The Challenge of Secularisation Flashcards
KEY TERM - SECULARISM
Secularism – the belief that religion should play no role in running state affairs / removing religion and other ideologies from all public institutions
KEY TERM - FREUD
Freud: Religion as a way of dealing with things beyond our control a form of wish fulfillemnt – People experience vulnerability as children, and those who remain infantile in adult life invent a God as a kind of imaginary father figure, because they feel unable to cope with life on their own. It is an infantile delusion that needs to overcome as it discourages people from having normal healthy reactions to the world and taking responsibility for their actions and consequences
FOR - FREUD
Freud’s reductivism explains why so many people find comfort in life after death as can’t comprehend that when your dead that’s it
Freud – human values dressed up in religious superego
AGAINST - FREUD
Freud attributes religion to wish fulfillment but if it was all just wish fulfillment then why would people despair about suffering and not see it as something to be appreciative about
-Lamentations 1:16 “This is why I weep and my eyes overflow with tears. No one is near to comfort me
Many Christians are far from infantile and have performed acts of extraordinary heroism or have stood up against injustice despite personal risk e.g. Bonhoeffer, who went to help all those in need despite the danger, which ultimately led to his death. This is in direct contrast to Freud’s point that religion makes people weak
Marchant: religious belief is psychologically helpful rather than damaging e.g. mediation and social gatherings. Belief In God and life after death helps people overcome their fear of death and live happier more fulfilled lives
Religious values are absolute whereas human values are arbitrary so cannot simply be wishfulfillment
KEY TERM - DAWKINS
Pragmatic Secularist – He argued that belief in God is damaging for society and for intellectual progress. He argues that human life is meaningful with our reference to religious ideas. People do not need the idea of God to find meaning in their lives. Religion in the past has tried to block scientific investigation e.g. the condemnation of Galileo or the opposition to genome project
FOR - DAWKINS
Narrows are ability to understand the world as it is – Christians continue to qualify their belief and can’t accept that there isn’t a God (John Wisdom parable) – A form of psychological abuse
Cause of conflict and suffering in the world Catholics vs Protestants / repression of homosexuality
Causes you to ignore empiricalism if it it contradicts values
AGAINST - DAWKINS
Find comfort in the examples of love
many scientists who have held religious beliefs and have been motivated by their faith to continue their scientific exploration, especially when the research is for the good of others. e.g. Such as Frances Collins - head of the human genome project.
Religion isn’t entirely incompatible with science. Many would argue such as Aquinas in his 5th ways that Gods necessary existence can be proven scientifically and can still be aligned with the Bib Bang
Natural law – everyone has reason so can come to judgements – still needs God – shows how non-religious people can know still, which means that if we all have this ability to think than not surprising values familiar
KEY TERM - INCREASING SECULAR SOCIETY
An increasingly secularist society (number of people with ‘no religious preference’ has doubled has still led to hostility e.g. Farron constantly being questioned about his beliefs on abortion and homosexuality.
If society was completely secular then imposing beliefs onto other people and not respecting people freedom of choice. We should respect other peoples religions but make sure that they do not come to extremes
FOR - INCREASING SECULAR SOCIETY
Human and spiritual values make the foundations of our society. Important even to the atheist that discussions of things such as ‘justice’ is discussed to achieve a higher purpose In life and morality.
-Universal Declaration of Human rights is founded on the belief that all humans have worth discussing across faiths helps us achieve equality and understanding
However if humanist then have to give up what it means to be religious. No higher morality of goodness which could be harmful and anarchic as it reduces values such as right/wrong to not be based on a higher power
AGAINST - INCREASING SECULAR SOCIETY
Comte: People can still lie happy lives without the need for belief in a God – at times religion can be dangerous and oppressive
Humanist:
Society is happier when we prioritise the interests of others
-Advocates for respect without the need for Gods Grace which could be thought of as tyrannical
-Since establishment has been less capital punishment in the west
KEY TERM - FAITH SCHOOLS
Humanist approach
directly campaign against faith schools and want an inclusive secular school system; against the schools, their admission policies, employment systems and curriculums
FOR - FAITH SCHOOLS
Many people argue that having faith schools creates isolated communities and they fail to integrate pupils into the wider secular society. Also, many faith schools fail to teach science properly especially those which have conservative and fundamentalist beliefs.
Dawkins states that religion is an abuse because so many of its deluded beliefs damage people and especially children psychologically. He gives the examples of Hell Houses in USA where children are taught about the terrors of hell and how to avoid it. He is particularly critical of the ways in which religions initiate their children into their religious mindset and label them a Jewish, Muslim or Christian child before that child has any opportunity to understand what this means.
AGAINST- FAITH SCHOOLS
He takes isolated extreme examples and uses them to draw general conclusions e.g. the Hell houses.
Also, others may argue that keeping children away from learning the truths about God is also abusive, so no atheist households either.
As well, a strong criticism of programmatic secularism is that it is anti-democratic as it actively removes the historic place of Christianity, as well as other religions, from all public institutions.
Eaglton: Although religion is harmful, this has to be weighed against the extraordinary contribution the religious imagination has made to human culture through art, architecture, literature, poetry, drama and so on. Secularists think that all these things can occur without religion, but only religion can capture the highest spiritual accept of human experiences.
