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Summary The Challenge of Secularism
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The Challenge of Secularism• whether or not spiritual values are just human values
Spiritual values are just human values:
Freud - viewed religion as anti-rational and anti-scientific – a kind of childish picture of the
world which we should grow out of as we make more and more progress. He says, “Religion
is comparable to childhood neurosis” ‘The Future of an Illusion’. Belief in God is seen as a bit
like believing in fairies or Father Christmas. Those who continue to believe must be simple
minded and unsophisticated. If religion is childish or infantile, then, it follows that we ought to
reject it as we grow up. Freud argued that these are simply illusions and that although
religion may do good in order for society to develop and flourish fully, religion needs to be
abandoned and that we need to escape from the illusion that religion is the source of true
happiness.
Religion is the cause of neuroses - mental illness involving stress and anxiety - Infantile
result of the Oedipus complex - resentment towards father is projected onto God the ultimate
father figure - Repetition of worship is obsessional and found in all parts of society -
'universal obsessional neurosis' - Religion is unhealthy and causes conflict within society
Freud - God isn't real - argues that the main characteristic of an illusion is that it is “derived
from human wishes.” God to Freud is an illusion. There is no real proof or evidence for God
and yet sensible men and women continue to believe. For Freud, this suggests that God
persists because He contains within himself the wishes of those men and women which are
so important to them that they cancel out any doubts they may have about the truth of the
religion itself. Freud feels that there are three things in our lives which make us feel helpless
but which we wish to control: 1. External forces of nature 2. Internal forces of nature 3.
Longing of a father figure
Freud believes people created God so any spiritual values are just human values.
Dawkins - Evidence for evolution and increased understanding of scientific principles has
lead to his rejection of God - Faith has been replaced by science - 'The power of belief to
abuse is far greater than the impact of physical abuse' - Dawkins spoke to Catholics who
had been sexually abused and they said the fear of going to hell was greater than the harm
of sexual violence - Life should be meaningful without religion - Everyone should try and
escape from religion but his emphasis was on children - 'hell bent' on trying to manipulate
children and trick them into believing the 'illusions' of religion
People created God so any spiritual values are just human values.
They are not:
Aquinas - Primary Precepts (POWER) and synderesis - can be worked out through reason
alone but are gifts from God as humans are imago Dei. So human values are derived from
God and so are spiritual values. Which means they are different to human values.
Aquinas - 4 Tiers of Law:
Eternal Law: the principles by which God made and controls the universe and which are
only fully known to God. Divine Law: the law of God revealed in the Bible, particularly in the
Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount.
, Natural Law: the moral law of God within human nature that is discoverable through use of
reason. Everyone has a natural sense ‘that good is to be done and evil avoided’ which some
called human nature. It is what directs our conscience and if applied with reason to a
situation will lead to the right outcome. Human beings share in God’s eternal law through
obedience to the Natural Law.
Human Law: the laws of nations – everyday rules that govern our lives, from the legal
system at one end right down to the notices saying ‘don’t walk on the grass’.
Spiritual values are not just human values as human values are derived from them and they
are needed for a stable basis of morality..
Christians - would argue that human values tend to be shared on a worldly level but there is
an extra dimension to Christian spiritual ones - gives ultimate purpose or reason. E.g.
Stewardship is to protect God’s creation.
Augustine would argue that humans are too corrupt to work out moral teaching alone and so
need the Bible as it is God’s revelation into morality. Which shows how spiritual values are
different to human values as human values are derived from spiritual ones.
• whether or not there is evidence that Christianity is a major cause of personal
and social problems
Major cause of problems:
Richard Dawkins - argues that Christianity is a major cause of personal problems because
it increases irrationality. Religion then is a delusion, and it is physically and mentally
dangerous. A religious mindset can cause the believer to kill for the sake of his beliefs. This
means then that it is morally wrong for parents to bring up their children as religious
believers. Religion causes personal problems as it causes people to become irrational and
not think or question things. He contrasts religion with Darwinian evolution which is a claim
that has a lot of scientific evidence to support unlike God, which means if people will believe
in God without evidence that can cause many problems. E.g. Anti-vax.
But it also leads to social problems as people are willing to kill and cause harm to those of
different faiths.
Freud - argues that all religion, including Christianity, is a 'universal obsessional neurosis'. -
He states that it is an infantile result of the Oedipus Complex where a boy learns he cannot
sexually possess his mother and feels jealousy towards his father. - The boy then feels guilt
over his hatred of his father, and this guilt causes a belief and reverence towards God - the
ultimate father figure. - Freud argues that this can be seen in primitive times where a man
who killed his father in order to possess other women of his tribe would seek forgiveness at
the totem pole. - Freud argued that psychoanalysis shows religion is a major cause of
personal problems as it is born out of and perpetuates unresolved guilt.
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