Is religion natural or an evolutionary tool? Navigating the contentious landscape with Professor David Fergusson.

Religion Reconsidered

The debate over whether religion is a natural phenomenon has raged for centuries.

John Calvin was the first person to talk of a sensus divinitatis but it is an idea that has stretched back to the Greeks and Romans. The idea is that religion is a natural phenomenon in human society and we as humans have a capacity to engage with the divine. The ubiquity of religion throughout the globe and across history as well as our divine sense, it is said, results in a rather resounding proof of God’s existence.

However with the rise of enlightenment ideals and especially evolutionary science, this view has been questioned. People like David Hume argued that religion arose out of fear of the natural world and it became a way to understand it while Durkheim has argued that religion plays a critical role for peaceful human societies. Religion, it is argued, is either a social or cognitive construct that our brains and societies have developed as a way to understand and manage our existence. And so, while it may be natural in this respect, it is proof that an objective idea of God is pure fancy.

In this episode we talk with distinguished academic, Professor David Fergusson, where he lays out the debate and his argument of how in the face of arguments against God's existence, religion will see a refraction of belief and more types of worship rather than a religious retreat.

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