This is a past event
The Centre for the Study of Myth are delighted to host Dr Jon Mills, who will be giving a talk on God as Psychomythology.
After the talk there will be a discussion afterwards and a chance to pick up a discounted copy of his excellent new book, Inventing God. We hope that psychology, philosophy, divinity and religious studies students and staff will come along and join in this lively seminar.
In this provocative talk, Jon Mills argues that God does not exist. God is merely an idea—a mental object, the invention of imaginative thought championed by reason yet conditioned on desire. Humanity has devised this myth and it is likely here to stay because world masses cannot live without it. Although there is a rational tenor to predicating God’s existence, reason is ultimately mediated by fantasy. God is the product of a collective ideological psychomythology fuelled by unconscious illusion ensconced in the basic desire for wish-fulfilment. In this lecture, Professor Mills will explore the psychodynamic motivations underlying the need to believe and the sociosymbolic structures that sustain world masses in ritualized faith practices.
JON MILLS, PsyD, PhD, is a philosopher, psychoanalyst, and clinical psychologist. He is Professor of Psychology & Psychoanalysis, Adler Graduate Professional School, Toronto and runs a mental health corporation in Ontario, Canada. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his scholarship, and is the author of seventeen books including his most recent publication, Inventing God: Psychology of Belief and the Rise of Secular Spirituality (Routledge, 2016).
- Venue
- King's College (KCF22)
- Contact
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FREE Event. No Booking Required.