Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Adolph Grunbaum on religious delusions.
AU - Garvey, Brian
N1 - http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=RES The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Religious Studies, 35 (1), pp 19-35 1999, © 1999 Cambridge University Press.
PY - 1999/3
Y1 - 1999/3
N2 - Grünbaum claims it is possible that all belief in God is a delusion, meaning a false belief which is engendered by irrational psychological motives. I dispute this on the grounds that in many cases belief in God is engendered by purely cultural factors, and this is incompatible with its being engendered by psychological ones. Grünbaum also claims that saying a culturally engendered belief cannot be a delusion makes social consensus the sole arbiter of reality. I dispute this on the grounds that we can say that socially engendered beliefs fail to be delusions because they fail to meet the psychological criterion, rather than because they are true.
AB - Grünbaum claims it is possible that all belief in God is a delusion, meaning a false belief which is engendered by irrational psychological motives. I dispute this on the grounds that in many cases belief in God is engendered by purely cultural factors, and this is incompatible with its being engendered by psychological ones. Grünbaum also claims that saying a culturally engendered belief cannot be a delusion makes social consensus the sole arbiter of reality. I dispute this on the grounds that we can say that socially engendered beliefs fail to be delusions because they fail to meet the psychological criterion, rather than because they are true.
M3 - Journal article
VL - 35
SP - 19
EP - 35
JO - Religious Studies
JF - Religious Studies
SN - 1465-901X
IS - 1
ER -