Challenges Of Religious Belief

Question 1

What is weak atheism?

Answer 1

Scepticism about God existing

Question 2

What is strong atheism?

Answer 2

An explicitly help belief that God doesn’t exist

Question 3

What did Freud say about religion?

Answer 3

• it is an illusion that answers our inner needs
• it arises from a fear of a chaotic world
• religion is a form of neurotic illness that arises from the unconscious mind

Question 4

What did Freud say about religion and the primal horde?

Answer 4

• the most dominant male in the horde would have the pick of females to breed with
• he would become the leader and the younger males would become jealous
• they would plot to kill this father figure
• this is echoed in the family where a son is jealous of his father for taking away the affections of his mother ( Oedipus complex)
• After the fathers death, members of the horde would idolise him and he becomes a totem as a way of controlling their guilt
• religion is a form of idolising the father figure to divine

Question 5

What are criticisms of Freud’s idea of religion and the primitive horde?

Answer 5

• the Oedipus complex is denied by modern psychology
• how could guilt felt by the primal horde be inherited?
• in some tribes, males played role of nurse, not hunter, so god is not necessarily a symbol of this male

Question 6

What are Jung’s psychological explanations of religion?

Answer 6

• there are 2 parts to the unconscious= personal and collective
• collective= sharing of a series of images and archetypes from society
• religion provides many of these images and individual shares in the cultural life of their group
• God= archetype - exists as a psychic reality - prevents neurosis

Question 7

What is Emile Durkheim’s sociological explanation of religion?

Answer 7

• religion = series of beliefs and practices, which unite into a single moral community- church
• religion gives a framework for societal values
• God does not exist independently of people who practice it
• community created strengthens society
• God is a projection of the strength of society

Question 8

What are criticisms of Durkheim’s idea?

Answer 8

• religious believers are often loyal to God, not community
• some believers go against society rather than adhere (Martin Luther king)
• society constantly changes, unlike religion

Question 9

What is Marx’s sociological explanation of religion?

Answer 9

• religion is part of the oppressing structures that alienate society
• sees religion as ‘the opium of the people’
• a mid repression, people seek hope in God, rather than empowering themselves
• individual > God

Question 10

What are criticisms of Marx’ explanation?

Answer 10

• Christianity embraces the idea of socialism

- religion and the state are more separate in some countries than Marx acknowledges