Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Psychological Explanations
- Ludwig Feuerbach
- Argued that the idea of God is a human
projection
- All attributes of God in our nature;
human aspirations or desires
- We create God in our
image
- 'God is man written in
large letters'
- Sigmund Freud
- Believed that human religious behaviour
was a neurosis caused by childhood
insecurities
- Desire for a father-figure to protect us
- Religious experiences are hallucinations that have a
simple psychological explanation
- Just as dreams are caused by deep desires we are
unaware of;
- Religious experiences are also the product of our
subconscious and are caused by the desire for security
and meaning
- Counter Argument
- Not all psychologists reject religious
experiences
- Car Gustav Jung
- Accepted the reality of numinous
experiences
- Argued the development of the spiritual
aspect of us was essential to
psychological wholeness
- Claimed that each of us has the archetype
(idea) of God within a shared collective
unconscious
- William James
- Accepted that religious experience had a
psychological dimension
- Did not agree that this meant religious experiences
were just psychological events