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Question by Serenade: How is psychology the opposite of religion?
I’ve read some books lately and two or three of them have basically said that practicing psychology (especially some of the psychoanalytical methods) and some other social sciences are the opposite of religion. I always thought, at least in the case of psychology, that social sciences try to help and understand others. I also though religion tried to help and understand others, so how are they opposite?
Best answer:
Answer by ande e
Psychology is concerned with the truth. Religion is concerned with convincing you it’s the truth.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
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Psychology is an evidence based science to assist in understanding the motivating factors in behavior. Religion is a faith based system of morality and edicts regulating behavior based on a god figure. That’s just for starters.
Comment by Oracle — October 18, 2011 @ 12:00 pm
Lmao.
Ok….
If YOU say so.
Comment by Spitfire — October 18, 2011 @ 12:44 pm
psychology requires you to think…analyze…question…you don’t need that in religion. Baaaa.
Comment by BlueEyes — October 18, 2011 @ 1:16 pm
Religion is belief in fantasy. That has nothing to do with psychology, which is a science.
Comment by Fred — October 18, 2011 @ 1:56 pm
The glaring thing that stands out is that psychology is based on real science. This is probably another one of those things where psychology doesn’t have a problem with religion, some religions have a problem with psychology. As a youngster in a Pentecostal church I became interested in hypnosis before I found out it was one of the many “tools of the devil”. How, exactly, the devil used hypnosis against man was never really made clear.
Comment by Kirby — October 18, 2011 @ 2:50 pm
Never heard that, but I’m pretty sure religion fits all the criteria for being a psychological disorder.
Comment by BrokenEye †he New †es†imen† — October 18, 2011 @ 3:13 pm
Certain Psychological methods place the human as the most important thing people should be concerned with and the concept of God is treated as foreign and possibly distracting from taking care of your natural first concern. This is what places them at odds. To a religious person God should be first before self. To certain Psycological methods self comes first before all else.
Comment by John — October 18, 2011 @ 3:45 pm
Big picture: Because psychology, in essence, relies on hard determinist theory which is evidence against religion.
Small picture: Because a theist would believe god holds the answers to questions social scientists would. A social scientist would believe science and analytical thought hold the answer.
Comment by Caolan C — October 18, 2011 @ 4:18 pm
asdfjkl;asdfl;jk
Comment by Martian Dude — October 18, 2011 @ 4:23 pm
Psychology is based upon the wisdom of man. It is a by-product of human Philosophy.
Religion is supposed to be based upon the wisdom of God.
There is a tremendous difference.
Comment by Bob L — October 18, 2011 @ 5:14 pm
in todays world, Psychology is Like a priestcraft that intimidates anything that is spiritual. if a person claims to have seen God or has the gift of prophecy, such a person is immediately put in a straight jacket. and labeled by the community as being Insane.
why,? because, this Scientific Priestcraft is Anathema to all religion.
i wouldnt say its “opposite” but everything in “it” is “inverse” of Gospel truth, designed to destroy the gospel itself.
Comment by witnessofJesus — October 18, 2011 @ 6:00 pm
They can’t be opposites; they are two completely different ideas. You wouldn’t say apples and tires are opposites. Psychology is a study of the mind; it’s a science. Religion is a set of beliefs one possesses. I know that some believers of certain faiths belittle psychology, mainly because they fear the knowledge the science brings will contradict their beliefs and methods.
Comment by cottonlily84 — October 18, 2011 @ 7:00 pm
Psychology basically denies the existence of the soul. Everything of your entity is hardwired in your brain, therefore there is no life after death or an eternal “spirit.”
Comment by Carrie — October 18, 2011 @ 7:47 pm
because you use your brain in psychology
Comment by Rammesses 666 — October 18, 2011 @ 7:56 pm
Most of your psychology text books are written by psychologist that are anti-religious. The best psychologist out there is Dr Laura Schlessinger. She practices her religion.
Comment by Tommiecat — October 18, 2011 @ 8:35 pm
In psychology they think. In religion you follow and cannot question.
Comment by John — October 18, 2011 @ 9:15 pm
Well I wonder which preacher or priest has been telling you all of those false tales. The sciences are about finding the truth and helping people, whereas religions are about preaching to you without once telling you not even one damn thing that is right or true then you give them money for screwing you over. Go read a few ancient history works and read Josephus and you might awaken in time not to be herded off into that brainless crowd who have already had their brains removed by a religion.
Comment by truth — October 18, 2011 @ 10:11 pm
I can’t see that line of reasoning either. Ideally, I think science and religion should complement one another.
Although the “religion” of Scientology is very much opposed to psychiatry and psychology, for all-too-obvious reasons wink wink.
Comment by How dry a yam — October 18, 2011 @ 10:21 pm
Do you mean spirituality (involving a Deity) when you say religion? Religion is just consistently following a pattern of actions. Hopefully you religiously brush your teeth twice a day.
Some religious spiritual practices discourage questioning, studying, and exploring for oneself, but if you actually read most of the fundamental spiritual texts they encourage it, but it does take a lot of work and is much easier to just listen to what other people tell you to think whether they are spiritual or scientific gurus.
I encourage you to study as your passions lead you for yourself. I have extensively studied the Bible for 25 years, I have university degrees in Physics and Sociology, and work weekly with an amazingly gifted psychologist ( I highly recommend her book Personal Strength ~ Spiritual Joy: Bridging Heaven and Earth). The congruences regularly raise the hair on my arms because they are so amazing and the only conflicts I have run into are the result of my needing to do further study and exploration.
Comment by JRFDD — October 18, 2011 @ 11:03 pm
Well I believe in God and I also have a psychology degree and do work related so I dont agree. I think its basically if you go along particular ‘sciencey’ rules that it goes against it, say like with evolution or something like that??
Comment by sparkles & twinkles — October 18, 2011 @ 11:21 pm
We have to understand at the outset that there is no such thing today as a monolithic single system of psychology. There are different schools of competing theories of psychology, all of which are trying to understand the intricacies and subtle nuances of the most complex mechanism found in the universe, which is human personality.
At best, psychology as an academic discipline and as a science is relatively young and inexact. Early in the church’s history, Christian scholars were interested in understanding the intricate behavioral patterns of people. For example, Saint Augustine is often credited, even in secular universities, as being the ancient father of psychology, because he was so concerned with what we would today call introspection, trying to probe the depths of human personality.
Now, is there such a thing as a biblical psychology? There certainly is a biblical view of man, and there certainly is a biblical view of human behavior. We can learn much from the Scriptures about behavior and personality development, about emotions and their impact on us. There is a wealth of information in the Bible that can help us as we give counsel to others. We know, for example, that guilt is one of the most prevalent issues dealt with by psychologists and psychiatrists. There has never been a book more adequate to deal with the problem of guilt than the Bible.
I happen to believe that all truth meets at the top. I believe the Bible is infallible. I believe that the Bible gives us a view of man that comes from the Maker of man; it comes from the very mind of God. So we get an insight into human personality from the Scriptures that we will never find anywhere else.
Yet God has also given us nature as a textbook, and through the study of human behavior we can learn valid truths. So I think that a Christian should have one eye on the Scriptures and another eye on the best of what is being discovered through the scientific study, the experience, and the observation of professionals in psychology and psychiatry.
Comment by Mr McKenzie- Skeptical Christian — October 18, 2011 @ 11:27 pm