Kayla Scherrer
UNIV 112
26 October 2015
Research Question: How has scientific enlightenment promoted secularism and the loss of
religious culture?
MLA Citation: Vergote, Antoine. "What the Psychology of Religion Is and What It Is Not."
International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 3.2 (1993): 73-86. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.
Background: The author of this article is a Roman Catholic priest who also specializes in
theology and psychology. Vergote views religion as the sole basis of existence and likes
scientifically dive into the aspects of religion that make people live that sort of life style.
Main Claim: To view religion from a purely psychological standpoint would allow the rituals,
culture, and faith to be defended from a more secular viewpoint. In addition the article also
mentions the fact that one cannot judge someone for their beliefs without considering outside
factors, such as what brought them to a certain faith and what makes them stay.
Sub Claims:
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How one practices psychology and the methods behind it, in which discusses how one
identifies with a more secular or religious view point.
One cannot compare two completely different religions because no one religion is alike
each consisting of its own beliefs and concepts of god and the afterlife.
Each religion should be analyzed separately because no one god is the same, therefore
rituals and culture would differ vastly.
Religion is complex and would take years of study to completely understand because
psychologically god means something different to everyone.
People’s views on religion are based solely off their own experiences or their lack
thereof.
Evidence:
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“In the Christian, as in the Jewish and the Islamic religions, belief in a personal God is
linked with the belief in God's self-revelation through human mediators” (Vergote 76).
 Claims that each religion is different and cannot be described as a whole, such
as monotheistic religions and polytheistic religions.
“My contention is that a psychologist should take into account the status of religion as an
objective feature within culture. It does not follow from this principle that a psychologist
studies only individuals belonging to a definite religion” (77).
 Claims that when studying religion one must stay objected and not let their
ideals and beliefs impact the study. Moreover each religion would have to be
studied separately in order to get comprehensive data.
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“To consider each system of values involving money, sex, hygiene, art, and so on
"religious" and consequently to state that each individual is differently religious is a
nonsensical pseudo psychological deconstructionism” (77).
 This quote means that everyone sees god through a different lens. God is who
one makes him out to be, therefore to make a broad statement about religion
would be proven false.
“Religion is the most complex phenomenon in civilization and that there is no way of
explaining it by only one factor” (75).
 This quote further explains how religion cannot be defined as only one thing,
because there are so many factors involved with a religion that it is essentially
impossible.
Important Quotations:
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“A religion, therefore, is a specific form, present within the world of culture. As such it is
an objectively identified reality that historians study” (75).
 Although the scientific community for the most part does not accept religious
sectors they still play a prevalent part in the modern world and since they exist
they are within the realm of reality.
“Hearing the religious language, watching the ritual practice, and perceiving the symbolic
figures provoke a variety of emotions or "religious feelings." Individuals who are
religious are in some way initiated into a religion” (75).
 This quote talks about how people find their way to religion. It could have
been growing up with it, or a drastic event which led them to it. But with
either way the quote is trying to say that with the acceptance of religion comes
a new community, culture, and family that are hard to shake if one is already
invested.
“I assume this essay is known, and do not insist on the psychologically inconsistent
argument that guilt feelings arise from parricide in a still lawless "humanity" and that this
"guilt" engenders moral consciousness, an idealization, and finally the divine
aggrandizement of a father, who was not actually a father figure” (77).
 People look to God for hope and acceptance. They essentially see him as a
father figure whom can protect them from evil, but also can be ignored if one
so deems it.
 Signifies that god if different to everyone and no one god is a like.
 This statement is slightly false when addressing polytheistic religions.
“To consider each system of values involving money, sex, hygiene, art, and so on
"religious" and consequently to state that each individual is differently religious is a
nonsensical pseudopsychological deconstructionism” (75).
 Not everything associated with religion actually contains religious factors. For
example the enlightenment period in Europe is described as everything being
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influenced by this surge of faith within the community, but some of these things
were not religious at all such as some artwork during that period.
“An implicit philosophy of this sort is a backward preconception among some
psychologists of religion and prevents them from examining psychologically how
individuals relate to the religions in their cultural environment” (75).
 Explains how scientist do not really look at the implications of what would
happen if religion and religious values were to suddenly disappear.
Usefulness:
This article is useful because it gives a different standpoint on the view of religion than
previously articles, in which it defends religion and their beliefs. The different perspective could
be beneficial in comparing and contrasting different viewpoints in this research paper. However
his article could have provided a little more statistical facts, as the evidence in this bibliography
seems to be lacking.