Religious instinct has been theorized by some scholars as a part of human nature - support for such a position being found in the fact that (as Talcott Parsons put it) “there is no known human society without something which modern social scientists would classify as religion”.Introduction, Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion (1971) p. xxvii Theologians however have questioned the utility of an approach to religion by way of a so-called instinct;Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (1996) p. 111-2psychologists have disputed the existence of any such specific instinct;J. B. Pratt, The Religious Consciousness (2004) p. 69 while others would point to the advance of secularization in the modern world as refuting the assumption of a specific religious instinct inevitably leading to the establishment of religion as a fundamental human institution.Peter L. Berger, A Rumour of Angels (1973) p. 13-4 Freud and Jung Sigmund Freud saw human weakness and helplessness as a fundamental force behind the establishment of religionS . Freud, Civilization, Society and Religion (PFL 12) p. 203 - a view which might seem to draw support from the Inglehart-Welzel thesis that links the insecurities of traditional economies to a search for spiritual certainty, the affluence of modernisation to a declining stress on religion.R. F. Foster, Luck of the Irish (2008) p. 66 While he recognized in man a genetic predisposition to order experience in mythological, religious or symbolic terms,R. Gregory ed., The Oxford Companion to the Mind (1987) p. 405 Jung reserved judgement as to what bearing this had for the truth-value of religion.Carl Jung, Man and his Symbols (1978) p. 75-82 He never ceased however to stress the important challenge all such factors presented to any shallowly rationalistic world-view.Jung , p.90-3 Criticism  Durkheim saw the social, not the instinctual side of mankind as the key to their religious experience.E. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1971) p. 418 See also Secular religion External links "Human instincts, normal and pathological: the religious instinct", Journal of the New Zealand Medical Association, 26-August-2005, Vol 118 No 1221 The Psychology of Religion, Joseph McCabe "The Religious Instinct", Henry Rutgers Marshall, Mind, Vol. 6, No. 21 (Jan., 1897), pp. 40–58 "Book Review: An Asian Theology of Liberation", Nancy Bowell, Buddhist-Christian Studies, Volume 12., January 1993 The Function of Religion The Psychology of Religion
Religious instinct has been hypothesized by some scholars as a part of human nature ."Do humans have a ‘religion instinct’?" – BBC. Support for such a position being found in the fact that (as Talcott Parsons put it) “there is no known human society without something which modern social scientists would classify as religion”.Introduction, Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion (1971) p. xxvii Theologians however have questioned the utility of an approach to religion by way of a so-called instinct;Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (1996) pp. 111–2 psychologists have disputed the existence of any such specific instinct;J. B. Pratt, The Religious Consciousness (2004) p. 69 while others would point to the advance of secularization in the modern world as refuting the assumption of a specific religious instinct inevitably leading to the establishment of religion as a fundamental human institution.Peter L. Berger, A Rumour of Angels (1973) pp. 13–4 Freud and Jung Sigmund Freud saw human weakness and helplessness as a fundamental force behind the establishment of religion,S . Freud, Civilization, Society and Religion (PFL 12) p. 203 a view which might seem to draw support from the Inglehart–Welzel thesis that links the insecurities of traditional economies to a search for spiritual certainty, the affluence of modernisation to a declining stress on religion.R. F. Foster, Luck of the Irish (2008) p. 66 While he recognized in man a genetic predisposition to order experience in mythological, religious or symbolic terms,R. Gregory ed., The Oxford Companion to the Mind (1987) p. 405 Jung reserved judgement as to what bearing this had for the truth-value of religion.Carl Jung, Man and his Symbols (1978) pp. 75–82 He never ceased however to stress the important challenge all such factors presented to any shallowly rationalistic world-view.Jung 1978, pp. 90–3 Criticism Émile Durkheim saw the social, not the instinctual side of mankind as the key to their religious experience.E. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1971) p. 418 See also Secular religion External links "Human instincts, normal and pathological: the religious instinct", Journal of the New Zealand Medical Association, 26-August-2005, Vol 118 No 1221 The Psychology of Religion, Joseph McCabe "The Religious Instinct", Henry Rutgers Marshall, Mind, Vol. 6, No. 21 (Jan., 1897), pp. 40–58 "Book Review: An Asian Theology of Liberation", Nancy Bowell, Buddhist-Christian Studies, Volume 12., January 1993 The Function of Religion The Psychology of Religion
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theorized
hypothesized
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- support
."Do humans have a ‘religion instinct’?" – BBC. Support
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p. 111-2psychologists
pp. 111–2 psychologists
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p. 13-4
pp. 13–4
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religionS
religion,S
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-
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Inglehart-Welzel
Inglehart–Welzel
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p. 75-82
pp. 75–82
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, p.90-3
1978, pp. 90–3
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Émile