief to now preferring to provide alternative explanations of religious belief that are psychological or sociological
- Due to study of Kant believes deism studies human acpects of religion and focuses on stopping potential harm caused by religion
What are the criticisms of Merold Westphal?
- Importance must be placed on reason
- There must be religious tolerance
- no religion should claim to have the only truth (anticlericalism)
