CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

The study of religions is critical of religion in the sense that it considers and examines religious ideas and practices from historical, cultural, psychological and biological perspectives by using scientific methods. This methodology does not necessarily imply that it is negative, only that it is analytical- critical in its methodic approach to religions. On the contrary, many researchers take a firm stand against an anti-religious approach, and (as previously mentioned) they will strive to remain neutral. So the aim of the analytical-critical study of religions is not to consider the normative questions such as whether a religious idea is true or not, or whether a religious practice should be abolished or not.
In contrast, philosophy of religion has a long tradition of explicitly anti-religious criticism of religion, the religious worldviews and the values of religions. The critical philosophy of religion has, traditionally, had Christianity as its focus, but in many cases it would be possible to extend it to other religious systems, too. A prominent approach to religion, shared also by various academic study-of-religions approaches, is based on reductionist theories, characterized by explaining religion by something else. Some point to psychological reasons, others to the social or biological development of the human being. Reductionist theories have different explanations of why people have religion. For some philosophers, in contrast to most scholars of religion the goal of the reductionist theory has often been to present a negative view of religion, for others, (as in Hume's case), the critical and anti-religious potential has not really been unfolded until by later theorists.

Critical thinkers on religion

	David Hume	Ludwig Feuerbach	Karl Marx	Friedrich Nietzsche	Richard Dawkins
Dates	1711-76	1804-72	1818-83	1844-1900	1941-
Type of reductionism	Psychological	Psychological-anthropological	Social-economical	Ideological-history of ideas	Cognitivist and ideological
View of religion	Apparently neutral	Positive	Negative	Negative	Negative
Key criticism	Religion is the result of human ignorance, fear, and attempts to control the unknown.	Religion is created when man projects his own ideals as if they were independently existing  concepts.	Religion is the opium of the people. It is a means of oppression in itself , but it also blurs the general oppression in society.	Religion is an illusion. Weak people use it to tame the strong people, and to come to terms with a chaotic reality. Nietzsche wanted to reveal the 'death of God' to put an end to the illusion.	Religion is a virus sponging on people’s biologically based cognitive faculties.

Reductionist explanation

Reductionism is a basic condition of all science: Explanations focus on the core elements rather than giving a one-to-one description (as a map has to do it). There are many types of reductionist study-of-religions theories. A theory of religion is reductionist when it bases its explanation on something else than religion itself (e.g. social or evolutionary theory).

Reductionism and view of religions

Reductionist theories are often (but not always) critical of religion because they make the religious aspect superfluous. As when Freud (1856-1939) says that God is just a projected father figure. However, there are reductionist theories with positive attitudes towards religions: some theorists think that religious choices must be understood as the result of rational considerations: People choose religious affiliation based on what the various religions have to offer (in terms of eternal life, or the opportunity to escape the wheel of rebirth).

The text is a rewrite of an English draft version of an introduction to Horisont - a textbook for the Danish upper-secondary school RE, edited by Associate Professors Annika Hvithamar and Tim Jensen, and Upper-Secondary School teachers Allan Ahle and Lene Niebuhr, published by Gyldendal, Copenhagen 2013. The original introduction was written by Annika Hvithamar and Tim Jensen based on the contribution of C. Shaffalitzky de Muckadell