Atheism, the psychology of religion and secularism: types of atheism and the new atheists (Dawkins), Freud and Jung on the origins of religion, and the rise of secular humanism.

What this dot point is asking

This WJEC theme asks you to explain and evaluate three connected challenges to belief: atheism (including the new atheists), the psychology of religion (Freud and Jung), and secularism. You need the types of atheism, Dawkins' arguments, Freud's and Jung's accounts of religion's origins, and the rise of secular humanism. AO1 wants accurate exposition of these positions; AO2 wants a reasoned judgement on how far they undermine religious belief.

The answer

Types of atheism and the new atheists

Dawkins (in "The God Delusion") argues that God is a scientific hypothesis that fails, that religion is irrational and a "delusion", that it is explained by evolution (a by-product of useful mental traits, perhaps a "meme"), and that it does moral harm. Older philosophical atheism rests on arguments such as the problem of evil and the success of naturalistic explanation.

Freud and the psychology of religion

Freud's claims:

• Illusion and wish-fulfilment. Religion is an "illusion": a belief driven by deep wishes rather than evidence. God is a projected father-figure, offering protection against the terrors of nature and the fear of death.
• Obsessional neurosis. Religious ritual resembles the repetitive behaviour of obsessional neurotics, so religion is a "universal obsessional neurosis".
• The Oedipus complex and primal horde. Freud traced God and guilt to a primeval killing of the father by the "primal horde" and to the child's ambivalent feelings toward the father (the Oedipus complex).

His conclusion: belief is explained by psychology, so it is comforting but false, and humanity should outgrow it.

Jung and secularism

Secularism is the principle that religion should be separated from public institutions and life; secular humanism offers a worldview and morality grounded in human reason and welfare rather than God. The growth of secularism and humanism is a social challenge to religion's authority, connected to the secularisation debate.

Examples in context

Model paragraph (does psychology disprove God?). The crucial evaluative question is whether the psychological and social explanations of religion are debunking or merely descriptive. Freud clearly intended his account to debunk: if God is a projection of the child's need for a father, then theology is the elaboration of a wish, and the rational response is to grow out of it. But the inference from "belief has a psychological cause" to "the belief is false" commits the genetic fallacy: showing why someone holds a belief is not the same as showing the belief untrue, just as the fact that mathematicians have psychological motives does not make mathematics false. The point cuts both ways, since the believer cannot infer God's reality from the universality of religious feeling either. Jung sharpens the difficulty for the debunker, because his account is at least as well supported as Freud's yet treats religion as healthy and leaves God's existence open. A strong evaluation therefore concedes that Freud and Jung give plausible accounts of why people are religious while denying that this settles whether God exists, which is the separate question the arguments for and against God address.

Try this

Q1. What is the difference between negative and positive atheism? [2 marks]

• Cue. Negative (weak) atheism is the absence of belief in God; positive (strong) atheism asserts that no God exists.

Q2. What did Freud mean by calling religion an "illusion"? [2 marks]

• Cue. A belief driven by deep wishes (wish-fulfilment), such as the need for a protective father, rather than by evidence.

Q3. Evaluate the view that the psychology of religion proves that God does not exist. [20 marks]

• What the marker wants. A balanced argument weighing Freud's and Jung's accounts against the genetic-fallacy reply and Jung's agnosticism, with a reasoned judgement.