1. CRITIQUES OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF
This topic also includes the debate between Copleston and Russell – see anthology notes.

2. KEY TERMS Atheist – someone who does not believe in God
Strong atheist – someone who is very clear that God does not exist and believes that arguments that he does are dangerous. This is often someone who wants to ‘warn’ others of the dangers of religion.
Weak atheist – the simple absence of belief in God.
Agnostic – someone who thinks it is not possible to know if God exists or not.

3. ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS FOR RELIGIOUS BELIEF
EMILE DURKHEIM
KARL MARX
SIGMUND FREUD
KEY IDEAS
Religion serves to unite the community.
Religion creates a force within individuals that creates a sense of moral obligation to meet the demands of society.
There is no separate entity called God, God and society are the same thing. What exists is a system that believes it owes its creation to God.
Believed that God was an invention of the human mind to satisfy our emotional needs.
Described religion as the ‘opiate of the people’ as he argued that it served to distract people from their oppression by the ruling classes and promised them a better experience in the afterlife. This belief was meant to distract them from starting a revolution.
Capitalism needs religion as it justifies the social order and a person’s place within it – ‘The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate’
Religion is a projective system, it is an illusion created by humans.
It works on suppressing anti-social impulses by inducing a sense of fear and guilt.
Religion feeds off people’s fears of helplessness and death.
STRENGTHS
The commitment to society as a whole can be empirically evidenced in communities such as the Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christian communities.
There is logic in the argument that if people believe in the chance of a better experience in the afterlife, they will be less motivated to take drastic action to improve their circumstances in the present one.
Makes logical sense as the promise of an afterlife can be a source of comfort to a great many people.
WEAKNESSES
This does not explain why religious believers will go against the rules of their society, eg Martin Luther King challenged societies’ views on the treatment of black people.
His work was based primarily on aboriginal societies so it is questionable how much of it is applicable to modern western society.
The link between religion and society is overplayed as societies have changed over time but beliefs about the nature of God haven’t; this suggests that they cannot really be the same entity.
Rather than stagnate change, religion has often promoted it, eg the early Christians challenged the rule of the Romans and Jesus himself expressed what were considered at the time to be revolutionary views.
Religion is no longer necessary in a capitalist society yet it still exists so it must serve more of a purpose than mere distraction and social orderliness.
He argued that an individual’s relationship to God was determined by the kind of relationship that they had with their father, Nelson and Jones’ research indicates that it is actually the relationship with the mother that has the most influence.
He has been criticised for being overly focused on linking everything back to sexual behaviour and so his conclusions have become increasingly questioned in recent years.

4. RICHARD DAWKINS

5. WEAKNESSES
STRENGTH

6. POSTMODERNISM
Postmodernism is a philosophy that says absolute truth does not exist. Supporters of postmodernism deny long-held beliefs and conventions and maintain that all viewpoints are equally valid.
In today's society, postmodernism has led to relativism, the idea that all truth is relative. That means what is right for one group is not necessarily right or true for everyone.
In a postmodern world there are no universal religious or ethical laws, everything is shaped by the cultural context of a particular time and place and community.
Members of religious groups may not agree with this view, religious tradition still exists today and therefore it proves that this kernel of religion is necessary in society. For example, when God gave Moses the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai, such rules as ’Do not kill’ and ‘Do not steal’ set up a moral society whereby people could live their lives by a moral viewpoint.
Postmodernism's rejection of absolute truth causes many people to reject the Bible.
Hume argued that a complete rejection of philosophising about God is necessary for humans to see that religion has become embedded in a society purely for the benefit of oppressing the poor and as a means of comfort for the poor.
A complete abolition of religion for some may be a harsh, unnecessary and daunting prospect. If we consider just how many people devote their lives to a religion, perhaps as a means of securing a good afterlife (especially in Christiantiy and Islam).
Kant argues that we need to step away from such self-serving and oppressive rules and regulations and instead we need to seek out the good, nourishing part of religion that is found in the kernel of religion. He argues that we need to make ourselves aware of the fact that as humans we are able to rely on reason in our lives and hence we do not need a higher authority figure represented by the Church and such leaders who are corrupt and self-serving.

7. POSTMODERNISM STRENGTHS
Allowing religious beliefs to develop organically by society ensures that they are relevant to both the time and people that ‘use them’.
For example, many of the traditional holy books condemn the practice of divorce yet this may be more for reasons relating to the time, eg the inability of women to support themselves in a male dominated society and so this negative attitude is no longer necessary in today’s contemporary society where there are no restrictions on a woman earning a living
Organised religion can be seen as detrimental to morality as there are have many occasions where it has been used to justify extremism and fundamentalism.
For example, the 9/11 attacks perpetrated by Al’Qaeda were ‘justified’ on the grounds of being a jihad against America and their interference in the Middle East. The fact that these attacks ignored many of the rules of jihad such as not to target women and children were completely ignored by those involved as they were willing to take human life indiscriminately.
Allowing people to develop their own idea of religious belief removes the need for leaders of religion which could be seen as a good thing as there have been examples of corruption and inappropriate behaviour in the past.
For example, child abuse scandals have damaged the credibility of the Catholic Church in recent years such as the Smyllum Park Orphanage scandal in which survivors claims to have been physically and sexually abused.

8. POSTMODERNISM WEAKNESSES
Many of our laws and those of other countries around the world are based on laws from holy books such as the Bible, this suggests that organised religion is still relevant.
For example, ‘Do not kill’, ‘Do not steal’ are laws in practically every country around the world which suggests that organised religion still has a place.
There are questions that science cannot answer and so organised religion is needed to provide a response, and in some cases reassurance.
For example, it could be said that religion is the best possible answer many people have for what happens when we die. Therefore many would be reluctant to simply ‘stop believing’ as uncertainty about the sensitive subject of death may mean religion is a source of comfort for them.
Postmodernism leads to moral relativism, a situation where there is no absolute right or wrong. Without an absolute, we are unable to condemn any types of behaviour.
For example, if there is no absolute stance on the taking of human life being wrong, then we can have no recourse against those who take the lives of others to further their own gains such as terrorists.