Religionskritik

In contrast to all religiously or ideologically motivated endeavours, the scientific criticism of religion assesses its objects from a position of normative distance. It refrains from religious or anti-religious essentialisations based on the so-called truth question. Religions are always ambivalent and their values historically conditioned. Criticism of religion therefore deals with contradictions in which true and false are connected in complex ways. Understanding freedom and criticism of religion as a unity is the basic prerequisite of any scientific enlightenment. The textbook introduces the essence and tasks of a scientific critique of religion. Its aim is not the "refutation" of religion, but a better understanding of religious phenomena. Relevant terms and concepts are illustrated with concrete examples of application.