<p>**A2 Philosophy of Religion: 3 Knowledge Organisers covering: **</p> <p>Theme : Challenges to religious belief – Religious belief as a product of the human mind.</p> <p>Organiser 1: A Religious belief as a product of the human mind – Sigmund Freud:<br /> Religion as an illusion and/or a neurosis with reference to collective neurosis; primal horde; Oedipus complex; wish fulfilment and reaction against helplessness.<br /> Supportive evidence including reference to redirection of guilt complexes and reference to instinctive desires deriving from evolutionary basis (Charles Darwin).<br /> Challenges including lack of anthropological evidence for primal horde; no firm psychological evidence for universal Oedipus complex; evidence basis too narrow.</p> <p>Organiser 2: Religious belief as a product of the human mind – Carl Jung: Religion necessary for personal growth with reference to: collective unconscious; individuation; archetypes; the God within.<br /> Supportive evidence including recognition of religion as a source of comfort and promotion of positive personal and social mind sets arising from religious belief.<br /> Challenges including lack of empirical evidence for Jungian concepts and reductionist views regarding religious belief arising from acceptance of Jung’s ideas.</p> <p>Orgainser 3&quot;: Issues relating to rejection of religion: Atheism:<br /> Rejection of belief in deities; the difference between agnosticism and atheism; the rise of New Atheism (antitheism); its main criticisms of religion: non-thinking; infantile worldview; impedes scientific progress.<br /> Religious responses to the challenge of New Atheism: rejection by religious groups of New Atheist claims regarding incompatibility of science and religion; increase in fundamentalist religious activity relating to morality and community; increase in religious apologists in media.</p>