Short Essay Question on Religious Belief and Rational Argumentation
Why not think that religious belief is based on psycho-social interests (as Feuerbach and Marx claim) rather than rational (e.g., ontological, cosmological) arguments?
(Break the question down into these parts):
- How are psycho-social explanations for religious belief different from rational arguments for religious belief?
- What are the arguments for the two kinds of explanations?
- What objections can be raised against each kind?
- How could defenders of such explanations reply to those objections?
- What difference would it make to adopt each approach?