SCIENCE OF RELIGION

DEBUNKING RELIGION (by explaining why people have religious beliefs, etc., despite there not being good evidence):

Anthrolopogy of religion (E. B. Tylor):

Religion originates (and is a holdover) from propitiation of gods viewed as in charge of natural forces (proto-science).

2. Sociology of religion:

A. Karl Marx (whose greatest legacy in academia is perhaps HISTORICISM)

(i) Historical circumstances (in particular economic circumstances) shape belief and consciousness

(ii) Religion is escapism, wishful thinking, false consciousness

B. Emile Durkheim

(i) Religion originates in ritual practices of primitive societies (agreement with Tylor)

(ii) Religion is a matter of symbols and social ideals that bind together a society (tribal glue)

3. Psychology of religion (Sigmund Freud)

(i) Religion is proto-science (bad explanations of nature and propitiation of gods; compare Tylor)

(ii) Religion helps in the restraint of a-social instincts and super-ego formation (necessary for civilization: compare Durkheim)

(3) Religion is a matter of escapism, wishful thinking, comparable to the “cathexis” of desire in dreams