Hi, my name is Ms. Marks and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

And our lesson today is called Possible Psychological Explanations for Religion.

And it forms part of our Psychology of Religion unit.

And in today's lesson, we are going to be introduced to the ideas of a very important thinker in both psychology and religion.

So are you ready? Let's go.

In our lesson today, you will be able to give an account of some psychological explanations for religion and present different perspectives on this.

So let's start with our keywords.

Our keywords for today are afterlife, conscience, illusion, instincts and wish fulfilment.

And those terms mean, afterlife, meaning the belief that there's some continued existence for those who physically died.

Conscience, the inner sense of right and wrong that guides a person's decisions.

Illusion, something a person believes to be true so strongly that it doesn't matter whether it is or not.

Instincts, basic human impulses and desires that everybody is born with, such as to eat.

And wish fulfilment, which are deep human needs and desires, which religion can satisfy.

So our list today is going to have two parts.

The first part is going to be discussing religion as an illusion and wish fulfilment.

And the second part is going to be an analysis of Freud's views on religion.

So the first part of our lesson then today, religion as an illusion and wish fulfilment.

Have you ever wished for something that you really, really wanted to come true? So perhaps on some birthday candles or perhaps just a moment when you've wanted something to happen in the future.

Have a think about that and talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Sometimes we can wish for things that we know might not happen, but we really, really believe that they might come true.

You might want to really meet a famous pop star that you are obsessed with their music of, or you might want to really visit a certain place or a certain thing and you believe that it's gonna happen even if the evidence doesn't really point in that direction.

Well, sometimes we can want something to be true so much that having evidence to show this, doesn't matter for us to believe it will come true.

What matters is how much we want it to be true.

And Sigmund Freud was a very influential thinker who helped to develop psychology.

So what we have now is psychology whilst his ideas aren't necessarily a huge part of what psychologists do today, he really helped to develop it as a discipline and as a field and was really influential.

And he saw religion as something people wanted to be true a bit like the wish we spoke about earlier.

He said, "The evidence for and against it doesn't matter "because of how much people want to believe it." He actually calls religion an illusion because it's something people really want to be true, even if it isn't.

So we've got an illusion, optical illusion here as an example we could use that our mind is making us think something is true, whereas it might not necessarily be true.

So let's unpack what Freud means when he calls religion an illusion.

And Kate and William are gonna help us with this.

Freud uses an example of a young girl who believes that one day she'll grow up to marry a prince.

So she's a young girl sat in her room and she believes that she will one day marry that prince, in her heart.

There's no evidence of her sat in her bedroom there that she will grow up to marry a prince.

As in the future, we don't know whether she will or won't.

And actually she might.

You know, Kate might have sat and thought that in her bedroom as a young girl, and look, she did end up marrying a prince.

But the evidence for this young girl in Freud's example isn't actually what matters.

She's not thinking through when she'll meet this prince, how she'll marry him, how it's gonna happen.

She just really believes that she will, and she really wants it to happen.

So she believes that it will.

In a similar way, humans may want there to be life after death or a powerful being or a force that's in charge of the world.

It's something that humans really want to be true.

So this causes humans to believe that it's true, even if there's a lack of evidence.

So even if there's no evidence, Freud says, then humans may still believe this is true because they really want it to be true.

Now don't forget, in the second part of this lesson, we're going to bring in some analysis of these views and start to evaluate them a bit.

But for now, let's just be sure we've understood what Freud means when he calls religion an illusion.

So let's have time for a quick check.

Freud calls religion an illusion because he thinks religious beliefs are false and without evidence.

Is that true or false? It's false, and it's a bit of a tricky one, isn't it? Because he was using that word evidence a lot in his description of what it means to be an illusion.

So why is this one false then? This is false because religion is an illusion to Freud, not because evidence shows that it's false.

The reason it's an illusion is because people want it to be true.

So the evidence doesn't matter.

So for Freud, there could be evidence for or against this belief, but for Freud it's an illusion because the evidence isn't what matters, what matters is how much people want it to be true.

Freud stated that all humans have some common wants and fears, and religion helps them to deal with them, these desires and worries.

And so it's a form of wish fulfilment.

So for Freud, all humans have these sort of basic common things that they want, that they're scared of, wishes they want to have met, and religion is something which can fulfil these wishes.

So three of these wishes as examples are, a wish to control a scary world.

So as a mere human here, if I was faced with a hurricane that there's no way I could stop it, there's nothing I could do to stop that, so it's scary.

So the thought of having a power that is there that could control that scary world for me and look after me is very appealing and would be a great comfort and would fulfil that wish that the scary world is being controlled.

A second wish is to control our instincts.

So Freud writes about not only that like outside world being scary and uncontrollable, but within ourselves he says, we've got instincts.

We've got forces that are trying to make us do certain things that we might not wanna do or we know aren't right, and we need to have a way to control these.

So that idea that we need to control those instincts within us as well as the kind of big scary world outside.

And thirdly, he says that we have a wish for there to be a fair afterlife.

So not only an afterlife, but that that afterlife is fair and based on some sense of justice, and that everything will be okay in the afterlife no matter what's going on in this world.

So these are three wishes that we have as humans according to Freud, that religion can fulfil and cannot answer for us as humans.

So let's look at some of these wishes in a bit more detail.

So firstly, we have a wish to have control over the world.

We can't control the world, so we want there to be an omnipotent power which could control it for us.

And omnipotent means here, all powerful.

And it's a word that's often used around beliefs about God and higher powers.

I cannot as a mere human control and stop that hurricane.

In the face of that power, I'm powerless.

And so I like the idea of a power that I could pray to and ask to help me.

We can pray to this power to ask it to help look after us, and this makes us feel better.

If in the middle of that hurricane there's a power that I can pray to to help me, then surely that helps to fulfil the wish.

Freud says that as children we're protected by our parents, and when we grow up, we still want a parental figure in control to look after us.

So we are used to as children when things are going wrong, there being a parental figure that's there to help protect us, Freud says.

And so as we grow up, we look for that in the ultimate parent, the ultimate thing that could be in control and managing and helping us.

And we have therefore got an omnipotent father figure.

And I deliberately say father figure here, because this is Freud's view and we'll come back to that in the second part of this lesson.

We can see this in different forms of religion.

Here's one example in the way that Christians might read how Jesus instructs them to pray in the Bible.

So this is what Jesus says, "This then is how you should pray.

"Our Father in heaven, "hallowed be Your name.

"Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth "as it is in heaven." And that's found in the Bible.

So this is what Jesus is saying to His followers about how they should pray.

And can we see some of Freud's ideas in here? We've got the word Father being used here, and that shows that Jesus viewed God as a father figure for all Christians.

We've also got the word will, which links again to the idea of God being omnipotent.

Your will be done.

So anything God wills, can happen.

So asking God to help with this.

But the second wish that Freud says religion can help us with is a wish to control our instincts.

So this is the things that are sort of within us as humans, these drives and urges and passions that we might have within us just by being human that we want to have a way to control.

Freud argued that religion helped humans live together in societies as they controlled their natural instincts.

These instincts involve eating, fighting, killing, and by controlling these, humanity was able to progress.

So for Freud, the human mind has evolved to have a conscience in order to keep these instincts restrained.

And in some religions this is viewed as being given by God or a higher power.

But for Freud, it's something we evolved over time as humans because it helped us restrain those instincts and helped us to progress as a society and live longer and therefore pass it on to our offspring.

So an example could be that I have a amazing chocolate cake, that I could eat the whole thing all to myself, and after two or three pieces, I really enjoy this chocolate cake.

And then something within me says, "No, Ms. Marks, don't eat all the chocolate cake, "share some with your friends." So I'm beginning to restrain my instinct, which is to eat the whole thing because that inner voice is telling me to do something different.

And for Freud, that's an example of it restraining my instinct.

Whereas others might say, "Is it a voice of God "telling me to be kind and share the cake?" Other examples could be if someone really annoys me or really they're really annoying me and I want to, you know.

But something in me says, "No, Ms. Marks, "have a conversation or walk out the room, "go and take a breather." So for Freud, this is a really important part of what religion does, it helps us to restrain these instincts.

But for Freud, it's something that evolved over time, it's not something that was God given.

Well, let's understand this word conscience a bit more.

It has these stems, con and science.

Con meaning with and science from scientia meaning knowledge.

So it's that inner sense of right and wrong that guides a person decisions.

And as we said earlier, in some religions this is viewed as being given by God or a higher power, but that's not how Freud views it.

So let's do another check.

Which two statements are correct about Freud's view of religion as wish fulfilment? Humans have control over the planet and so do not need to believe in an omnipotent power.

Humans have evolved a conscience to control their natural instincts and urges.

Humans are used to parents caring for them as children, so have created God as the ultimate father figure.

Which two of those statements are correct? Well done.

It's B and C.

Humans don't have control over the planet according to Freud, which is why they feel the need to have an omnipotent God.

So another way that religion is a form of wish fulfilment is that it fulfils our wish for there to be some kind of life after death.

And Freud argues it's perfectly natural for humans to fear death and what comes after this.

Therefore humans have created the religious idea of an afterlife to help us with this.

So in what ways might a belief in the afterlife help humans with some of these fears? Well, it might be missing our loved ones who've died.

It might be wanting justice for wrongdoing if someone like really bad dies and they didn't seem to be punished for what happened, we want some sense of justice.

We just don't want to stop existing.

The idea of us not existing anymore is a bit harsh sometimes.

Reminding us that we actually matter, that it's not just a bit of futile, this life on earth, but there's a real purpose to it.

And for some people they want to have that sense that their actions haven't gone unnoticed and there'll be some rewards.

So for Freud, these are all perfectly natural, normal feelings for humans to have.

And so the afterlife has been created as an idea to help fulfil those wishes.

So Izzy, Alex, Lucas and Aisha are discussing how religion could be seen as wish fulfilment here.

Aisha says "Sometimes bad things happen to good people "and that just doesn't seem fair." Lucas says, "A human can't stop a hurricane.

"I can see why a powerful God would be a comfort." Izzy says, "Religious laws like, 'Do not kill,' "could help people behave better." And Alex says, "I think the idea of an afterlife "could be a great comfort to someone who's dying." So we can see here from these pupils that there are some really basic wants and needs that humans have that religion can help answer.

And for Freud, that is why it is a form of wish fulfilment.

Let's do a quick check.

What term is a belief that people continue to exist in some form after physical death? Yes, that's right, afterlife.

And that could take different forms in different religious beliefs.

Let's do a task to check what we've learned.

Alex is trying to explain Freud's view that religion is an illusion and wish fulfilment and parts of his explanation are incorrect.

Rewrite Alex's explanation so that it becomes correct.

So Alex says, "Freud calls religion an influence "because people really want it to be true, "so they believe it is, even if there's a lot of evidence.

"He also says that religion is wish fruition "because humans want there to be a powerful being "in charge of the world looking after them.

"Humans are scared by a loving, omnipotent mother figure "and by the idea of life after death." So what mistakes has Alex made? And can you rewrite it so that they become correct? So pause the video and off you go.

Well done for your hard work there.

We've been discussing some really big ideas, well done.

So I asked you to look at Alex's explanation and spot the mistakes and then correct them.

Your answer may look something like this.

"Freud calls religion an illusion "because people really want it to be true, "so they believe that it is, "even if there is a lack of evidence.

"He also says that religion is wishful fulfilment "because humans want there to be a powerful being "in charge of the world, looking after them.

"Humans are comforted by a loving, omnipotent father figure "and by the idea of life after death." So onto part two, analysis of Freud's views on religion.

So in the first part of the lesson, we looked at some of Freud's ideas around religion being an illusion and wish fulfilment.

And as we were thinking about it, I said we would have a chance to evaluate them and start to think more critically about it.

And so we're going to do that now.

Whilst Freud's ideas around religion and the mind have been very influential, there are many, many ways that people have criticised them.

And we are going to look at two of these ways.

Firstly, we're going to look at how religious believers use evidence.

And secondly, we're going to look at how God or gods are not always a father figure.

If you remember from the first part of our lesson, Freud said that religion is an illusion because it's something that people really want to be true.

And the evidence for it being true or not don't matter as much as the desire and the want for that to be true.

But I know many religious people who would counter that and say, actually evidence is a reason why they have their beliefs.

A religious person may say they have evidence for their beliefs.

Here's some examples.

They might say they've had a prayer answered.

They might say, "Well look at the design in the universe.

"There must be a designer." They might say they've had a religious experience and actually encountered some form of God or a higher power.

They might say they've witnessed a miracle that could only be done by the power of something supernatural, so surely it must exist.

Some religious people might say, well actually existence itself, the fact that there is a universe here in the first place is evidence that there is something that put it there.

And others may say that there's revelations or holy texts or messages that have been given to people that prove there's something there.

And all these things could be used to say why someone has these beliefs.

So for Freud to say, "Oh, a religious person doesn't really mind about evidence "if they believe something." Well a religious person could counter back and say, "Well, hang on, these pieces of evidence "are reasons why I have my beliefs." One example is somebody called Al Ghazali.

He was a very influential Muslim philosopher and theologian, and he argued the world itself was evidence of God's existence because there must have been a greater being than the universe to have caused it in the first place.

So the universe itself is evidence for there being this greater higher power or God.

He also had intense religious experiences, which for him again, were further evidence that his religious beliefs were based on truth.

So rather than just a wish or a need that he had these experiences convinced him further that his religious beliefs were in fact true.

So let's do a quick check on what we've done so far.

Is this true or false? One criticism of Freud's view of religion is that religious people do often state there is evidence for their beliefs.

Is that true or false? Yeah, that's true.

One criticism is of particularly his view of religion as an illusion, is that there is often evidence that religious people give to their beliefs or people might become religious because of different pieces of evidence.

Not only is Freud's view challenged from the idea of religious people having evidence for their beliefs, but also the very view of religion that Freud has.

He is often criticised for having a very narrow idea of what religion is.

And so he has a particular view of what religion is based on the experiences he had, growing up and where he was living.

And so lots of his ideas around religion seem very narrow, very focused on one type of idea of what religion is.

When we know religion can be very, very diverse, and even within a religion, there can be a great number of diversities.

For example, he focuses on religious people having God as a father figure.

And I said earlier on that I deliberately use that language because that's what Freud says.

But many religious people do not see God as male or as a father.

Other religious people may not believe in one God.

Other religious people might not believe in God at all or might have a different form of higher power that they're believing in.

Can you think of any examples of religions or religious traditions that do not have a God who is a father figure? Take a moment to pause the video and have a think and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Off you go.

Yes, we can see that there are many examples of religions or religious traditions where there isn't a father figure God, which could show us that Freud had quite a narrow idea of what religion is.

So for example, some religious people don't believe in a God that's a father figure.

They might have many different gods and goddesses.

So for example, here I've got Kali from the Hindu Dharmic tradition.

Some religious people might believe in a female higher power rather than a male one.

So for example, the idea of mother earth, which is held within many paganisms and other different traditional religions.

As some religious people believe that God is genderless and without human shape or form and separate to these kind of human labels that we have for us.

And so wouldn't necessarily call God father and male, for example in Islam.

So now let's see what Aisha, Alex and Laura think about Freud's views on religion.

Alex says, "I think Freud's ideas "show that religion is created by humans to comfort them "like the father figure looking after humanity "in a scary world.

Aisha says, "I think religious ideas "could be a great comfort to people, "but that doesn't mean they're made up by people." And Laura says, "I think Freud didn't understand "how religious people view their beliefs.

"Many religious people do base their beliefs "on a kind of evidence." So you can see here that we've got three different views about Freud's opinions on religion and how Alex might say, "Yes, Freud does explain psychologically "where religion has come from." Whereas Aisha acknowledges that yes religion comforts people and offers stuff to us as humans, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's made up by humans.

And Laura here is showing us that Freud might have a complete misunderstanding of what religion is in the first place.

Do you agree with any of these views or do you have a different one? Take a moment to pause the video, have a think.

Speak to the person next to you or talk to me.

Let's have a quick check.

In all religions, there's a belief in a God who's seen as a father figure.

Is that true or false? You're correct.

It is false, isn't it? But why? Well, not all religions have a belief in one God.

There are religions with beliefs in many gods and goddesses also some religions have a female higher power or a genderless, formless God.

So let's do a task to check what we've learned.

Izzy and Jacob have started explaining how Freud's views on religion can be criticised.

For each point, give an example to support it.

You might like to use the sentence stem, for example.

So let's see what they've said.

Izzy says, "Freud's views on religion can be criticised "because religious believers often base their beliefs "on a kind of evidence." And Jacob says, "Freud's views on religion can be criticised "because he based his ideas on a narrow idea "of what religion is." So what evidence could you give for each of those? And you might like to start with the sentence stem, for example.

So pause the video and off you go.

Well done everyone, that was really hard work, especially as you've just learned some new ideas about religion and you're already starting to critique them.

So well done.

So I gave you a statement from Izzy and Jacob starting to explain how Freud's views on religion can be criticised.

And for each point I asked you to give an example to support it.

And your answers may have looked something like this.

For Izzy's point that Freud's view on religion can be criticised because religious believers often based their beliefs on a kind of evidence.

You could have said, for example, Al Ghazali argued the existence of the world itself is evidence of a creator.

For Jacob's point that Freud's views on religion can be criticised because he based his ideas on a narrow idea of what religion is.

You could have said, for example, not all religions have a father figure but may worship female higher powers instead.

So well done for your hard work there.

So before we go today, let's recap everything that we've learned.

Freud was an influential thinker who said religion is an illusion because people really want it to be true regardless of any evidence for or against its claims. Freud argued that religion is a form of wish fulfilment for the human desire to control over a scary world of human instincts and for a fair afterlife.

And Freud's views have been widely criticised as often religious people do use evidence to support their beliefs.

And Freud's view that humans have created, an omnipotent father figure has also been criticised for being a narrow view of religion.

So I've really enjoyed learning this with you today and hopefully see you soon.