The Psycological Challange

• Essence of this challange is: IS IT AN EXTERNAL SPIRITUAL REALITY OR IS IT A DECEPTION OF THE MIND.
• Jung (psycologist) wrote about goal of life being unification of divided self, developed a therapy to do this. Frankl (psycologist) wrote that to find happiness we need to find our own meaning in life, developed a therapy to do this.
• Jung and Frankl: it may be that RE is a way the mind repairs itself. By completing religious devotion and being completly convinced of religion our mind may respond by releasing certain chemicals that we then interpret as god.
• James: there are the 'healthy minded' (optemists) and 'the sick soul' (pessimist) - Many RE accounts come from a sick soul, RE often marks a changing point to discover a nee balance and overcome challenges. God instructing change is easier than self instructed change.
• Feuerbach argued that god is a psychological construct formed from human desires. Suggests RE have no truth
• Problem of subjectivity: RE only have value to the individual. Hick said that we may all experiance the same thing but perceive it in different ways.