Psychology of Religion
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LUDWIG FEUERBACH
Ludwig Feuerbach advocated one of the first psychological approaches to religion. He argued that the reality of God could be reduced to the human projection of a deity, a psychological comforter invented to overcome alienation from true fulfilment. Feuerbach was more concerned with mankind and argued that religion is actually the study of man: “theology is anthropology.”
“What man is in need of he makes God” and “what man wishes to be he makes God.”
Feuerbach believed that there were three attributes of human nature; reason, will and love. These attributes are projected onto an image of God whereby reason becomes omniscience, will becomes omnipotence and love omni benevolence. Feuerbach advocated a positive view of mankind and argued that a realisation of these human attributes would lead to a progression towards utopia. He argued that as humans took control of their destinies they would come to realise their full potential removing the need for a psychological comforter thus causing religion to fade away.
Criticisms
• There can be no absolute morality if God is merely a human projection, since humans are finite and contingent. Thus morality is relative and is reduced to what we think is morally right and wrong rather than what we perceive God thinks is morally right and wrong – it does not have any type of external authority
• Religion remains a part of the post-modern society and has not faded despite the rise of materialism
• The fact that there is a human need to believe in God does not disprove his existence - this could be an inbuilt mechanism programmed by God
SIGMUND FREUD
Freud was a psychologist who believed that our sense of moral awareness is a result of the conditioning of a growing being. He argued that the human psyche or mind is split into three parts:
1. ID – basic instincts and primitive desires e.g. hunger, lust etc.
2. EGO – perceptions of the external that makes us aware of the ‘reality principle,’ one’s most outward part and personality
3. SUPER-EGO – the unconscious mind which consists of:
a. The Ego-ideal which praises good actions
b. The conscience which makes you feel guilty for bad actions
Freud reasoned that in order for the psyche to be healthy there must be a balance between with the ego and the super-ego. He said that religious belief was an ‘adolescent stage in the development of the human race from which humanity should free itself.’ For Freud, the Christian conscience is bad for a person’s mental health because of the rules and taboos it imposes.
In Freudian thought, God is simply concept created by the superego to make sense of its experiences – in reality we are accountable to no-one but ourselves. Like Feuerbach, Freud believed that as humanity emerged from the dark ages it would free itself from the impediment of religion. He described religion as ‘wish fulfilment,’ a neurotic illness that invariably it stems from sexual trauma.
CARL JUNG
Jung was a close friend and student of Freud until their relationship was broken by differing attitudes towards religion. Contrary to Freud who was hostile towards religion, Jung was supportive of religion.
Jung distinguished between the personal unconscious which was very similar to Freud’s understanding of the id, and the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious is shared by all humans and consists of a series of pre-dispositions known as archetypes. For Jung, people develop their own ideas of the archetype of God who is real and important to such people. Whether or not he actually exists in reality is beyond the scope of psychology.
Central to Jung’s ides is the concept of libido – which, unlike Freudian thought, is not limited to sexual desire but the basic drive in all of us to be fulfilled in life. For Jung, religion, one’s relationship with God, plays an important part in healthy individuation – the development of an individual’s potential.
Jung rejected Freud’s claim that religion was a neurotic illness caused by sexual trauma, but rather a natural process stemming from the archetypes in the unconscious mind. Jung accepted that there was a spiritual side to human life, and to try to remove this could be detrimental, since religion performs the function of harmonising the psyche and as such is beneficial.
Criticisms
• The argument is still routed in human self-interest. It does not answer the Kantian-minded philosophy of performing one’s duty for duty’s sake or pursuing intrinsic goodness. Morality remains extrinsic, instrumental to the health of the human psyche.
• People could also be said to be turning to their archetype of God rather than to God himself. Morality thus is still routed within the human self and does not have any type of external authority.
LIMITATIONS OF SOCIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF RELIGION
It could be argued that morality cannot be explained purely in psychological or sociological terms. Take the example in which two men, who are the only survivors of a shipwreck, are in a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean. They only have enough food and drink for one person and the situation demands that either one or both men will die. Both men are of equal value to society.
There are two possible outcomes:
O1: One man sacrifices his life and jumps overboard
O2: One man pushes the other man overboard in order to save his own life
O1 and O2 have the same outcomes and effects on society, but we intuitively know that O1 reflects a high level of morality and that O2 is immoral. This suggests that morality cannot wholly be based on social psychology.
The scope Sociology and Psychology regarding religion is restricted to the role of religion in society and its effects on human behaviour. Whether or not there is some kind of independent reality to religion is venturing into the realms of Theology and away from social and psychological theory. Therefore it could be argued that sociological and psychological explanations of religion do not pose as a major challenge to the believer; they are merely logical explanations of the effect of religious beliefs on mankind.
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