© Michael Lacewing The origin of ‘God’ Michael Lacewing

The options Where did the concept GOD come from? We derived it from experience. We invented it as an explanation. –Is invoking God a good explanation? It is a projection of our unconscious desires. It derives from useful social practices.

Religious experience How do we experience God? Not through sense perception. It is more like a hallucination… Do we experience God at all? Sense experiences are rich in detail; people have difficulty describing religious experience. Sense perception is common to everyone; religious experience is rare, and people disagree about what is experienced.

God as explanation Many concepts are invented to explain experience. The best explanations pick out things that exist. GOD is not derived directly from religious experience. But the best explanation for religious experience is that it is accurate, i.e. it is an experience of something divine. GOD is needed to explain the origin of the world.

God of the gaps? These may be accurate accounts of the origin of the concept; but should we keep using the concept? We now explain scientifically many events that GOD was invoked to explain. Why GOD as an explanation? Need to appeal to human psychology as well

Freud: The origin of religion The Future of an Illusion: The origins of religion in human history: a response to our vulnerability in the face of forces of nature The origins of religion in the individual mind: a development from our childhood vulnerability and our relationship with our father, whom we both fear and love “[man’s] longing for a father is a motive identical with his need for protection against the conse- quences of his human weakness.”

Religion is illusion Religion is an ‘illusion’, i.e. caused by the fulfilment of a wish (we want it – life, the universe – to be this way). Religious experience is like dreams, experiences caused by wishes. Reply: suppose God exists. Then our greatest desire would be a relationship with God. –GOD originates in human psychology. But human psychology originates in God. Many religious people are strong-minded, not given to wish-fulfilment.

Durkheim: social explanation The Elementary Forms of Religious Life: religion is the basis of morality and authority, and of communal identity In early societies, it permeates life and is the first expression of society.

Discussion Durkheim’s explanation applies to religion, but not the concept GOD itself Perhaps this concept evolved out of religious practices, e.g. that started with ancestor worship, then as spirits, then one spirit with which a tribe identifies…