God as a Projection: An Assessment of Feuerbach's Anthropological Atheism Theory

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, The International Research Institute of Al-Mustafa International University, Qom, Iran

Abstract

One of the outstanding doubts in the contemporary theology is the depiction of God as a projected image. According to this doubt, God is the same as the unfulfilled human desires and wants that go through a projection process, and then are turned into God. This descriptive-analytical study aims to explain this doubt based on the works of Feuerbach and the commentators of his works, and then criticize it relying mostly on the opinions of Muslim philosophers and theologians. It is suggested in this article that issues such as the difference in the way projection is conceptualized by Feuerbach and psychologists, the non-confirmation of this theory, its extreme humanistic basis, the anthropological atheism, and the ineffectiveness of some functionalist justifications are among the problems with this viewpoint.

Keywords


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