Session 1 - Introduction
References:
1) Book: The Question of God – Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr.
2) DVD: The Question of God - PBS Home Video
3) Website: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod
4) Bibliography (on separate sheet)
The DVD is a 4 hour (2 programs) presentation exploring the question Does God Exist in
two interacting ways:
1) A dramatized, dual-biography of Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis. Dr. Nicholi uses
these two lives and their different world-views to illustrate the question. These
two men – arguably – are the most prominent and cogent 20th Century
spokespersons for theism (Lewis) and atheism (Freud).
2) Interspersed in the biographic presentations are 9 roundtable conversations
between Dr. Nicholi and a small group of diverse but thoughtful individuals.
We will not be watching the biographical material. Instead we will concentrate on the
conversations and the issues discussed there.
General Class Format:
1) Lecture: Introduction to the underlying religious and philosophical issues raised
by the conversation. This will be ~ 15-20 minutes.
2) The video presentation of the conversation (varies from 4 – 12 minutes).
3) Class discussion – remainder of the time.
Some Ground-rules:
1) Please hold off initiating discussion (except for questions of clarification) during
my intro material.
2) During the discussion period indicate your desire to comment with a hand signal.
Please don’t just start talking if there is a pause. (I know this is different from
usual procedure).
Discussion Leader:
Armand Nicholi is a practicing psychiatrist, Harvard University
professor and author of The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and
Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life.
Participants:
Michael Shermer is editor-in-chief of Skeptic Magazine and director
of the Skeptics Society.
Jeremy Fraiberg is a practicing attorney and former student and
research assistant to Dr. Nicholi.
Margaret Klenck is a practicing Jungian analyst.
Winifred Gallagher is an author on spirituality.
Louis Massiah is an independent documentary filmmaker and
journalist.
Frederick Lee is a practicing physician and former teaching associate
of Dr. Nicholi.
Douglas Holladay is a general partner at Park Avenue Equity
Partners, LP.
Order of Class Topics (slightly out-of-order from the DVD).
Part I: Knowledge – what do we think we know & how do we get it?
 Session 2: A Transcendent Experience (DVD conversation 1)
 Session 3: Science or Revelation (DVD conversation 2)
 Session 4: The Exalted Father (DVD conversation 3)
 Session 5: Why Believe (DVD conversation 4)
 Session 6: Miracles (DVD conversation 5)
Part II: Ethics and Morality
 Session 7: Moral Law Part A (no DVD conversation)
 Session 8: Moral Law Part B (DVD conversation 8)

 Session 9: Love Thy Neighbor (DVD conversation 6)
Part III: God and the Problem of Evil
 Session 10: The Human Condition (DVD conversation 7)
 Session 11: Suffering and Death (DVD conversation 9)
Lewis & Freud – Two World Views


What is a world view?
Knowledge formation -> world view -> context
Figure 1

The question of God: reasoning from ‘effect’ to ‘cause’
(Lewis) A ‘God-shaped’ need  God / Religion / Christianity
(Freud) Wish-fulfillment  Religion

Freud World View
Wish fulfillment (extrapolation from experience and need)
Nicholi p41: “Freud … proffers two main arguments against the existence of
intelligence beyond the universe: one, the psychological argument concerning
wish fulfillment, and two, and the argument concerning human suffering.”
“Freud’s psychological argument against the spiritual worldview rests on the
notion that all religious ideas are rooted in deep-seated wishes and are therefore
illusions – false beliefs.”
From Future of an Illusion “We shall tell ourselves that it would be very nice if
there were a God who created the world and was a benevolent providence and if
there were a moral order in the universe and an afterlife, but it is a very striking
fact that all this is exactly as we are bound to wish it to be”.
Nicholi: “Freud therefore concludes that belief in God is merely a projection of
powerful wishes and inner needs.”
Nicholi: p 44: “So Freud asserts we possess intense, deep-seated wishes that form
the basis for our concept of and belief in God. God does not create us in His
image; we create God in our parents’ image … God exists only in our minds.”
(Nicholi notes a problem of method)
Nicholi QoG p 37-38: “Freud calls his worldview ‘scientific,’ because of its
premise that knowledge comes only from research. Of course, this basic premise
cannot itself be based on scientific research. Rather, it is a philosophical
assumption that cannot be proven. One can only assume that all knowledge comes
from “research” and that “no knowledge” comes “from revelation”. Freud appears
to realize that logically one cannot prove a negative – one cannot prove that God
does not exist. The only real defense of his worldview is to discredit its
alternative. Thus Freud undertook a systematic and sustained attack on the
spiritual worldview.”

Lewis World View
A ‘God-shaped’ need  God / Religion / Christianity
(Hound of Heaven argument)
Nicholi p 46: ‘as an atheist his strongest wish was that God not exist. Lewis also
wanted no one to interfere with his life. … And he found himself acutely aware
that the Old and New Testaments “placed at the center what seemed to me a
transcendental Interferer.”
(God-shaped hole argument)
P 46 “Lewis [argues that] not only does wishing for something not rule out
evidence for its existence of the object wished for – it may itself be evidence for
its existence. In his own life, Lewis experienced periodically a deep-seated desire
that he called “joy” and that he eventually concluded was a desire for a
relationship with his Creator. Lewis notes we usually possess desires for things
which exist. Then he asserts that “Creatures are not born with desires unless
satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a
thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well there is such a thing as water. Men
feel sexual desire: well there is such a thing as sex.” He then implies we all have a
deep-seated desire, or wish for, a relationship with the Creator and for an
existence beyond this life …”
P 47 ‘Lewis writes: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world
can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Some Questions to Consider:
Q: What methods should be employed in the search for God?
Q: Are Freud’s presuppositions better or worse than Lewis’s?
Q: Can we ever step-back from our birth heritage and pre-suppositions to examine this
question objectively?
Q: What does ‘objectively’ mean anyway?