Numbers
WJEC A-Level Religious Studies 603-0277-X
Christianity: Religious Figures and Sacred TextsChristianity
Christianity: Key Religious ConceptsChristianity
Christianity: Religious Life and Moral PrinciplesChristianity
Christianity: Practices and Religious IdentityChristianity
Islam: Religious Figures and Sacred TextsIslam
Islam: Key Religious ConceptsIslam
Islam: Religious Life and Moral PrinciplesIslam
Islam: Practices and Religious IdentityIslam
Judaism: Religious Figures and Sacred TextsJudaism
Judaism: Key Religious ConceptsJudaism
Judaism: Religious Life and Moral PrinciplesJudaism
Judaism: Practices and Religious IdentityJudaism
Buddhism: Religious Figures and Sacred TextsBuddhism
Buddhism: Key Religious ConceptsBuddhism
Buddhism: Religious Life and Moral PrinciplesBuddhism
Buddhism: Practices and Religious IdentityBuddhism
Hinduism: Religious Figures and Sacred TextsHinduism
Hinduism: Key Religious ConceptsHinduism
Hinduism: Religious Life and Moral PrinciplesHinduism
Hinduism: Practices and Religious IdentityHinduism
Sikhism: Religious Figures and Sacred TextsSikhism
Sikhism: Key Religious ConceptsSikhism
Sikhism: Religious Life and Moral PrinciplesSikhism
Sikhism: Practices and Religious IdentitySikhism
Ethical Thought: Divine Command, Virtue and Egoism
Aquinas and Natural Law
Fletcher and Situation Ethics
Utilitarianism
Inductive Arguments for the Existence of God
Deductive Arguments for the Existence of God
The Problem of Evil and Suffering
The Nature of Religious Experience
Christianity: Texts, Authority and Key Figures
Christianity: Historical Developments in Religious Thought
Christianity: Social Developments in Religious Thought
Christianity: Movements, Change and Contemporary Issues
Islam: Texts, Authority and Key Figures
Islam: Historical Developments in Religious Thought
Islam: Social Developments in Religious Thought
Islam: Movements, Change and Contemporary Issues
Judaism: Texts, Authority and Key Figures
Judaism: Historical Developments in Religious Thought
Judaism: Social Developments in Religious Thought
Judaism: Movements, Change and Contemporary Issues
Buddhism: Texts, Authority and Key Figures
Buddhism: Historical Developments in Religious Thought
Buddhism: Social Developments in Religious Thought
Buddhism: Movements, Change and Contemporary Issues
Hinduism: Texts, Authority and Key Figures
Hinduism: Historical Developments in Religious Thought
Hinduism: Social Developments in Religious Thought
Hinduism: Movements, Change and Contemporary Issues
Sikhism: Texts, Authority and Key Figures
Sikhism: Historical Developments in Religious Thought
Sikhism: Social Developments in Religious Thought
Sikhism: Movements, Change and Contemporary Issues
Meta-Ethics
Deontological Ethics: Finnis and Proportionalism
Determinism and Predestination
Free Will and Libertarianism
Psychological Challenges and Atheism
Religious Experience and Miracles
Religious Language: Cognitive and Analogical
Religious Language: Symbol, Myth and Language Games
New Testament: ParablesNew Testament
New Testament: MiraclesNew Testament
New Testament: The Letters (1 Peter)New Testament
Psychological Challenges and Atheism
- 4 subtopics
- 12 things to know
- A2 Unit 5
What Psychological Challenges and Atheism covers
Psychological Challenges and Atheism is examined in A2 Unit 5, Philosophy of Religion. It covers Freud on religion as illusion, Jung on religion and the psyche, atheism and New Atheism and Debating the psychological and atheistic challenges.
The 4 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Freud on religion as illusionPrimal horde theory, oedipus complex, as Freud applies it to religion and three standard criticisms of Freud's account of religion.Open →
- Jung on religion and the psycheRecall questions on the difference from Freud, the collective unconscious, archetypes, individuation, the God within, his reticence about God's existence, supporting evidence, and the charge of reductionism.Open →
- Atheism and New AtheismNew Atheism, new Atheist charge that religion is non-thinking and charge that religion offers an infantile worldview.Open →
- Debating the psychological and atheistic challengesRecall questions on belief as neurosis, the adequacy of Freud's explanation, whether Jung was really more positive, empirical critiques, the success of atheistic arguments, and the genetic fallacy.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
Distinguish the positions available to someone who does not believe in God.
Key term
How does Jung's assessment of religion differ from Freud's?
Key term
Can religious belief be considered a neurosis? Give the case against.
Key term
What did Freud mean by calling religion an illusion?
Key term
What is the collective unconscious?
Key term
Define atheism.
Key term
How effective are empirical critiques of Jung? Give the case that they succeed.
Key term
Distinguish an illusion from a delusion in Freud's usage.
Key term
What are archetypes?
Key term
Distinguish atheism from agnosticism.
Key term
How effective are empirical critiques of Jung? Give the case that they miss the point.
Take Psychological Challenges and Atheism further
The same content, four other ways.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What did Freud mean by calling religion an illusion?
Model answer
A belief held because it fulfils a deep wish, whose truth or falsity is not what sustains it.
- 2
Distinguish an illusion from a delusion in Freud's usage.
Model answer
An illusion is driven by wish-fulfilment and may happen to be true; a delusion contradicts reality outright.
- 3
In which work does Freud argue that religion is an illusion?
Model answer
The Future of an Illusion, published in 1927.
- 4
What wish does Freud think religion fulfils?
Model answer
The wish for protection against a threatening world, which reproduces the child's experience of a powerful protective father.
- 5
Why does Freud describe religion as a reaction against helplessness?
Model answer
Faced with nature, illness and death, adults recover the childhood remedy of an all-powerful father who can be appealed to.
- 6
What does Freud mean by calling religion a universal obsessional neurosis?
Model answer
That its rituals resemble the repeated protective acts of obsessional patients, performed to relieve guilt and anxiety.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Psychological Challenges and Atheism revision questions
- What does Psychological Challenges and Atheism cover in WJEC A-Level Religious Studies?
- 4 subtopics: freud on religion as illusion, jung on religion and the psyche, atheism and new atheism and debating the psychological and atheistic challenges. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Psychological Challenges and Atheism organised?
- By the WJEC 603-0277-X specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Psychological Challenges and Atheism, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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